Disclaimer: Harry Potter and his world belong to J. K. Rowling. In this story, Harry Potter is very old, and is known as 'The Great Wizard.' His name is Bellamy.

Chapter 16:

Valencio saddled Daybreak for Brigitta the day after. She waited, patting the horse, as he tightened the girth. She said, "Emma. She was very brave, being able to talk about it."

Valencio said, "She told me she feels better, but I don't know. She doesn't look as if she feels better."

"It's like taking some pressure off, maybe."

Valencio grunted, "Maybe." He looked at Brigitta, who had her eyes downcast. "Are you thinking you should do it, too?"

"We're the youngest. Everyone knows what happened to us."

"Pretty much."

Brigitta said sternly, "You're not acting right. You should be encouraging!"

Valencio smiled at the girl, and said, "You do exactly what you want to do. You don't have to worry what other people think."

It seemed that Brigitta had decided she wasn't going to do it, as the evening conversation was only of Mary's painting, improving all the time, Gloria's cat that had scratched Barney's nose, and several looked closely at copies of educational courses available, that would be starting in late August. The girls were out nearly every day with young friends, and seemed happy and outgoing. It didn't appear to Valencio that there was the slightest need for them to put themselves through the ordeal.

Tasha disagreed of course, saying that it was not a matter of whether everyone knew what had happened or not. It was a matter of facing up to it, admitting what had happened even when it seemed shameful, and accepting it. It was important.

Valencio stroked the sides of Ginger, who was asleep on his lap, and said, "You know, I think she's going to have kittens."

Tasha said delightedly, "Really?"

But then a hush fell over the ballroom. It was the continuation of a conversation, it seemed, that it was not yet time to disperse, in Connie's words, '"I think we need to finish our work here." Connie hadn't spoken yet.

Emma spoke up, '"What gave me the strength to do it was seeing John's wrists - that he'd been tied up once, and couldn't get away, just like a lot of us."

Evita said, "Jimmy, what happened to make those scars, do you know?"

"They were already faded white when I knew him. I don't know what happened, except that he made the right one worse, when they handcuffed him to a chair."

They remembered that story, though the details had been very scanty. Gloria grinned. "How many did you say had a fight over it?"

"It was the bastards in Force B, we reckoned. They knew he panicked when restrained, and so Forster did it deliberately, as a method of interrogation, to make him tell them how he nearly got away. But they didn't manage to get his left wrist, and he laid them out instead, swinging the chair around by the handcuff. They gave up, and only Clare was game to approach him, to undo the handcuff, and try and get him settled down. But his wrist was a mess. It was a heavy chair, and he just flung it around, and beat it against the walls trying to free himself. Just panicking, not thinking, they said. I didn't see it, of course.

"When we heard what they'd done to him, we went after them, at the pub in Hallsville where they gathered. They seemed to think he was dangerous, just because a couple had broken ribs and a few bruises. Even some of his own personal guards were with us. They called reinforcements, we called reinforcements. About sixty on our side, maybe a few more on theirs."

He grinned. "Sergeant Major Zack Willis, one of his close personal guards. Used to be an MP. You should have seen him fight. Laid out about ten before they nearly smothered him, and even then he got up again, and chased a few more away. Hank was our champ, though. He took down even more than Zack, I think. The local policemen just watched, not knowing what to do, and all the MPs were in the fight as well."

He grinned reminiscently. "A few wound up in the lockup, but most of us just sort of slipped away once we won. And only then did the police arrest a few unable to walk."

"What did John say?"

"We were told that anyone telling him would be up on charges, and they reminded us that wherever he was, there'd be microphones and cameras. He probably still doesn't know there was a big fight over it."

Evita said again, "But why did he panic so much when restrained? And why does he have scars?"

Carol said, "Will we ask him?"

There was a silence, but Carol looked around, and rose. "I'll bring him here, and we'll ask him."

A few minutes later, Carol returned with Bellamy, and indicated a chair. Obediently, Bellamy sat, and waited for her to say what was wanted. There was a tense silence, broken by Bellamy, who suggested they give him a beer.

The tension relaxed in laughter, and a supply of beer was brought in. Clarence and Jimmy accepted one, Valencio as well, though not Tasha. It broke the ice, and still no-one told Bellamy why he appeared to be in the hot seat.

He said, "Mildred's garden's looking good."

The comment was ignored, and Emma finally said softly, "Some of us need you to tell us how you wound up with scars on your wrists."

Bellamy reddened. They waited, hopeful, expectant. Slowly, Bellamy took his watches off. Connie came softly closer, and reached to touch. Bernice, Evita, Thierry. He looked around, reluctant, Valencio thought. For a moment he met his eyes, and Valencio looked down. They were not very fair on the man, sometimes.

Carol said, "I'm sorry, but some of us need it."

Valencio told himself he didn't need it, but couldn't help himself staring again. The great wizard, John, who'd been tied down once, and couldn't get away.

Evita said to John, "You're trembling." He trembled sometimes, they all knew, and invariably said it meant nothing, as he said again, with some impatience.

Evita said, "Please tell us."

Bellamy sighed, and began, but his colour was still heightened. "It comes from a fear of being made helpless, and confined. They tried to do it to me when I was seventeen, determined efforts to keep me helpless, for all my life. Then again, when I was in my early twenties. They had committal papers, waited until I was very ill, and four aurors turned up with an ambulance trolley to cart me off to a secure prison. They thought I had the potential to be too powerful, you see - a threat to the DMT, though they just called it the Ministry of Magic in those days. So I have nightmares, always have, since I was seventeen. People tried to kill me too, but I never have nightmares about that.

"That was a general fear of imprisonment. The specific fear of ropes round my wrists came later, after a time when I was kidnapped. I was becoming too influential for the liking of certain people, a very respected member of society, a member of the Wizard High Court - sixty of the most respected witches and wizards of the country."

He smiled to himself. "I liked being respectable, and I was never really regarded as respectable afterwards. I was very thoroughly discredited after certain experiences were made public."

"Michael said you were kidnapped, tortured, and starved."

"I was starved because they were too frightened of me to let me wake enough to eat. Understandable, as I would either have killed them, or disapparated."

"So how did you get the scars?"

"They kept me drugged, but there was torture and rape, and ropes around my wrists, except that my memories are very blurred of that time, of course. Hardly any at all, really. But the intention was to discredit me, and film was released afterward, showing me being raped."

John was very red, and Valencio was sorry for him. Adil had tortured him sometimes, but telling anyone would only have made it seem worse. And the idea of film showing him being used! How could he have borne that?

Evita urged John to continue, and he wound his story up simply. "I escaped, disapparated, and found myself lost, starving, and filthy. It had only been three weeks."

Valencio noticed he was trembling again.

"There were ropes, and I didn't even remember how they were used, but they made me feel sick to the stomach, and I vanished them. But ever afterwards, the idea of being tied, frightens the hell out of me." He looked up at them, suddenly looking defensive, vulnerable. "So now I've bared my soul. Are you satisfied?"

Carol was looking at him closely. "You haven't told it all, have you?"

"Surely that's enough!"

Clarence asked, "Were you really convicted of murder?"

"The lesser charge, wrongful killing, and they were extremely generous, and gave me a suspended sentence."

"You killed them."

"I killed the one who raped me, and the other who tried to rape me. I didn't kill the man who organised it in order to destroy my influence, and I didn't kill the ones who were just helpers."

"Did he destroy your influence?"

Bellamy suddenly laughed. "What do you think? There was film of my time in captivity, complete with every humiliating incident, there was actually a pornographic film made up of partly what they did to me, and partly using an actor. That was very widely distributed, even in the medj world. I reckon every wizard in Britain saw that, and most of the witches, and it was totally explicit. I had a cousin who was medj, and when I went to see him, he shoved the film in my face, and said I was a disgrace to the family! There was also film of when I killed the ones who did it. It was the day after I got away, and hidden cameras were recording the whole thing. They pardoned me, years later, but I was never invited to be on the Wizemgamot again, and never thought of as terribly respectable again."

He shrugged. "Maybe I'm not respectable. Respectable people don't kill. And I killed." He glanced at the door, and said, "I suspect the aurors are still shown that bit of film of the killings, and it's partly why they watch me so closely. They pretend to be bodyguards, but they're far too curious, and like to spy."

Valencio also looked at the door, wondering if Michael was eavesdropping.

Gloria was frowning, and finally said, "That can't be how you got those scars on the wrists, though, because if you were drugged, you wouldn't have been struggling against the ropes, or not hard enough to do that."

Bellamy was evasive. "The reason I have scars is because I tend to panic when I'm tied up, and that's because of the ropes when I was kidnapped."

Valencio drank his beer. Maybe it wasn't relevant - the specific instance when John had been scarred. He panicked when tied up, Jimmy had told them that. Valencio looked at his own wrists. How often had he been restrained? Would he panic if someone tried to restrain him again? It sounded a lot like John had been tied, and then raped, even if he didn't remember. How had he survived the humiliation? For himself, he tried to pretend that the women didn't know, though they did, of course. But at least they were all in the same boat. John? His whole world not only knew, but could watch film. He shook his head. John Bellamy still held his head high. He was an extraordinary man.

The women weren't finished with John, even if Valencio would have been happy to let him off the hook. Thierry spoke quietly, but with an intensity, and Valencio heard clearly, though Tasha, next to him, did not. "We need to know, because you've suffered, and yet you're not frightened, and not oversensitive, and you can do things."

Bellamy answered, "I am scarred, though. I think everyone gets scars as they go through life."

Bernice asked, as well, and it seemed nearly all the women were silent, expectant, needing the whole story. Bellamy almost pleaded. "It's not all that traumatic, just a story of stupidity and panic." He did so much for them, and Valencio wasn't surprised when he took a deep breath, and said, "You'll probably only laugh at me, as it was very silly."

There was a pause, but he was only thinking. Finally, he said slowly, "My wife of the time was Julie." He smiled. "I loved her very deeply, and every time she did something a little foolish, I only loved her more. It was a part of her. He laughed softly, remembering. "She adored shopping, and cost me a fortune. And she was an arrant snob, and loved to dress me up and show me off. She liked being married to someone famous, but she didn't like it when I did things that others couldn't, or showed that I was not ordinary. When I had a trembling attack, she'd turn her eyes away because it was an abnormality, and she didn't like abnormalities."

"Did she love you, too?"

"She loved me very much, but sometimes, because of who I am, it was difficult for her."

There was a pause again, and he stared into the distance, a slight smile on his face. They waited respectfully, and he continued. "Julie was shopping with friends while I worked. She was pregnant, but feeling well and very happy. We were in Turkey, and there was a terrorist attack. Julie was injured by shrapnel. She lost her baby, and they took away her womb, so there would never be another. She was very deeply hurt, and she blamed me because I should have stopped it happening. She knew that was not logical of course, but it didn't stop that feeling of anger. It meant that she was easier to influence than she should have been. Magical influence, I mean, instructions instilled."

"Like what you did to us?"

"Probably not as skilled," he answered without apology.

Valencio suddenly laughed. He was hoping they'd throw him out. John grinned at him, and took another sip of his beer. No-one looked like throwing him out.

He continued, "There was a young woman called Nerrissa Malfoy."

"A relation to Bessamy?"

Bellamy nodded. "Same family. Anyway, Nerrissa was beautiful, perverted, wicked, and obsessed with me. You know how some foolish people get obsessed with someone famous? Like that.

"Julie thought she was a friend, and they did a lot together, though I seldom saw her, and only vaguely knew her by sight. There was another player in the farce, Cissy, a young relative of mine, who had sufficient power that I could not break her spells, except by calling up something I refer to as 'the strong magic.' But at that time, I no longer dared use it. There had been an illness, and afterwards, when I tried to cure a patient with it, I collapsed with severe head pain, and nearly died."

"The same sort of head pain Jimmy said you suffered when you were a prisoner?"

"Exactly the same. It has something to do with trying to use magic when there's some sort of block, I think.

"Anyway, Nerrissa and Julie planned a special treat for me, a wedding anniversary present. And I told you she was influenced by someone. She was convinced she was going to give me a high treat."

He grinned at them, shamefaced. "It was truly a farce, so prepare to laugh, or preferably, just let me go."

"This is the story where you hurt your wrists?"

"This is the story - I was tied up probably for less than an hour."

They waited, silent, expectant.

He grinned, and shook his head, but he was red again, as well. "You know about mistresses and dungeons, whips and leather, and chains?"

But they looked confused, and only Jimmy started laughing, helplessly.

He grinned at Jimmy. "Ask Jimmy about what a woman might do who calls herself Mistress Annie."

They turned to Jimmy, and he gave quite a fair explanation of Sadomasochism. Valencio was astounded. Some men like to have pain inflicted? Pay for it? And he was laughing as much as Jimmy.

Carol asked Bellamy, surprised, "Is this when you got whipped?"

Bellamy shook his head. "It never went that far. Even without the strong magic, I could still do magic without a wand, and I was still far more powerful than any ordinary wizard. But Julie took me in blindfolded, and I didn't want to hurt her feelings. She was my wife, and I loved her. I should have sensed the magic on her, but I guess it was subtle, and I missed it. Anyway, she pressed me against the wall, extended my arms, and then Cissy made ropes appear, and tied my wrists to the wall. Cissy is the one whose spells I couldn't break, and Cissy was acting under the Compulsion Curse. There was a barrier she stayed behind, so I couldn't break the spell, a type of barrier we'd worked on together, that neither magic nor telepathy would penetrate.

"So then I was held against the wall, and still trying not to hurt Julie's feelings, but I quite definitely didn't think this was a wonderful sexual experience."

"Wearing a leather hood?"

Bellamy made a face. "I don't know whether to laugh or cringe. I was wearing a leather hood, and someone made my clothes vanish, and Julie was still taking not the slightest notice when I said that she was to free me, that this was not working. So another voice said something about the little man not liking to be tied up."

He shook his head. "The little man hated being tied up, but that one wasn't my wife, and when she touched me, I blasted her off with magic, and I presume that she scuttled away, as I didn't see or hear her again.

"I finally tried to vanish the bonds with magic, and it was only then that I discovered that I couldn't. I could scarcely believe it at first, and tried harder, and then against the wall, before I realised that it was Cissy's spell. I panicked then, struggling against the ropes, and I think maybe the ropes were sharpened, as I did a lot of damage very quickly, not that I was noticing at the time. I managed to get a bit of sense back, and tried to tell Cissy she had to break out of it. I couldn't do anything except beg, because she was behind the barrier.

"Nerrissa, and probably her brother, Kryall, must have been watching and enjoying it from another room. But when they brought in a couple of men to rape the girls in front of me, I really lost control. I made the ceiling crack, and hit as hard as I could against the barrier, but it was Cissy's spell. I was stupid. There were other ways I could have stopped them, but all I could think of at the time was the strong magic, and the last time I'd used that, it nearly killed me, not to mention causing agony like I'd never known. Anyway it worked, and I broke the barrier, vanished the bonds, and took my girls home, but we were all upset, and I didn't really notice how badly I'd damaged my wrists, and they were not properly treated for a couple of days - too late to prevent embarrassing scarring.

"So you see. Just a fairly minor and laughable incident."

"What was the purpose of it all?"

"Nerrissa's enjoyment. We never told anyone. We all thought we'd made awful fools of ourselves. When I went to work the following week, and someone noticed both wrists were bandaged, they were consumed with curiosity. Aurors can't bear something like that - obviously some sort of crime had been involved, and they were supposed to keep me safe, and I said nothing. It's why I wear two watches. Bracelet scars like that tell a story."

He added, "There was a happy ending to the story of Nerrissa's obsession, if you want to hear it."

Jimmy grinned. "Another beer?" Of course they wanted to hear it. There was not a one that was not intensely curious about John, who also had been through imprisonment and ill treatment, and yet was the great wizard.

John drank a little, just thinking, maybe how to tell it.

"Julie was a lot more profoundly upset than I was afterwards. I just had a few extra nightmares for a week or two, but Julie had made the discovery that I could be just as stupid and helpless as anybody else. She left me for a while, and refused to come back. Said it was too hard, that she still loved me, but it was too hard to live with me."

He shook his head. "That was not the happy ending."

"Please go on," said Evita. He took a sip of beer.

"Nerrissa hadn't finished with me. I was off spell-breaking, and like always, there was a team of bodyguards. They must have thought I was too hard to get on with, maybe not enough sex, because one night, they let a girl into my room, and she slipped naked into bed while I was asleep."

"So you had sex?"

"Of course. She offered and she caught me at a weak moment, though I would never, normally, have chosen to go to bed with a girl so young."

"How young?"

"Eighteen, I think."

Valencio was relieved. 'A girl so young,' but not twelve or fourteen, as the Khatabis liked. Eighteen, a woman. It would have been horrible to think of John as the same as a Khatabi.

"Just a few days later, she was hit by a Death Curse. I killed the man who did it, but didn't know at the time Nerrissa was behind it."

"Did you get into trouble for killing that man?"

"I'd learned a bit by then. I let him draw his wand first, in front of witnesses, before killing him. So that made it a duelling death, and that was not punishable. It was as much an execution as the others, but I didn't get into trouble for it."

"You're right, you're not very respectable."

"Little Tessa was just an innocent girl, with a poor choice in men. She should not have paid for it with her life! Anyway, Julie came back. She never held Tessa against me, and seemed calmer again. I didn't quite know what was happening. It didn't seem I was directly threatened, but in South America, one of my patients, the moment I cured him, was supposed to put a spell on me."

He laughed, and drank his beer.

"What spell?"

He shook his head. "A spell to make me a laughing stock. Called the Stallion Spell."

They stared at him, and then suddenly Eva laughed, and he nodded at her, "Exactly so."

There was general hilarity then, as they pictured it.

"Ever practised on you, Clarence?" he asked, as Clarence shook with laughter. Clarence shook his head. The Stallion Spell!

Valencio winced. Thank God it had not been practised on them! He bet the Khatabi men would have loved that one!

Bellamy slipped his watches back on. "There were about three attempts to get to me in the next day or two, and it was getting too dangerous. What if they hurt someone else like they hurt Tessa? So I said no more spell-breaking work for a bit. But then I was called urgently to Germany. Two dozen victims of the Rindi Curse, and medj victims, too. Mostly wizards leave medj strictly alone. It's one of those basic rules - Don't interfere with Medj. Don't get Wizardkind noticed. Far too dangerous.

"Anyway, Medj are far harder to rescue from the Rindi Curse, as they start to die straightaway. On the other hand, they don't go mad with rage, and try to kill the one that pulls them out. After so many, I was exhausted, no longer alert. But there were bodyguards all around, and I was in a private home. Went to bed early, and woke up late the following day feeling as tired or more so, than I was the previous night. It seemed there was a disturbance overnight, I was away for a few hours, with Simon, one of the aurors, and brought back unconscious in his arms. Nerrissa had finally decided what she wanted, and had it."

He grinned sheepishly. "Did you know an unconscious man can be used to get someone pregnant?"

They looked at him, incredulous.

"Simon told me. They had him under the Compulsion Spell, but he managed to break out of it, and take me back. But she had her wicked way with me first."

"She managed to have sex with an unconscious man?"

"According to Simon, and there was positive proof about seven months later, when she was killed and her baby delivered. And as she'd declared to the world that I was the father, Julie and I were given the baby." He smiled. "We called him Adrian, and Julie was just as proud of him as if she was his own mother."

Bernice said, "That's your happy ending?"

"Adrian was a joy to us both. It was not, of course, a happy ending for Nerrissa."

"Was he really yours?"

"He looked very like me. A touch smaller, maybe because he was premature. The Malfoys were always fair, but Adrian had black hair, and wore glasses. He was my son, and Julie was ecstatic to be a mother, after all."

Gloria said, "True confessions over for the night?"

Bellamy said, "No more from me, that's for sure."

Thierry said, "Thanks for telling us."

Bellamy said very gently, and just for her, "Just sometimes, things work out alright."

Gloria asked, "What happened to Cissy? It sounds like she was nearly as powerful as you."

"She may have had the potential to become so, but I grew in power with years, and Cissy died suddenly when she was just thirty-nine. Raised an increased intensity of magic to break a spell, collapsed with severe head pain, and died."

There was a pause, as they remembered that it was something he'd suffered as well.

Carol asked, "Adrian?"

"Grew up to become headmaster of an American wizarding school, married a medj girl, and had a daughter called Candice, but Candice had no magic, and is now dead, too."

He was beginning to veer onto the dangerous ground of just how old he was, and most of them shied off from that knowledge, as he shied off from talking about it. Valencio didn't. He very much wanted to know just exactly how old John was. Mostly he seemed young, but sometimes he seemed so very old, very wise.

Bellamy wanted to change the subject, and his eyes suddenly rested on Jimmy. "Jimmy, always wanted to know what the soldiers were told about me?"

Jimmy said, "You asked me that once before, others too, I heard, but it was not something we were allowed to discuss."

"You're telling everyone else John Doe stories. Maybe you could tell me."

Jimmy laughed. "Fair enough. We were told that you'd shown a power, and that no-one knew what you were. We had to be very careful, not provoke you into rash acts, in case you could be dangerous, and on no account to allow you out of the Compound. I'm pretty sure it was the reason that there was never any alcohol either, though I think the officers might have had some in their dining room."

Bellamy thanked him, and seeing that the medj were beginning to talk among themselves, he relaxed into his chair, and finished his glass of beer.

Valencio was thinking still, about the foolishness of Julie, the wife. How could she tie her husband like that? Magical influence? Or spite? He shuddered, thinking again about the wrist cuffs he'd worn so long. The moment he'd seen Pervez, he'd known that he must not be taken. He'd been taken, numbered, cuffed, and made so horridly, incredibly dirty. Adil had done some terrible things, but Fahada had been the worst. Tortured with the act he hated with all his might. He hadn't been able to put the pain away from himself that time. He'd fought against the restraints, not that it ever did the slightest good.

Bellamy took his watches off again, and put them in his pocket. Valencio didn't notice, but Thierry did. She was still staring at him, as if his every act was fraught with significance.

Tifffany asked Bellamy, "Did you know Force B and Force A had an enormous brawl because of you?"

"No."

So Jimmy had to repeat the story, and then Jimmy asked how he'd eventually escaped.

"I woke up in Ward 3, knew they were doing something to me again, made a few in the room faint, and disapparated. Wound up in my tree. The Colonel back in the building told someone, 'Disable him,' and I suddenly had a disabling pain in my head. But it wasn't as bad as when my head hurt by itself, and I destroyed the camera that watched next to me, and then made the pain stop, and then the RAB. I tried to disapparate again, to finally escape, but I didn't know how I'd done it, and couldn't do it again."

There was a hush again, as people listened. He grinned at Jimmy. "So then I turned myself into a hawk, and flew away." He glanced at the door, and said, "And don't tell anyone that, either, as no-one knows I can do it."

Valencio stared, and said slowly, "You turned myself into a hawk, and flew away." He shook his head, and said, "Narzu-Han told me it was only myth, that certain wizards could turn themselves into animals."

"It's very rare now, and I haven't heard of anyone for many years. But I learned just before I left school, because so many were trying to kill me then, and I needed every defence I could muster."

They were still incredulous, and Margaret shook her head, and said flatly, "I can't believe it!"

Brigitta went close to him, and pleaded, "Please show me. I want to see."

"You're the medj who don't like magic, remember. You might like to see, I bet not everyone does."

Carol grinned. "Anyone not want to see?"

"I want to see," said Emma.

"And I," said Gloria.

There was a clamour of demanding voices, and Carol raised a hand for hush, and asked again, "Anyone not want to see?"

No-one spoke, and Carol turned to Bellamy, smiling, and said, "Please?"

Brigitta said, "Please," and put on her best beseeching expression.

He laughed, "No wonder you had Abensur twisted around your little finger!" Still laughing, he stood, and swiftly, his form changed, and a hawk stretched its wings, and gave a hoarse cry. Before the medj could close their mouths, a dog streaked towards him, followed by several more. Untidily, he took off, wings beating urgently, as Trey leapt up to grab the unnatural beast. He settled on the top of a cupboard, as dogs stood up against it, still urgent in their desire to tear the thing to pieces. He reached up a claw, and scratched his head, cautiously looked down over the edge of the cupboard, and swiftly pulled his head back, as Trey leapt up, sharp teeth bared.

Valencio was up, and calling to Trey. Carol said, "Vince, don't worry. He says to just get Michael."

Valencio looked questioningly at the hawk, and could see John, but he was laughing. He grinned, himself, and just stood back, watching, as Carol opened the door, and Michael almost fell in, followed by Dot. They'd been eavesdropping, alright!

Carol pointed to the hawk, and Dot and Michael stared, very confused. "That's not the boss!" Michael said in disbelief.

The hawk carefully looked over the edge of the cupboard again, and again beat a swift retreat, as Trey leapt up, trying to destroy the unnatural beast.

Michael said, "Maybe I should stun him?"

He apparently heard an assent, as he pointed his wand, and Trey fell.

Valencio's smile was wiped off his face. Bloody wizards! He so hated that they could stun or paralyse, or do anything they wanted.

He stayed frozen, and only watched as the other dogs were pacified and held firmly by their owners, Shaz by Dot. The hawk stretched his wings, and gently glided back to Bellamy's chair. Gloria's cat swiped at him, claws bared, and when he reverted to his normal form, there was a scratch across his cheek.

"Your glasses came back - and your clothes. It's not logical," protested Jimmy.

"Of course it's not logical, it's magic. Some witches and wizards spend a lifetime in research, trying to explain things like that. But some things are not explicable."

He went to his dog, and stroked him. Trey got to his feet, looked to the top of the cupboard, and growled.

Bellamy glanced at Valencio's stony face, and Valencio heard his voice, Sorry. A bloody wizard with telepathy. They were the worst. But everyone else was laughing, happy. Tasha would be cross if he left. And after all, he'd always known they were wizards, and hadn't worried about all the other magic he'd seen them do.

Michael said very sternly, "All animagi are supposed to be registered with the Ministry."

Bellamy's answer was defensive, "The last registered animagus was over a hundred years ago, and anyway, Dieter knows."

Dot gave Michael a gentle thump on the arm, and said, "You're not an auror now, you're not going to turn in your own boss, are you?"

Clarence offered them beers each, said that serious business was finished, and they were welcome to stay. Dot looked questioningly at Carol, who nodded. The evening became a party then, though Valencio took a long time to relax, and stayed well away from both Bellamy and Michael.

xdividerx

Valencio drove to Duich in the morning, a list of errands in his pocket as usual. He went to the jeweller's shop that he knew, as well, greeting the McConachies, mother and daughter, buying a small necklace for Tasha, and asking, as he had before, if they would like him to do any lifting or carrying for them.

Old Elspeth smiled at the young man, and asked him to get down some things from a high shelf for her, as she didn't like climbing ladders these days. He looked so fit and well now, confident. And the skin over wrists no longer showed pale from the wearing of manacles.

"Thank you, Vince," she said afterwards, and asked about Tasha.

"She's well, and has been looking at doing a course of study for a new career, just doesn't know what."

"She likes jewellery?"

Valencio grinned, "She adores it, new clothes, too, but we'll need to set ourselves up in a new home one of these days, so I can't buy her much, and she's saving every penny."

"An outside job?"

Valencio looked doubtful, and said, "One day, no doubt."

Mrs. McConachie said comfortably, "It takes a little while sometimes, to get used to normal living again."

Valencio said, "It's been over a year, and there's a lot still hardly go off the property, even now."

"I heard a lot of you were prisoners for many years."

Valencio looked slightly hunted, and gave no information.

Mrs. McConachie said kindly, "Think about it. It will vary, of course, but for each year of captivity, maybe you have to allow at least a month of readjustment."

Twenty-six years, in the case of Tasha. Twenty-six months? He said, "Maybe you're right."

After he left, Alison asked her mother, "Does he realise we know what he must have been?"

Her mother answered, "He told me he was just a servant, who'd married another."

Alison shook her head, "Not with those looks!" And then added, scathingly, "Vince McDonald!"

Valencio meantime, completed his errands, bought himself a beer in the pub, and watched the men who were dissecting last weekend's soccer game, before driving home, smoothly and competently, and hardly at all too fast.

xchapter endx