13
SEVERUS Snape stood stiffly in the gardens of Bartemius Crouch's family estate, scrunching his nose at the white roses in disgust, shifting his weight from one foot to the other as he waited for Tonks to join him to get her out of here.
She had learned of Crouch's sick, twisted desire to marry her, to claim her as a prize to be one because of her Metamorphmaging abilities and as a consequence, had panicked, though Snape informed her not to do so, lest it would give away her cover, and bade him meet her here. And she was late.
He heaved a haggard tired sigh and pinched at the bridge of his slender, slightly crooked nose with his thumb and forefinger. Severus had thought, because he had grown up under the loveless violent parentage of Tobias and Eileen Snape, that he had seen everything once he had joined Lord Voldemort's ranks as a high-ranking Death Eater.
But nothing could have quite prepared him for the little display the other night that Crouch had taken a sick delight in towards Remus Lupin. Severus had seen friends, allies, all die.
But then, he had done the same to the enemy, all without Lord Voldemort's followers knowing that it was him. He could not quite shake the sense that one day, he would either die in combat, or he would learn to live with the guilt of what his own hands had done. Killed.
The Potions Master stifled a pained wince as a gust of cold, truly bitter, and frigid wind, traveled through the white rose gardens in the courtyard as his Greater Sooty Owl ruffled its feathers from its perch on Snape's shoulder and hooted in rancor. The owl was annoyed and hungry at having flown all this way from Spinner's End, where Snape's home resided, to here.
A flash of familiar light ash brown hair darted out of the corner of his vision, and Severus Snape inwardly groaned and repressed the urge to roll his eyes, hating that it had come to this.
That the wolf could not leave well enough alone and trust in the girl, wretched succubus though she was, to fend for herself, and now, because of Lupin's blinding arrogance and utterly foolish behavior, tripping over himself because of this bitch, this dog, then the man was likely to apt-get them all, he included, killed, and it would be entirely Remus John Lupin's bloody Merlin-damned fault.
He felt a figure nudge beside him, and Severus's body stiffened and recoiled out of pure instinct, as it always tended to do whenever he was around the young Metamorphmagus. Tonks.
Against his better judgment, Snape sanguinely lifted his gaze and tilted his head slightly to the left and looked to the left as Remus Lupin's partner slowly and timidly made her way towards his location where he sat, looking thoroughly fed up, on a stone bench.
"You're late," he barked hoarsely by way of greeting Tonks.
Tonks flushed in anger and dipped her head in acknowledgment. The Potions Master did not need to use his skills in Legilimency to tell the young Auror was thinking of a dozen angry retorts to fire at him, just burning on the tip of her tongue, but when she spoke to Snape, her voice, though curt, was polite.
"I'm sorry, Professor Snape, to have kept you waiting long," she muttered in a low, hushed voice. "Crouch's little house-elf Winky was fussing over me and it took me longer than anticipated to sneak away," Tonks confessed, a pained look in her gray eyes.
The fear sat heavy on the young witch's heart as Tonks stood in front of Snape, her eyes plastered to the concrete as she stared at the edges of her bare feet, seeming to forsake her shoes. She sighed and craned her neck upward to look at the sky, feeling like she was beginning to become accustomed towards the slight cold chill which hung in the air every evening.
Of course, this could also be because Remus was not here, and she missed his heat, the warmth that the man gave off when around her. The first two days working under the Dark Lord had set Tonks on edge and she felt exposed, feeling so overwhelmed with the amount of work that she to get done in a given day, but Severus had been remarkably patient with her, which was a first.
That line of thinking disturbed Tonks greatly, more than she cared to admit. She didn't want to get used to him being nice.
Tonks blinked, feeling her pale gray eyes go wide and round as she looked towards Professor Snape in a stunned silence, and when the man turned his listless, black eyes as dark as coal towards her, a shudder traveled its way down her vertebrae, and whether that was due to the chill of the night air or of her own making, Tonks wasn't sure, nor did she care. She had bigger problems on her mind right now. Such as Crouch marrying her…
She squeezed her eyes tightly shut, struggling to banish the very idea and the image of the dark-haired man's piercing gaze.
"What are we waiting for?" Tonks demanded hotly, tilting her head back, trying to focus on the inky blackness hung over head. "It's dark out, Snape, let's go while we still can! Y—you can't let him do this to me, please," she begged, and before the young witch could fathom what was happening, Tonks had seized onto fistfuls of the Potions Master's black robes and shook him slightly, desperate to make him see.
Tonks's heart seized and tightened, and there was a horrible constricting on her throat as it hollowed, as for some reason, visions of Remus's face and how disappointed and hurt he had looked the last time she had left him alone in the Wolves' Woods following their argument, flitted through Tonks's mind.
She made an odd little strangled sound in the back of her throat that was a cross between a whimper and a low pitiful whine.
Merlin damn it! She gritted her teeth, squeezing her eyes shut. Tonks knew she could not allow her mind to go there, not now. If she did, then she was going to break down and cry, and if she cried, then she'd no doubt work herself up into a stupor, which would completely shut down her ability to think rationally. S
hutting down was something Tonks could not afford. She was alone, in the middle of Merlin knew only where, trapped within Crouch's estate, under constant surveillance from Barty.
Her mind was wandering again. "I…please," she begged, biting down on her bottom lip, and sticking it out in a slight pout.
Severus sniffed and made a noise that sounded like disapproval as he towered over Nymphadora's form and looked down his slender, slightly hooked nose at Remus's young partner. When he spoke, his answer was curt and hard.
"No. You must wait longer, Miss Tonks."
Tonks blinked owlishly at the Potions Master, feeling certain she must have misheard her new partner in Lord Voldemort's ranks, and her curled fingers slackened slightly on their grip on the fistfuls of his black robes that she had seized.
"What?" she demanded, feeling a surge of anger and fear course through her veins and prick at her heartstrings. "Why? Y—you have to, Severus, please, I—I can't bloody marry Crouch, Snape, you know that. Just—just Disapparate with me, I—"
The Potions Master emanated a tense exhale through flaring nostrils, the sound reedy to the young witch's ears. "You will leave together. You will return to Headquarters in the morning, and I shall prepare an excuse, an adequate one enough that the Dark Lord will accept and at a minimum, find satisfactory, Tonks," was all he answered to Tonks. Sensing her confusion as she merely proceeded to glower at him with furrowed, raised eyebrows, Snape let out a deep sigh of frustration and turned away, pinching at the bridge of his nose. "Lupin has agreed to assist me in freeing you from this place, but you must wait. If I were to leave with you now, your absence would only be noted, as would mine, and it would bode ill for the both of us. You will wait, Tonks," he growled, a low growl in his tone, an edge to his baritone voice, and the Potions Master stifled a groan forming in the back of his throat and resisted the urge to roll his eyes as her eyes went wide and round, with Nymphadora looking like he'd slapped her. It was very tempting.
At this rate, he just very well might if she could not manage to calm herself down and listen and listen well to his words. "Miss Prewitt will be helping you to escape, Miss Tonks," he said.
Tonks furrowed her brows in confusion. "Who?" she asked, looking to her left and right and seeing no one, though her eyes widened as the sound of a snapping twig and the crunch of leaves underfoot came from directly behind her.
Whirling around on the heel of her boot, the young witch gaped as the young woman a few years older than her, early thirties, at best, if she had to pinpoint this new witch's age without outright asking her, who had seemingly appeared out of nowhere, silent.
Silent. She'd heard not the familiar crack! of someone Apparating.
"Well, I'm glad at least that this one isn't a moron, Severus. She's highly observant," the woman piped up, her voice clear and quite present.
This new she-stranger took a cautious half-step forward and was eyeing Tonks with a look that the young witch could only perceive as venom in her dark brown eyes, silently labelling her, judging her now.
Tonks silently bristled, though ever mindful of feigned courtesies, she inclined her head and reached out her hand for her to shake. "Who are you?" she asked, unable to think of anything else to say.
The Auror took in this new woman's appearance, assessing her slender figure in her red woolen sweater and black jeans, her gaze settling on her layered wavy thick hair much like Tonks' own, though a dark chocolate brown in color, darker than Tonks's natural shade. Though the woman and she had never met before, there was an aura about this woman, albeit her seemingly hostile and distant behavior, that spoke of a true sense of mystery, of intrigue and curiosity.
"Maggie. Maggie Prewitt, Auror Tonks," the slightly older woman barked by way of response. She huffed in frustration and turned towards Severus, her lips pursed in a thin line. "Just for the record, Snape, I don't like this. She's a liability. Just look at her! She's so nervous, not to mention dead clumsy, she won't make it even a hundred feet in the Wolves' Woods before we're caught!"
Severus made an odd little strangled noise at the back of his throat that sounded to Tonks like a sniff of disapproval, though Tonks had no time to comment on it as Severus offered his viewpoint to her. "You may be right, but there is no other viable alternative. You are our only option at this time. You agreed," he reminded her, furrowing his black eyebrows in a slight frown.
He let out a haggard sigh as the brunette witch, Maggie Prewitt, Tonks thought, if that even was her real name, merely shrugged her shoulders and rolled her eyes as Snape, sensing the discontent, let out a groan and pinched at the bridge of his crooked nose with his thumb and forefinger.
"I'll…leave the two of you to chat," he growled in a voice that sounded thoroughly displeased. He turned towards Maggie and fixed the witch with a pointed glower that sent a tremor down Tonks' spine. "You know the plan," he murmured in a low voice, only satisfied with the girl when she nodded, and without so much as a goodbye to Tonks, vanished.
Tonks visibly winced as the loud crack! of Snape turning on the heel of his black boot to Disapparate startled her, causing her to stumble backwards, and she would have tripped over a gnarled tree root underneath her black ankle bootie's heel had the other woman not shot out an arm to right her posture before she could fall.
"Watch yourself…"
Tonks nodded as a light pink blush speckled along her cheeks, trying to ignore how the young brunette's dark brown eyes narrowed and she scoffed, shaking her head as she relinquished control of her arm.
"Does Crouch know you're out here?" Maggie Prewitt finally asked, her first words towards Tonks other than telling her name. She stiffened and tucked a lock of her chin-length wavy bob behind her ear.
Tonks shrugged her shoulders in what she hoped was a nonchalant manner and stepped a few paces towards this new witch.
"No," she answered in a small voice, peeking back over her shoulder towards the intimidating structure of Crouch's family's estate. The manor that Barty had inherited from his parents' following his mother's death and his father's murder exuded a daunting aura as the pair of witches found themselves automatically walking away from it.
Each window and parapet were illuminated by the setting sun as light flowed over the countryside. The warm hues from hours ago had since faded to a cooler, duller tone as night was beginning to fall. It was strange to Tonks how the building could look so formidable in this light.
A certain uneasiness filled Tonks' chest as she practically felt Maggie Prewitt's piercing dark stare burning a hole in the back of her skull as the women walked towards the edge of the woods behind the manor. Tonks faced her, sensing the brunette woman's hesitation, her head inclined, and fingers nervously clasped together in front of her stomach.
"I—I'm sorry, but…do I know you? You seem…familiar. Are you an affiliate of the Order of the Phoenix?" she asked cautiously.
The other woman's face flushed high with color, and with a quick smile, she looked away, though not before Tonks caught the glimmer of something dark flashing in the woman's brown eyes. "No. You do not." Her voice was laced with just a twinge of melancholia.
Tonks nodded numbly as she bit down on her bottom lip and stuck it out in a slight pout, not sure what else to say to try to engage her new would-be-liberator in polite conversation to get to know her.
Thank Merlin it was Maggie Prewitt who broke the uncomfortable silence that fell between the pair of witches, that Tonks was quick to decide that she didn't like it at all.
She could perceive the unfounded (in her mind, at least) animosity that Maggie seemed to be harboring towards her on the basis of thinking that she would be a burden, judging by the way her brown eyes almost turned black in color.
"You're going to meet me here at the edge of the woods in a few hours alongside Remus, we'll leave under cover of darkness, so I don't think we'll be spotted if we're quiet. I don't care what you have to do to get out of that house, make up some excuse, drug Crouch with a Sleeping Draught if you have to. We'll be traveling light so bring whatever you can carry. Crouch has counter-effects in place around his property preventing us from Disapparating, unless you're Snape, or a select few, so that means we'll be having to travel through the Wolves' Woods, I'm afraid, but if you two keep up and do what I say, then there's a good chance we'll make it, but that means you follow my orders and stay close by, got it?" she grumbled in a voice that sounded thoroughly ticked off, for what reasons, Tonks didn't know, though her heart gave a flutter at Remus Lupin's name.
"Remus is coming too?" she breathed, her eyes wide and round, her heart beating strongly somewhere in her throat. Lupin coming to help get her away from Crouch and his odious plan to marry her meant that he was interested in seeing her again, or so, Tonks was inclined to believe, and inexplicably, her blood began to boil at that little thought.
"You hate him?" Maggie asked, turning towards Tonks to look at her, a bemused smile creeping its way onto her features as she almost smiled at Tonks, though just as quickly as it had come, it had vanished. "Will his presence alongside mine be a problem for you? We cannot afford any complications. I hope you understand."
Tonks flushed, and stammered quickly, trying to correct herself. "I—n—no, he's welcome to come along. He and I…he does not care for me," Tonks spoke bitterly, turning away so as to not see the look of animosity burning bright in Maggie Prewitt's eyes. "The man made his choice, and he did not choose me, Miss Prewitt."
"So, I've been told. Severus was, ah, shall we say, quite descriptive about your and Mr. Lupin's partnership in the Order, Auror Tonks," Maggie sighed, rolling her eyes and carding her fingers through her brown wavy strands, a look of exasperation on her pale face as she fixed Tonks with a pointed glower that, had the young witch the ability, would have made a fully-bloomed rose wilt.
Sensing Tonks wished to change the subject and not wanting to discuss her own sister's best friend, Maggie tried a different approach.
"Does Barty Crouch frighten you, Miss Tonks?" she asked, seeming curious. Maggie was barely able to stifle her smile as she stepped out from the shadows and allowed a beam of moonlight to bathe her pale features in the light, turning her side profile to her left to gauge Tonks' reaction.
She could see Nymphadora Tonks' emotions darting nervously in those pale gray orbs of hers. A wide range of emotions flickered through her eyes at the question Maggie just posed to her, ranging from complete disgust to fear to even bravery.
Tonks nodded. "I—I don't…yes," she admitted, her quiet, shy, reserved voice that sent a pang of regret coursing through Maggie's veins at how much this woman looked and acted like her sweet sister, her Alice, was barely above a whisper.
Maggie smiled at her. Good girl. "Good. I'd consider you a fool if he didn't, Auror Tonks." Maggie's eye behind her lid gave a twitch as it did not escape Alice's younger sister's attention how her choice of words sent a chill down Nymphadora Tonks' back.
Though the younger witch did her best to repress it. Alice's best friend's partner had spirit, Maggie could grant her that much.
An admirable trait for Remus John Lupin's partner. At the thought of Lupin, an abrupt bitterness settled into the pit of Maggie's stomach and Maggie froze, suddenly rooted to her spot.
Lupin. Lupin was the reason that Alice and Frank were not able to be saved. He had been nearby the day that Barty Crouch Jr. viciously attacked Alice alongside Bellatrix and Rodolphus Lestrange, and Remus had gotten there too late to stop Crouch.
By the time Maggie had arrived on scene and had been alerted by Alastor as to what was happening, the damage was already done, and it had taken Alastor Moody and a team of Aurors to pry Lupin and Maggie both away from Frank and Alice, with the werewolf refusing to relinquish his hold on Alice, his best friend.
"If only he'd gotten there sooner…" she whispered, a lump in her throat forming as her breath stuttered, her verbal outburst earning a quirked eyebrow from Tonks. "No! This—this is wrong!"
Maggie shook her head violently and seized on tufts of her short brown hair and tugging on them so hard that she felt the roots scream in protest, practically begging her to cut out this behavior.
Prewitt tried hard to dismiss these incriminating thoughts of her older sister's best friend. She could not—would not—blame Remus for something that the man was not responsible for. She mumbled a quick apology towards Tonks under her breath softly.
Tonks hesitated, sensing the mounting tensions rapidly swelling within the young brunette witch, not sure what to say at all. The interactions she had shared in with the young brunette witch now standing in front of her had been minimal, yes, but the ten or so minutes she had spent in Miss Prewitt's company so far had been more than enough to make Tonks feel inexplicably uneasy.
Something within Maggie Prewitt made her cringe, and Tonks hated that she could not quite put her finger on as to what that 'thing' might be. She did not know exactly what it was: the slightly melancholic gaze that suggested Maggie knew more about Tonks' situation than she was letting on, the fact that Prewitt was on, at least cordial terms with Severus Snape, a man much despised even within the Order itself, or the way that Snape had seemed to behave around Maggie.
The man had been cautious around her. As if afraid of something dark and festering within Maggie.
Tonks had seen it, though the Potions Master had done what he could to try to hide it from her. Maggie Prewitt, for reasons that Tonks could not explain even if she wanted to, invoked a certain sense of unease. Maybe it was all of this combined, but regardless, Tonks began to feel somewhat claustrophobic about putting her life squarely in the hands of a woman that she barely knew.
How could she even begin to trust her?
"You can't," Maggie Prewitt spoke up, glancing sideways at Tonks out of the corner of her gaze, with her hands hid behind her back. Tonks flushed as she felt a fiery heat creep to her cheeks. So, her new partner alongside Remus in helping her escape this place was a Legilimens like Snape, too? Was there really no privacy anymore?! Tonks sighed.
Odd. Odd was the only word that Tonks could use to describe Maggie Prewitt's sudden appearance in her life at the bequest of Severus. She could not find a word to describe the witch other than 'odd.' What was even stranger, Tonks thought, was that it was not a particularly bad thing, though she did not particularly like how venomous Maggie Prewitt was currently eyeballing her.
"Not a mind reader, no. Just observant," Maggie Prewitt confessed shyly, seemingly ashamed of her inquisitive behavior.
Tonks nodded slowly and turned away from the witch.
I wonder what Remus would think of this woman. The man's wary eyes from that other night all those weeks ago in the Wolves' Woods flooded Tonks' thoughts. Her breath stifled as Tonks allowed her mind to wander to Remus again unexpectedly.
Breathing slowly, Tonks managed to come back down to some small resemblance of peace. She wiped at her eyes that started shining with tears that she could not afford to let out now.
Tonks shook her head. It was enough. It was too much already for the stability and the calmness of her mind that surged.
"What time shall I meet you?" she whispered, careful to keep her voice low, and her breaths caught in her throat as she looked up and to her left and was interrupted by the sound of shouting.
Swiveling around, Tonks looked towards the back entrance of Crouch's estate to see Barty himself stalking towards her, ticked.
Tonks's gray eyes widened, and she froze for a second, faltering in indecision before turning towards Maggie, who was also looking at Barty Crouch Jr. with an obvious intrigue and scorn.
"You—you can't be seen here!" Tonks exclaimed hoarsely as she strode forward towards Maggie. "Follow me around back where you won't be seen! If Crouch catches you, Miss Prewitt, we're f—"
But Maggie merely proceeded to look towards Tonks solemnly and replied. "You've already been spotted. It's too late."
She was right, Merlin damn it. Tonks looked up along the aisle of the man's white-rose gardens' courtyard, the rush of blood in her ears too loud to hear anything of whatever Maggie said to her.
There he was, standing at the edge of the courtyard's path, waiting for Tonks.
My future husband if they can't get me out, Tonks thought nervously, swallowing past the lump in her throat. As Tonks let out a frustrated sigh, she was careful to position herself to hide Maggie Prewitt, standing rigidly just behind of her.
"What are you doing out here?" he barked hoarsely, his darkening gaze narrowing as he glared at Tonks. "You could get sick. And I won't have my future bride sick the night before our wedding, love," he crooned, furrowing his dark brows in a frown.
Maggie, from her spot behind Tonks, saw how Crouch's gaze traveled from Tonks's gray eyes and remained stuck on her lips. Silently bristling as she looked at her former lover, the man who'd once held her heart, and had only been with her because of how much she resembled Alice, save for a few differences, she was sure Barty Crouch Sr.'s only son was captivated by Auror Tonks.
"I needed some air." Tonks's voice was sounding small and meek. Maggie stiffened, grinding her teeth in the effort to restrain herself from pulling her wand and killing the man where he stood as his dark eyes strode back towards Maggie, having spotted her.
"Who is this?" he asked, in an intrigued manner, his eyes glossing over. Maggie hissed as she exhaled slowly, squeezing her eyes tightly shut, praying that, after all this time, the Memory Charm she'd fixed him with would have stuck, that he'd forgotten.
"Maggie, ah…Hendrickson," Tonks lied through gritted teeth, and Maggie exhaled a shaking sigh of relief as the girl knew not to mention her surname of Prewitt, for he'd surely connect the pieces that she was related to Alice, even if Barty did not remember.
"How did you get here?" Crouch demanded, his tone clipped and hard as he strode towards Maggie, drifting down to her left arm. "You're not one of the Dark Lord's lieutenants I recognize."
Tonks interjected, hoping to intervene before further trouble could brew, sensing the discourse between the individuals.
"Um, forgive me, M—Barty, I—I invited here. She's…a friend, I—I just thought…with our, ah…wedding tomorrow, and me feeling nervous that I could use a familiar face. She's a friend from work," she lied after a long pause as her questioning gaze flitted towards Maggie before darting back towards Barty Crouch, silent.
Maggie straightened her posture, unable to melt the shock dribbling away at her mind. After years…she had in her line of sight, dead to rights, she could end this, and yet, she couldn't do it.
Her fingers of her wand hand twitched, and Prewitt almost growled with the effort to restrain herself from attacking Crouch.
Tonks was flushing as well to have placed Maggie in an uncertain situation, and would have wanted to apologize to her, but knew it would just drag them all into a fight that much sooner then.
Silence reigned and Maggie could almost fathom the pressure on Crouch's look. If it were air, she'd have suffocated by now. Maggie was all too-familiar with her former lover's cruelty, from the way he derived a sick sense of pleasure in torturing her.
Her Alice. Her sweet sister, whose last words to her had been ones of anger, and now…it was too late for Maggie to apologize.
Maggie saw how Barty Crouch Jr. took Tonks's chin and raised it with his thumb and forefinger. "My love is merciful," he smiled brightly, resting his chin on Tonks's shoulder, and wrapping his arms around her waist. She swore she saw Tonks stiffen at the intimacy of the gesture, looking like she wanted to smack the man's hands away, but made no move to do so. Smart girl, she thought.
"I'll leave you to it, then." Crouch moved his hand from Tonks's chin to her cheek. "I have a wonderful thought, darling. Would you want to hear it?" he questioned, knowing full bloody well he was going to speak anyway, regardless if she wanted or not.
Tonks silently nodded, craning her neck back to look at him.
"Perhaps we should dine tonight, yes, love, don't you think? It's not every day we get married, you know. Your…friend is welcome," he added, striding his dark gaze to Maggie, half-smiling.
Tonks frowned, turning towards Maggie with a quest to defend perhaps the only one alongside Remus who could get her out of here. "Bartemius, Maggie was only just—" But Crouch's lips were over Tonks's before Tonks and Maggie could offer a protest.
Even Maggie was appalled and backed at the gesture, though she had been anticipating a move like this from the wicked man.
When Crouch parted from Tonks's face, he brushed the pads of his fingertips along the rose color that had pecked on her cheek.
"You were saying, love…?" he asked, a slightly teasing lilt to his tone.
"Nothing." Tonks glanced down, flushed, silenced, and embarrassed.
"Tonight, then. Eight. I do have a gift for you that I think you're going to truly love, sweet thing." Barty waited for a nod of confirmation from Tonks before turning his gaze towards Maggie.
His gaze was hostile and perilous. A silent warning, though before Maggie could open her mouth to speak, he turned on the heel of his boot, though not before pressing his lips gently to Tonks' forehead and walking away, leaving Tonks out in the massive yard.
Tonks stared at his retreating figure with concern. By the looks of it, he was suspicious of this other woman's intentions.
But this girl, this Maggie Prewitt, did not seem the type to be one of the Dark Lord's Death Eater's, or even a sympathetic follower, and yet, she did not recognize the witch as an Order member, unless they had inducted new members when she had been gone.
"I'm sorry about that," Tonks sighed tiredly as she turned around to speak to Maggie and let out a gasp of surprise. She found herself speaking to thin air.
As if Maggie had never been there.
Yeesh. Not the best way for two people to meet, but then again, as in real life, folks don't always* get off on the right foot, though hopefully in time, Alice's younger sister will soften up around Tonks and Lupin.
Coming up in Ch. 14,we delve into the psyche of, in my mind, a forgotten/overlooked character as we take a look into Wormtail/Peter Pettigrew's head and see how he reacts to all of these goings-on in his master's presence.
Also, a guest review had asked a question where if this was an alternate universe, yes, it is, as Tonks never was branded with the Dark Mark and I keep Sirius (along with Remus and Tonks) alive in my AU fics as I haven't the heart to kill them lol.
I hope that clears things up! I hope you enjoy, my lovely readers!