When Will returned to Harry and Severus he wore an unfathomable expression, somewhere between surprise and amusement.
"Well?" Severus demanded as Will came to stand by his side but showed no sign of saying anything.
"Well, what?" Will enquired with a look of innocence.
"Did you read her?" Harry asked.
"Certainly not!" Will replied looking genuinely shocked, "That would be a gross invasion of privacy."
"You read us, I don't recall you ever asking my permission!" Severus snapped.
Will gave Severus a withering look, "I could hardly help it with you two, your auras have a tendency to demand attention."
"Mine certainly does not!" Severus insisted, "I have always taken great care, I fooled the Dark Lord for years."
"Sev, I'm sure it's not the same thing," Harry tried to placate, "Will is a Muggle after all."
"Are you trying to tell me that a mere Muggle can read everything about me when I can keep it perfectly well hidden from the most powerful wizard that ever was?" Severus snapped.
"Second most powerful, possibly third," Harry reminded Severus.
"Or could be fourth considering that I apparently now killed him," Severus added.
Will leant towards Severus and placed an arm about his shoulders, "Look Sevvie, your brother would not like you to see you like this, what happened to the smiling little boy I saw in the picture?"
Severus expression shadowed and he shook himself free of Will, "Do not invoke the memory of my brother!" He snapped turning away in a flurry of cloak.
Will looked bemused and hurt, "I only meant to help."
"You cannot take his place!" Severus continued.
Harry approached his Kin, "Will didn't mean to try Sev," He tried to sooth as Will walked away to look at the pictures on the wall.
Severus stepped around Harry and stood behind Will, "I will tell you what happened to that little boy, one day his heart was torn out." He said, the words almost a hiss.
Will turned quickly round and grabbed Severus' hand before he could get away, his thoughts turned inward for a moment and then his face filled with memories and emotion, "I loved him too, he was like a brother to me, if only for a short while."
Severus merely stared back at Will but the tension left his shoulders and Will pulled him towards him.
Harry smiled, he knew that someone had come to see them, he could feel the presence 'Hello Alexian,' he greeted in his head, "Alexian is here, he says that he has an arm around each of you and he draws you together."
Both Severus and Will looked to Harry in amazement and Severus allowed Will to close the remaining distance between them as he took Severus in a brotherly embrace.
Harry looked nervously around to see if anybody was watching but they seemed to be alone. He watched as Will turned a little pale and carefully extricated himself from the proximity he was sharing with Severus.
Harry smiled to himself, it seemed that Will had been reading again, asking too many questions and getting too many answers, maybe he had just discovered that Severus' regard for his brother wasn't quite as brotherly as it would normally have been. Harry wondered what Sybil Trelawney would make of Will.
Will came to walk beside Harry as they made their way back up to the Headmaster's quarters.
"Are wizard relationships different to Muggle ones?" Will asked Harry.
"What do you mean?" Harry asked wondering what part of Severus' life Will had stumbled upon, although he really thought that Will must mean Alexian.
Will hardly knew how to approach the subject, "I get a feeling of deep brotherly love between Severus and Alexian but there is something else too."
Harry laughed a little at Will's discomfort, "I will have to explain a bit more about the Kin Bond sometime," Harry explained, "That is unusual even for the wizarding world."
ccccc
Ron woke up after a while, he had had enough sleep, he pulled himself up to look at Draco but found that his patient still seemed to be asleep. Ron had to wonder whether or not he should be starting to become worried about that.
He felt exhausted, Ron found, emotionally drained would be a better way to describe it. Somewhere along the line he had ended up on his own, somehow he hadn't just lost his family; he had lost everything else as well. Somehow he had ended up sitting by the bed of Draco Malfoy wishing that he would wake up and bring some sunshine into his life, thinking that that was the most likely way to find it.
Ron stared at Draco and thought about his family, of all his brothers and his sister Ginny. The last images he had of them all were from one dark night and a great hall filled with blankly staring eyes coming from pale and blue-lipped bodies. Ginny's beautiful and vibrant hair framing the cold and anguished face that had told him that she had known the moment of her passing. So still and so cold, the image would never leave him.
At the time Hogwarts had been acting as temporary Order headquarters after closing as a school for the Christmas holidays. It hadn't been quiet as it usually was however, as the dorms had already been filling up with those who had survived and the hall with those who had not.
Ron remembered the sight of all his family lined up on the stone cold floor next to Hermione's. Most of all Ron remembered the look in Hermione's eyes as she looked up at him after finally having to admit that it had happened after all, they hadn't believed till the evidence denied them this solace. He remembered Oliver Wood being present and offering him empty words of condolence that he hardly heard at all and watching Hermione accept them with far more grace than he did, or so it had seemed at the time.
Had it just been the once as she had said, Ron now wondered uselessly. They could have been making a fool out of him for months.
Ron buried his head in the covers of Draco's bed as he felt eight months of repressed grief and awful memories rush to the surface of his consciousness.
When Ron eventually lifted his head he found that Draco was awake and watching him.
"Are you hungry?" Ron asked quickly before Draco had any opportunity to point out his dishevelled and emotional state.
Showing more tact than he had ever displayed during his entire life so far Draco merely answered with a 'yes'.
Ron was glad of the activity; he was pleased to be doing something that at least made his existence seem a little less pointless. He lowered himself down onto the floor and went to the fire to order some food from the house elves. Whilst he was waiting for the meal to arrive Ron sorted out some potions out of the case too.
Draco took his potions as they were offered to him and allowed Ron to feed him a meal without complaint. Ron met his old adversary's eyes and found him to be reluctantly and grimly resigned to their current roles of patient and carer. Ron presumed that the seizure had taken its toll on Draco and that he would have to brave a conversation with Severus in order to acquire some more of the special potion though he suspected that something stronger might be of more help.
"Do you still have some of that whiskey left?" Draco asked suddenly as Ron fell into thought.
"Yes," Ron replied, "But it's out there."
"Well go get it, they left a while ago," Draco persisted.
"The drink might have been partially responsible for the blackout," Ron argued.
"Then what difference does it make now?" Draco pointed out grimly.
Ron didn't reply but lowered himself down onto the floor and went through to the empty living room. Now that he thought about it he had to agree, what else was there left to do but drown the pain with quality single malt.
ccccc
It was close to midnight when Will ventured out from the Headmaster's quarters on his own. Harry and Severus had gone to bed some time ago and for a while Will had tried to sleep on the sofa but the adventure was too great for him to relax. He was where his friend Alexian had spent most of his childhood; he was living amongst the biggest secret there was to discover. Sleep was the last thing on Will's mind. He wanted to look around; he wanted to go down all the corridors and not just the parts Harry and Severus had thought were important. He wanted to discover the place for himself.
There was also the fact that that Hermione girl had said that she often stayed up late reading in the library and Will wouldn't have minded another conversation with her. There was something about her that set Will's soul alight and that took some doing after the past few months of drinking and despair.
Will was that intent on trying to find the library that he wasn't looking where he was going as he advanced along the darkened corridor and he was looking through the glass in a classroom door when he rounded a corner.
Suddenly Will had an armful of woman as somebody dressed in a very long and truly unique patchwork dress came round the very same corner in the opposite direction and collided with him.
Will also noticed as he steadied the woman that she also wore a floppy velvet hat and a long cloak. This was not Hermione and Will had to wonder whether it was something to do with the witches of the Wizarding world, he felt a kind of strange affinity with this woman also. Maybe it was because he had spent so much of his life feeling at odds with his own world that now he had met those who were just as much at odds with it, he felt strangely at home.
"I am sorry," Will said sincerely, "I wasn't watching where I was going."
"Not often we see anybody but Miss Granger out at this time of night," The woman said peering at Will, trying to make him out, "Who are you?"
"Will," Will said simply offering his hand in greeting, "William," He corrected awkwardly before realising that this didn't really explain very much, "I am Severus' guest."
The witch reached out and took Will's hand in a firm grip, which made him feel a little bit nervous.
The witch smiled, seemingly in awe of Will suddenly, "You are a one of the Gifted. A Muggle."
"Gifted?" Will queried feeling very nervous indeed, especially since this woman didn't let go of him or introduce herself either.
"Yes," the woman said enthusiastically, "You see."
"I see what?" Will responded, trying all the while and in vain to extricate his hand.
"Things," the woman whispered, "Don't you?"
"I don't know what you mean," Will continued to protest.
"In your mind's eye, knowledge, I see you, you see."
Will managed to break free and he took a step back, "Who are you?"
"Forgive me," the woman said looking up at Will and stepping closer to him, "I am Sybil Trelawney, Divination Professor of Hogwarts."
"Divination Professor?" Will said in amazement.
"Yes," Sybil replied, "I teach the students to develop their gift, the gift that all in the wizarding world possess to some degree, I teach them to do what you can do, you know what I mean, don't you William of Sgoil Dhubh?"
Will swallowed and then felt suddenly bitter at the memory of what his so-called 'gift' had brought him over the years, "I see nothing but death."
"Ah, but death is not the end, you see nothing more than a transition and you see much more besides. The Muggles don't understand, you see much more than death and I can show you that it is indeed a gift, you needn't feel troubled by it any longer, come to the tower with me now."
Sybil turned and began to walk away from Will back the way she had come. He knew that she expected him to follow her and he had to reason that she was a member of staff employed by Severus, what could happen if he followed her. Suddenly he was walking and following this strange woman through the intensely dark corridors of an unlit section of the castle, the moonlight shining through the windows and across the stone floor was all he had to see by.
Sybil and Will eventually ascended the Divination tower but instead of taking the turn into the classroom Will was led to Sybil's private sitting room instead. A fire burnt in the hearth but there was no other light and Will was shown to an armchair on one side of the fire and Sybil sat opposite.
"Would you like some tea?" Sybil asked.
"I could do with something stronger," Will admitted. He found that his hands shook a little and he rested them on his lap.
"Do not worry, I see that you have suffered recently but your sufferings end tonight, take a cup of tea, it will be enough," Sybil said taking a tea pot from a grate that rested on top of the fire, "You have no need to dull your mind now."
Will frowned but took the tea graciously.
"You will find that not all is about death, one whom you know comes to my side now and apologises for the anguish he caused you. He says that he only ever intended to help," Sybil continued.
"What do you mean, 'by your side'?" Will asked.
Sybil hardly seemed to have heard Will, "He speaks of the music, you told him to stop, you didn't understand."
Will felt a chill in his spine, "What are you doing?"
"I speak with spirit, you will too, you can bring spirit to those who still live, you can give hope, you can show that the essence of God is in all of us."
Will wanted to leave but he didn't move from his chair.
"Close your eyes and picture in your head a big white cloud," Sybil instructed.
Will closed his eyes and did as he was asked but he failed to see what it was all about.
"Does anybody step into the cloud?" Sybil asked, "Do you see anybody? Ask them to come forward."
In his mind's eye Will looked at his cloud and tried to think of how he could make his excuses and go. He certainly wouldn't be wandering the corridors ever again, not on his own and not at night. Suddenly Will saw the face of a man in his cloud, he had dark short hair and Will did not recognise the face. He considered briefly whether he should say anything or not, to admit to it would only encourage the woman. But then to deny it seemed silly, he had not wanted to see anything, he had only wanted to go, and yet there was the man in his mind urging him to say something.
"I see a young man, in his twenties, he has dark hair and looks quite normal though I think he is part of the wizarding world like yourself," Will spoke eventually.
Sybil gasped slightly then composed herself, "Do not be nervous, do not worry about where it comes from, in your mind speak to him as if you know that he is a real person, ask him about himself and tell me what he tells you."
Will spoke, "Life is a test of character. You play the hand you've been dealt. He shrugs his shoulders as he tells me this."
"He used to say that," Sybil replied with a sniff.
"I feel a fight for breath, he couldn't breath, he had ambition but the chances to succeed were taken as his life was taken. I feel he would have been powerful. I feel that his life was taken from him suddenly, one day he had all his dreams and hopes for the future and then the next night he was gone."
"Yes," Sybil said simply.
"He says that he was a good kisser and that you will know exactly what he means," Will said smiling.
Sybil laughed a little through her tears, "Yes I do."
"There are red roses, lots of red roses, roses for love, a bouquet of roses on the casket and three single stems, one of them, I see you throwing one of them down onto the casket. I see an older man and woman standing to your side as you do this, he watched you then."
"Thank you Will, thank you Michael."
"I see him stepping away now and he says that he is sorry and that he still misses you and will never leave your side."
"Tell him to leave me alone," Sybil suddenly snapped.
"I don't understand," Will admitted, he was confused.
"He comes now with love when in life all he wanted was for me to go, tell him to go away if he wants to be sorry."
Will tried to do as he was told but he didn't know if he was doing it right, "Who is he?"
"It is of no matter," Sybil replied.
"Are you sure you want this?" Will asked.
"I won't have him in my head any longer, always there."
Will could feel the bitterness of feeling and the tears threatening to fall, in his mind's eye the man's image began to fade, "He's going," He relayed to Sybil.
Will opened his eyes to find Sybil closing the distance between them, she clasped his hands in hers and Will did not try to struggle this time.
"I knew that he was there," Sybil said sniffing again, "But you see, to hear it from someone who could not have known is everything you will find. If only it had been a little more pleasant, for that I apologise."
"I don't feel like I have helped," Will said looking at Sybil's dishevelled state.
Sybil pulled Will to his feet and took him into a tight embrace, "Oh but you have," She reassured.
"Who was he?" Will insisted.
"The brother of a somebody who was close to me, it matters not now," Sybil replied and Will thought that she would begin to cry again but she managed to hold it back, "You must come to this tower tomorrow, I will help you, you must come back," She insisted.
"I will," Will agreed realising that she would not let him go until he agreed.
ccccc
Will managed to find his way back to the Headmaster's quarters though he had no idea how he managed it, perhaps that spirit of Alexian was indeed always helping him from beyond. He slumped down onto the sofa and hunted for the bottle of Dalwhinnie that he had first noticed that lunchtime but it was gone. It seemed like he was still not going to get a drink.
Will went to the bathroom instead, he had no idea how to order things from the fire and he was thirsty, the bathroom seemed to be the only place where water could he obtained in what he thought was the normal fashion.
When Will returned to the living room with his thirst quenched he still found that he would be unable to sleep. He had thought that the walk would help but in the end it had only woken him further. Too much had happened, too much had been revealed to him for rest.
Will wondered if the two other occupants of the quarters were asleep. As far as he knew they had slept most of the day and he was sure one of them must have retrieved the whiskey at some point. He wondered if he could introduce himself. Find out about the curses that Severus had spoken about and maybe calm the waters between them all.
Will tried the door to Draco's bedroom and found that it opened just as easily with a turn of the handle as it did when the password was spoken to the painting. He found both Draco and Ron sleeping in the darkened room.
Draco lay as Will had last seen him and Ron lay curled up beneath a blanket in a seemingly uncomfortable position in the armchair next to him. Will wondered what the deal was, Severus had been adamant that they might have killed each other but the two young men had not left each other's side all day.
Will moved quietly and knelt down beside Ron, he reached out to touch Ron's hand as it lay on top of the blanket. Harry and Severus had been right; he found the temptation to read these people irresistible, it was after all the quickest way of finding things out. The interpersonal dynamics were confusing Will but they were more detailed in his mind than if he had merely taken his cues from what he had been told.
Will felt the sadness emanating from Ron, the loss and the loneliness. Draco seemed to be a feint light in the dark to him. He could sense the curse, the effects of it anyway, the frustration it caused on a daily basis.
Will reached out his other hand to make contact with the young man in the bed and sensed the link between them. A friendship, new and delicate, formed by adversity. He sensed the other young man's curse too and the origin of it, his father. He sensed that the father would not ever let Draco escape, that black hooded creatures hunted him day and night; he sensed that he would never be rid of them.
Will took in Draco's condition and was puzzled, his father hunted him still and Will had seen Draco being instrumental in his downfall. He didn't know how everything could be true, he knew that the young man didn't possess the strength to sit up or take care of himself in any way.
Will saw an image of Ron holding Draco in his arms as he suffered some kind of attack, a seizure, it was fresh to Will's mind, meaning that it had only just occurred. Now he knew why Ron had been so angry, he realised what had really happened and how Ron had done very little to incur the derision he had received.
ccccc
Severus and Harry were already up and answering the owls when Hermione came to visit. At least they thought that it was a social call until she presented the results of her research to Severus.
"Ron asked me to look into matters regarding Draco's curse, in particular the subject of nerve regeneration," She said primly when prompted by Severus' puzzled look, "Apparently the current potion isn't working too well."
Will woke up at the sound of Hermione's voice and in a fluster of annoyance tried to put himself in some kind of presentable order without the aid of anything but his bare hands. He wasn't really sure why, but it seemed important.
"Is it not?" Severus said irritably, not knowing whether this was Ron's or Hermione's opinion.
"Most likely you would be the one to brew a new potion so I thought it was just as good to give these directly to you," Hermione continued holding out the research parchments.
"Well that is very good of you Hermione," Severus sneered, "But I wasn't aware that there was anything wrong with the current potion."
"But he had another seizure," Hermione stated, "Just the other night. I thought that might be why you were back."
"I think I would know if something like that had happened," Severus began to defend.
"He did have a seizure," Will volunteered before Severus could insist any further.
"Does anybody else know about this? Am I the only one who doesn't know?" Severus stormed.
"I didn't know," Harry volunteered, "Ron was hardly feeling very helpful when we came back, how could we have known what had happened if he chose not to tell us."
"I was there just after it occurred, I was on hand to help Ron with some pain potion but he was doing fine, he coped with it very well," Hermione offered, she could feel the tension in the air and had been feeling much more like her normal self since she had met Will despite still feeling like a beached whale.
"Well," Severus said, "It looks like he has more of a problem than we thought, just as well his father is dead and no longer able to hunt him."
"Poor Draco," Harry sympathised.
"His father isn't dead," Will felt he had to mention.
Harry went white, "He can't be alive, I killed him."
"Amongst all the other deaths how can you be sure it was him?" Will challenged.
"He came to us, I killed him," Harry insisted.
"He just presented himself to you, did he put up much of a fight?" Will asked.
Harry looked devastated, "No, he just stood there," Harry looked to his Kin, "It wasn't Lucius after all, we were just meant to think that it was, he isn't dead is he?"
"Anything else?" Severus almost snapped at Will.
"Young Draco has been left entirely dependant by this latest attack, I don't know how he is meant to defeat his own father," Will added.
Severus slumped down wearily into the chair by his desk and Harry placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder.
"It never ends," Severus spoke.
Will was getting some sense now of the pressure that Severus was under, their situation was almost warlike and both he and his Kin were pregnant, there would be no peace for them to enjoy it.
"Why don't you see if Ron is in a more communicative mood this morning," Severus said mildly to Harry who was still stood by his side.
Harry bent to kiss Severus' forehead before he went through to the bedroom to see his friend.
Hermione left and Will was left alone with Severus.
"So, if you weren't reading her, what was it you were seeking when you went with Miss Granger yesterday?" Severus asked as he shuffled papers on his desk.
"I don't know what you mean," Will still insisted, "She's heavily pregnant and I carried the books she was struggling with. The question should be, why did you not carry them for her?"
"Why should I?" Severus burst out at the idea; "She could quite easily levitate them, if she wasn't insistent on being such a martyr."
"I want to invite her over," Will asserted.
"Whatever for?" Severus grumbled, "Do you have some sort of romantic design on the girl? She's far too young for you."
"Sevvie! You hypocrite," Will criticized.
Severus was about to protest but then he thought about it and gave up on the idea.
"Will wants to extend an invitation to Hermione," Severus told Harry when he was rejoined by his Kin; hoping to get some support from a guaranteed source.
"Seems like she was quite a bit of help to Ron while we were away," Harry said by way of reply, "Ron says that Draco did have an attack."
"Well Will, you had better invite her over for tea, is there anybody else who you would like to join us?" Severus grumbled.
"Sybil Trelawney maybe, I was going to mention that I had met your Divination Professor, I'm supposed to be seeing her later but she didn't give me a time."
"No doubt she expects you to know when the time is right," Severus continued to grouch.
"When did you meet her?" Harry asked.
"Last night, I went for a walk, I couldn't sleep," Will replied.
"Ah, another one who likes to wander the corridor at night, you would have made a wonderful Gryffindor," Severus commented.
"Shush Sev," Harry chastised, "Will hasn't got a clue what you going on about, in any case you had better stop your grumbling and go and see Draco, he needs another potion."
ccccc
Harry went back into Draco's bedroom dragging Severus along with him, Will followed meekly behind merely out of curiosity.
Ron was dressed and sat in the armchair by Draco's bed, Draco himself lay propped up on enough pillows to be able to see the rest of the room well, but even at first sight it was obvious that he wasn't capable of much. The tension of the day before lay in the air still, though Will wasn't surprised since no resolution to any of the issues had been made.
"Am I to understand that it is the opinion of yourself and Hermione Grainger that Draco here needs a different potion?" Severus asked Ron.
Will cringed at the tone but he kept his distance and didn't interfere.
"I do need something else," Draco spoke up, "I didn't do that much to make this happen."
Will watched Harry and Severus' surprise, evidentially he had read correctly, Draco and Ron were friends but they had only just become so and it was unexpected.
"Do I hear correctly?" Severus snapped, "Are you trying to excuse Weasley's behaviour Malfoy?"
Harry groaned, "We're not students anymore, you can't talk to them like that Sev."
Severus sighed, "I suppose not," He conceded.
"Ron did everything he was meant to," Draco added.
"Harry and I will take over here now," Severus announced.
Will couldn't help noticing that there was no sign of an apology anywhere.
"No," Ron replied calmly, "I will continue with the duties."
"You were only supposed to be taking over for a few days," Severus argued.
"What makes Harry better qualified?" Ron argued in defence of his position.
"Hey!" Harry protested.
"You never wanted to do it in the first place, I propose that you are only taking it on now to be stubborn and that is entirely the wrong attitude," Severus criticized.
"I don't think you can be relied on to know what a good attitude is," Ron countered.
"Severus has a lot more experience than you have," Harry cut in to defend his Kin.
Will watched Ron's expression, the scowl and the look of utter loneliness, the friendship might be new but it was all he had.
"Why don't Ron and Draco come with me to Sgoil Dhubh for a while," Will suddenly found himself suggesting, "You have to admit that there is hardly much here to keep them occupied and you two could do with having your home back for a while."
Will watched all the stunned expressions but he heard no protests, "Well that's settled, glad we can agree on something," He added.
"You're a Muggle," Draco said suddenly finding a voice.
"Yes I am," Will replied suddenly feeling like being a Muggle wasn't supposed to be a good thing.
"Great!" Draco grumbled.
"But I am a Muggle Gifted, your Professor Trelawney told me," Will added proudly.
Draco sneered, "Am I supposed to be impressed by that?"
"Shut up Draco," Ron commanded quietly, "Don't you dare ruin my chance of getting out of here for a while."
To everyone's surprise Draco agreed to drop the subject.