Summary:
"I have done my best since I've been back to make sure no one got to her, but it's a bit of full time gig, that. I warned her to stay out and let me handle it."
"You thought she would stay away if you just told her to? Have you ever met Juniper?"


Post to the dragon infested wilds of northeastern Peru is not always possible, and what birds do manage it are never timely. Which is why Felix does not read Rita Skeeter's article on Juniper Windsong* until several months after his graduation. "From Cursebreaker to Quidditch Darling: A Witch of Many Hats" declares the headline, set above a photograph of an awkwardly smiling Juniper. She's giving the camera a surprised sort of half-wave, as though only aware of its presence a second before the flash.

So far, Felix has done a successful job putting his crush on his school friend from his mind, aided by the million and one things he has to learn about his new and dangerous job. But something about the picture-Juniper's expression touches that part of him still nursing a soft spot for her. He severs the photograph from the article with his wand, tucking it carefully into a trouser pocket. And for the next three years, that's where it stays; his only aid in recalling her face with the precise detail he craves more and more frequently.

The body on the hospital bed has the same features, slightly aged. But Felix cannot reconcile it with the Juniper he knows. There's no sign of life in her, beyond the incessant twitching of her fingers. Closer inspection reveals her myriad tiny cuts to be deeper than Felix initially realised. The wounds, while magically sealed, are puckered and raised. He knows each one will leave a small scar.

And her face. Her face is entirely expressionless. It reminds Felix of the mannequins at the hospital's entrance. No one could confuse her condition with merely sleeping.

How long he stands by the bed minutely inspecting each injured part of Juniper, Felix isn't sure. His brain is strangely detached, as if it's reached the limit of what it can process in one day and has recused itself from any further analysis. Felix can't really blame it. In the span of one morning, he's fallen from exuberant high-spirits through various layers of unexpected terror before bottoming out in wretched guilt. Now, with no action left to keep up momentum, the rapid rush of conflicting emotion burns out, leaving numb exhaustion in its wake.


Only when his knees start to feel shaky once more does Felix remember the thing he's leaning against is a chair, and he drops into it. It's a comfortable, winged armchair, most unlike the hard, wooden chairs Madam Pomfrey conjures for guest use in the Hogwart's Hospital Wing. He wonders briefly if all the rooms in St Mungo's are equally accommodating or if it indicates this patient's need for more regular supervision.

Felix sinks deeper into the cushions gratefully. Perhaps it's the lack of sleep, or the fact that he's been denied furniture this comfortable for years, but drowsiness begins to trickle through his limbs enticingly. Keeping his eyes open is suddenly a herculean task...


Felix only knows he's fallen asleep when the soft click of the hidden door unlocking wakes him. Disoriented, he struggles from the chair, fumbling for his wand. But the witch who enters, a short, curly-haired woman in lime-green robes, says "Dragon-Heart String," promptly before he's able to pull it from his pocket.

"You're awake this time," the healer observes crisply, striding to the bedside table. "Good. I was beginning to worry you'd been cursed as well."

Felix makes rather more production than necessary stowing his wand back into his rumpled robes, surreptitiously wiping sleep from his eyes and giving the heat in his face time to cool. When he turns back to the bed, the healer is running her wand over Juniper's chest slowly, the wood just brushing the white sheet. The wand tip glows a deep, pulsing red and the healer nods once as if in confirmation.

"What are you doing?" asks Felix.

"Checking her vital signs," replies the healer. "Her heart rate is slowing."

She says this so matter-of-factly it takes a minute for Felix to process it isn't a good thing. His own heart begins to beat double-time.

"Surely you can fix that?"

The healer shakes her head once, iron-gray curls bouncing. She reaches for a small bottle on the bedside table and uncorks it, upending the contents onto a bit of cloth.

"Not unless we can discover what spell was used on her." The healer begins dabbing the cloth gently over the angry red cuts on Juniper's face. "Nothing we've tried has worked so far. I have my trainee researching rare curses and sleep enchantments, but-" She clicks her tongue doubtfully.

In spite of her brusque tone, Felix's notices the healer's motions are exceedingly gentle. She takes her time, massaging the cloth over each small wound on Juniper's face down to her exposed neck. Something in her tender ministrations betrays concern, and an echo of the morning's fear slithers back through Felix's veins.

"But... she's going to be alright...isn't she?"

The healer looks up at him abruptly, cloth stilling on Juniper's shoulder.

"Has no one explained to you what's happened to this girl?

"They - he said - she was attacked."

The healer regards him steadily. "She has been tortured. See her hands? That's a sign of prolonged exposure to the Cruciatus Curse. Pain like that has permanent effects on the body and the mind. It can quite literally drive a person mad. Even if we manage to wake her, I doubt very much whether she will be 'alright'."

Felix's heart beat climbs into his throat. He swallows hard, trying to wrap his mind around this new and terrifying possibility.

"There has to be something you can do," he protests weakly. The healer shakes her head again, curls bouncing.

"Not against that sort of magic." She sets her cloth back on the beside table and contemplates Juniper's lifeless form, hands on hips. "There's research being done into alleviating the effects of the Cruciatus Curse, but nothing practical has come of it so far." Her jaw tenses in the first real emotion Felix has seen from her. "There's a reason that Curse is unforgivable."

The healer bends over the bed to smooth down the sheet, tucking excess fabric in around the inert body. Satisfied with the result, she straightens and considers Felix carefully.

"So. Do you think you can manage to stay awake through the evening now you've had your kip, or should I call in a trainee to relieve you?"

There's no hiding the burning in his face this time, but Felix draws himself up in spite of it and tries to look as competent as possible.

"It won't happen again, I assure you."

She gives another curt nod and bustles around the bed.

"There's a bell on the table. Give a ring if anything changes. My trainee will hear it."


Foregoing the treacherously cosy armchair, Felix perches on the edge of the bed beside Juniper's trembling hand. Even without the healer's admonition, he would not have been able to return to sleep.

Fears for Juniper's safety have always plagued Felix. He's endured more than one restless night worrying what might be happening to her thousands of kilometres away. But everything he's imagined feeling should the worst occur - grief and pain and regret - such easy emotions have no place here. What Felix feels he has no words for. There's only a wrenching in his gut and a scream building in his chest, threatening to erupt uncontrollably, like vomit. Dead or mad, somehow both carry the same crushing weight. The thought that who Juniper is will be gone forever is inconceivable. It pulls at the very threads of Felix's mind, stretching it in the most horrid way.

Felix reaches for Juniper's hand, cradling it delicately in both of his own like an eggshell. He can feel the restless twitching of her fingers, every other part of her so unnaturally still. She's never been this still in life, he thinks. And the unconscious word choice brings horrified tears to his eyes he cannot blink away.

Felix hasn't cried since he was a small child. It was never an acceptable expression in his family. Even now, a part of him twinges with fear as tears run sloppily down his cheeks and nose. Some instinct imprinted in him aches with the memory of the physical pain crying awards. But jinxes and hexes seem like nothing to Felix now. He would take them in a heartbeat over this.

Tears seem to loosen Felix's tongue, and all the confessions and apologies churning inside him burst forth unbidden.

"Juniper. Oh, gods, Juniper. I'm so sorry. I'm so, so sorry."

He lifts her hand to his lips, pressing them against her knuckles, and then her fingertips, uncurling her shaking fingers to place a kiss against her palm. It's riddled with tiny cuts, and older, shiny pink scars.

Felix knows the story behind those now: souvenirs of her fight with the guardian of the Vault of Ice in her second year. Thirteen years old, and battling for her life against an enchanted knight, unmoved by her age or her lack of experience. By all accounts, it's a fight Juniper should never have survived. But she did. Somehow, she always does.

Felix sniffs and wipes the heel of his free hand across his cheeks.

"Juniper, please. Please, be okay," he murmurs against her fingers like a prayer. "You can fight this. Whatever it is. You're strong. The strongest person I know, and I-" He chokes as a sob tries to escape around his words. "I need you to be okay. I need-"

Felix's words are interrupted by the door opening for a second time. And something in the way the lock clunks, a louder, more forceful sound than it's usual click, sets his nerves on edge. Dropping Juniper's hand, he whips around and draws his wand in one smooth motion, pointing it directly at the man whose back is now pressed against the closed door.

The intruder is dressed in lime green robes, but they fit him uncomfortably, a size too small for his well-built frame, and Felix doesn't have to recognise him to know he isn't really a healer. Except for the fact that his face isn't cracked into a lop-sided grin, the man looks exactly as Felix remembers, even if it's been over a decade since they last met. The man's hand tightens over his own wand as he catches sight of Felix's, but he adjusts his face to something politely professional.

"Sorry, must have the wrong room."

His hand is on the doorknob when Felix says, "Jacob Windsong."

If Juniper's brother is startled at being recognised, he doesn't show it. He merely furrows his brow at Felix curiously.

"Do I know you?"

"Felix Rosier."

Jacob cocks his head in mild surprise. "Blimey. Didn't recognise you."

"It's been a long time." Felix's voice is calm, but he can feel anger bubbling up inside him. If there's any one person who is really to blame for Juniper's condition, it's the man in front of him.

"For you, maybe," replies Jacob cryptically. He glances from Felix to the bed. "I see you've met my sister. How is she?"

Jacob's conversational tone, as though they've met at the grocer's and are forced by social convention to make polite inquiries after one another, strains Felix's self-control.

"How does she look?" he asks wildly, a flailing hand indicating the bed beside him. "She's been tortured and cursed! No one at the school could wake her, and the healers don't even know if she'll survive! Thanks to you!"

Jacob flinches as if Felix has thrown something at him. "It's not my fault."

"Are you mad?" Felix's temper rises with each word. "You're the reason she's here! She got herself mixed up in cursed vaults and bloody cults looking for you!"

"I know. And I am sorry about all that. And I have done my best since I've been back to make sure no one got to her, but it's a bit of full time gig, that. I warned her to stay out and let me handle it."

Felix's mirthless laugh is dangerously close to a shriek. "You thought she would stay away if you just told her to? Have you ever met Juniper?"

Jacob ignores this, considering Felix curiously instead.

"How do you know Juniper? What are you doing here?"

Heat creeps up Felix's cheeks and his indignation flags. "I...was her prefect in school. Now, we're...friends."

Jacob takes in Felix's words and the obvious embarrassment rising in his face, and gives a hearty guffaw.

"Friends?" he repeats, his shoulders jerking with short harsh laughs.

"Yes," Felix declares, chin raised defiantly. "She needed someone to look after her for the last six years while you've been missing." He gives the last word a sarcastic emphasis, and Jacob's smile becomes a grimace.

"Oh, well, you've certainly done a bang-up job, haven't you?" he mocks, and Felix snaps.

"Impedimenta!" he cries without stopping to think. The spell is unexpected, and Jacob has no time to block it. He throws himself sideways, hitting the floor in a roll and straightening up on the other side of the bed, wand raised defensively.

"Bloody hell, you want to bring whole hospital in here?!"

"Get out, then," demands Felix, breathing rapidly.

Jacob eyes Felix's outstretched wand, then the bed where Juniper remains motionless. With a sigh, he lowers his wand.

"Believe it or not," he says testily, adjusting his too-right robes, "I didn't risk my life and freedom just to come here and have a chinwag with you." He takes a cautious step closer to the head of the bed. "I'm here to help."

"How can you possibly help?"

"I think I know what curse was used on her. I might be able to wake her up."

Hope flickers to life inside Felix, nudging his anger aside. "How could you know that? The professors don't even know."

Jacob gives a derisive snort. "Let's just say, I know the way this organization works." He holds up a hand to stifle Felix's further questions. "But it's too complicated to explain now. Just let me try something."

Taking another step, Jacob lifts his wand again, pointing it toward Juniper.

"Expelliarmus!"

Jacob's wand leaps from his outstretched hand to the floor, where Felix summons it quickly and sticks it into his back pocket. He aims his own wand directly at Jacob's face, now screwed up in irritation.

"Merlin's pants, I said I'm trying to help her!"

"How do I know you're really who you say you are? You could be someone from R disguised as Jacob Windsong come to finish his sister off. Or you could have been working with them all along."

Jacob crosses his arms. "That'd be a pretty stupid disguise, don't you think? I'm wanted by the Ministry and Dumbledore and several other parties, none of which are looking to buy me a drink. Hardly the best way to get around, got up as a wanted criminal."

True, but Felix doesn't lower his wand. Jacob sighs and spreads his arms wide in supplication.

"How can I prove I'm me, then? You don't know the first thing about me, so it's not like I can answer any questions." He gestures vaguely toward Felix. "I remember meeting you once last year. Or..." He pauses, and obvious unease crosses his features. "No. I suppose... it was quite a few years ago, wasn't it? Time is still a bit..." He waggles his fingers vaguely. "Anyway, I saved your arse from some Gryffindor you were picking on. That do?"**

The only other person Felix has ever related this story to is Juniper. He supposes Jacob himself could have told an associate, but it seems unlikely.

"So, you're you," acknowledges Felix grudgingly, his wand arm beginning to ache. "That doesn't mean you're on her side."

"I have always been on her side," argues Jacob. Felix lets out a "Ha!" of disbelieving laughter, and Jacob's eyes flash. "Look, believe what you like about me, it's probably not half true. But I have always loved Juniper and done everything I could to keep her safe."

Felix laughs again, a harsh sound devoid of any humour. He feels as incensed as Jacob looks.

"You don't think it's killed me to find out everything that's happened to her while I've been trapped?" Jacob protests. "That she's been all on her own? Facing my enemies?"

"Then why didn't you stay with her when she found you?" counters Felix. "She's devoted nearly half her life to finding you, at the expense of everything and everyone. And you wouldn't even give her the time of day!"

"You don't know what you're talking about!" Jacob's voice has risen now, too. "You don't have the first idea what's really going on or what these people are capable of. This isn't over, and Pip won't be safe until it is! I started this mess and I have to finish it. I owe it. To her!"

A brief silence follows this declaration. Felix's wand arm drops a few degrees.

"Pip?" he asks, his voice strained, unsure if it wants to laugh or cry or yell some more.

Jacob blinks. "Juniper," he explains. "That's what I called her. When she was a kid." A very small smile breaks up the storm clouds in his face. "She always hated it."

Jacob's smile is so similar to the genuine one Felix has seen in rare moments on Juniper's own face it causes his stomach to somersault. And the dreadful possibility of never seeing that smile aimed at him again smothers Felix's anger. For a minute, both men can only stare at the girl lying lifeless on the bed, entirely unmoved by their screams or spells. The reality of the danger she's in hovers ominously over them both.

When Jacob speaks again, his voice is soft and urgent. "If you're really her friend, then you'll let me try the counter curse. If I'm wrong, it won't hurt her. I promise."

Felix's wand wavers, then falls. He reaches into his back pocket for Jacob's wand and holds it out to him. Jacob receives it with a short nod of thanks. Gazing down at his sister, he runs a hand over her hair just once, pushing it back from her forehead. Felix feels a quick pang of irrational jealousy. Without further sentiment, the elder Windsong aims his wand at Juniper's temple and mutters something under his breath.

Nothing happens.

Felix waits expectantly for Jacob to try again, but the man simply tucks his wand away and addresses Felix.

"Listen, when she wakes up - "

"What do you mean, 'when she wakes up'?" Felix interrupts. "It didn't work."

Jacob shakes his head. "It will. Or it should. It isn't instant. But, I think the curse is lifted, she's just asleep now. Look." He tilts his head in the direction of Juniper's chest, which Felix realises with a jolt is now rising and falling gently. "She'll wake up soon, and when she does she's going to have a bit of a time adjusting. That curse can give you some pretty rough nightmares."

"I think nightmares will be the least of her problems. They -" Felix's voice catches. "They don't even know if she'll be sane."

Jacob glances down again and for the first time his face isn't the confident mask Felix has only ever seen on him.

"I - I can't do anything about that," says Jacobs haltingly, watching his sister's slight breathing. His face tightens once more. "All I can do is make sure no one gets to her again."

With that, Jacob moves briskly toward the door. A quick side step allows Felix to grab the older man's arm before he reaches it.

"No," Felix objects firmly. "You need to be here when she wakes up. She'll want to see you."

"No, I need to go find who did this to her," Jacob argues, trying to wrench his arm away and surprised when he's unable to break Felix's grip. Felix smirks. What three years of working with dragons has done for his muscle definition is not his least favourite post-Hogwarts accomplishment.

"So, revenge is more important to you than your sister?"

"Taking care of her is most important." Jacob makes another effort to jerk his arm away from Felix, but the dragonologist holds on fast.

"She doesn't need you to take care of her. She needs you to be here with her. You're her family."

Jacob throws his head back, growling in frustration.

"Listen," he pleads. "Once she wakes, this place will be swarming with healers and aurors and people who are looking for me. We can hardly be a proper family if I'm locked in a cell, can we?"

"So, you're just going to leave her. Again."

"I have to."

Felix shakes his head at the man in front of him, then releases his arm in disgust.

Felix had always assumed Jacob Windsong was dead. Not that he would ever tell Juniper. His memory of Jacob, and the way Juniper described him, Felix couldn't imagine any other possible scenario. Why else would he leave the sister he so clearly cared for? A sister he doted on, wrote to constantly, treated like a best friend. At least, that was how Juniper had always described their relationship. But as he stares at the door now closed behind Jacob, Felix has to wonder just how reliable Juniper's memories of her brother really were.


His thoughts are interrupted by a scream.

Anyone who works in close proximity to dragons becomes quickly accustomed to screams. In three years, Felix has heard men, women, and children shriek in terror at the sight of a soaring Vipertooth. He can distinguish howls of agony caused by dragonfire meeting skin from the anguished wails at its destruction of homes and villages. He himself has screamed in pain as a dragon's talon rips cleanly through the skin of his throat.

But this scream is different. It's the sort that chills the blood. A bottomless sound of torment and hopelessness, like Felix has never heard. And instead of inspiring him to action, as screams have come to do, this excruciating noise makes him want to hide. He knows the sound is coming from the bed behind him, which means there's only one logical source.

Two people in lime-green robes burst through the door, nearly knocking Felix over in their rush to reach the bed. Felix can only hope they're trustworthy trainees because he's neglected to ask for the password. He cannot think at all as the healers draw their wands, speaking rapidly to each other, trying various spells and incantations. But nothing they cast alters the scream by a decibel.

Felix closes his eyes, unable to face the bed. He cannot watch Juniper make that terrible noise; doesn't want to connect that sound with her. He stands entirely frozen as the scream drags on, fighting the urge to cover his ears or run from the room entirely, until a forceful hand grips his shoulder and shakes him.

"What's happened?"

Felix recognises the voice distantly.

"She... she started screaming," he answers, his own voice coming to him from far away.

There's a snort of exasperation. "Yes, that's obvious, but what did they do? How did they wake her?"

When Felix doesn't answer, the hand shakes his shoulder again, the force rattling his teeth. It clears Felix's head just enough for him to focus on the disfigured man from before. He's staring intently at Felix with his normal eye, the strange blue one rolled back in his head. Beyond him, Felix catches sight of Professor Snape hunched over the bed next to the frantic healers.

"Answer me! What-"

The man breaks off abruptly, and a different sort of ringing fills Felix's ears. It's a few seconds before he recognises the sound as silence. The screaming has stopped. Ignoring the man in front of him, Felix cranes his neck so he can see to the bed where Juniper has fallen back against the pillow. Panic reasserting itself, he tries to push forward, but the man has Felix's shoulder in a vice.

"You! Boy! You were supposed to be guarding her. What happened? She didn't just wake up like this on her own."

"Yes, she did," Felix snaps. "I mean, she just started screaming, I don't know if she was awake. Her brother said-"

"Jacob Windsong was here?" Both the man's eyes are on Felix now, and even Snape has whipped around in alarm.

"Yes. He came to see Juniper. He-" Felix draws a shaky breath, trying to collect his thoughts, still scattered by the unearthly scream. "He said he could help her. That he knew what curse was cast on her."

The man shakes Felix again, this time in eagerness. "What did he say the curse was? How did he counter it?"

Felix steps back, wrenching his shoulder away from the heavily scarred man.

"He didn't say."

"He didn't say what the curse was or he didn't say how to counter it?"

A dull throb has sprung to life in Felix's temple, and he rubs at his forehead in weary frustration.

"Neither. He didn't...didn't say anything specific."

The man's blue eye rolls madly in its socket. "You didn't ask him? You let him cast a spell on Windsong and didn't bother to ask what it was?"

Felix can feel the embarrassment crawl across his face, but doesn't answer, just digs his heels against his eyes until he sees stars.

The man utters a low sound of disgust and limps heavily to the bed, edging between the trainee healers to get a better look at Juniper. Snape takes the man's place in front of Felix, his expression hard and calculating.

"Did Jacob Windsong say anything else?"

Felix has no desire to recount his conversation with Juniper's brother, so he shakes his head.

"Nothing important." Snape's eyes flash dangerously, and Felix hastens to add. "He said...he just said he was trying to keep Juniper safe. From R."

"For all we know it wasn't even the Windsong boy," calls the other man from the bedside. "Could have been any one of the outfit in disguise, and this idiot wouldn't know the difference."

Irritation pulses against Felix's skull.

"As a matter of fact, I thought of that as well. But he knew things that only the real Jacob Windsong would know."

"Did he now?" asks the man condescendingly.

"Yes," Felix insists. "It was him. I'm sure of it."

The man merely makes a rough sound in the back of his throat, a laugh or a hacking cough. He throws himself into the armchair now pressed against the wall to make more room around the bed. One of the trainee healers moves as well, busying himself over the bedside table, and Felix catches sight of Juniper. She's still, but breathing regularly.

"What did you do her? Why was she screaming? Will she be alright?"

Felix directs his question at the healers, but it's Snape who answers him.

"They have given her a Draught of Peace, but we do not know any more than you, Mr Rosier. It is still unclear what curse she was under or why she was unresponsive. Are you sure Jacob Windsong didn't-"

"Rosier? Did you say Rosier?"

The scarred man stands slowly, both eyes fixed unblinkingly on Felix.

"You wouldn't be related to the late Evan Rosier, now, would you?" he asks, gnarled hand clenching around his wand.

"He was my cousin," answers Felix, confused by this strange change of subject.

What's left of the man's nose seems to quiver in unspeakable rage, as he draws himself up to full height.

"Well now. That's one mystery solved. No wonder he couldn't ask any pertinent questions." He advances on Felix with a menacing limp. "He's probably in league with R, himself. Sent here by the lot of them to keep tabs on her, were you?"

Felix retreats against the wall to keep the man's wand from poking him in the chest. He's so taken aback, it's several seconds before he feels fear, and another before he feels anger. There's no time to formulate a scathing retort, however, before Snape steps between them. He holds his wand at his side casually, but Felix notices the Professor's knuckles are white.

"Moody, I can assure you Mr Rosier is not in league with R."

Felix can see the man's lips move in response, but his ears have stopped working.

"Moody?" he repeats, his exhausted brain trying to call up the meaning associated with the name. "Mad-Eye Moody?"

And Felix remembers. His father white as a sheet, his mother sobbing, ministry officials delivering the news impassively. Felix isn't sure how he feels. All he can think of is what his father would say if he knew he was the same room as the man who killed Evan.

"Yeah, that's right, boy." Moody's mouth twists into a grotesque sneer. "Know who I am, do you? Surprised you and your Death Eater family don't have my picture up for target practice."

It isn't the first time Felix has heard an accusation like this, not by a long shot. But it's been so many years, it takes a moment for the old indignation and shame to uncoil within him, like an aged dragon.

"I am not a Death Eater," he seethes, voice shaking.

"We'll soon find out." Moody retorts, and makes a grab for Felix's left arm. Snape steps in front of the scarred hand, and for a moment the two men glare at each other, wands half-raised.

"Please, not in here," says a timid voice from near the bed. One of the trainee healers wrings his hands nervously as he watches the scuffling men by the door. "I'm... I'm afraid I...I must insist you take this outside. This patient is still seriously injured. She needs...to rest." The trainee grips the bedstead to support his weight, as if this short speech has drained him of all energy.

Moody takes a step a back, glowering at Felix and Snape. He's breathing hard, whereas Felix isn't sure he can breathe at all.

"Get out," demands the auror.

"What? No!" protests Felix. "I haven't done anything wrong, you can't-"

His argument is cut short by Snape, who grabs Felix's upper arm and pulls him from the room, releasing him only when the door is shut firmly behind them. Felix stumbles, rubbing at his bruised arm.

"Professor, I swear, I made sure it was Jacob Windsong. I didn't just let anyone waltz in here. And he woke her up, didn't he? He helped her! I-"

"Mr Rosier," Snape interjects. "No one is doubting your devotion to Miss Windsong. But there is nothing more you can do for her now. You've been here nearly an entire day, and if I'm not mistaken, you have an important interview in the morning. I suggest you take some time to... " He eyes Felix's wrinkled robes and uncharacteristically disheveled hair: "Prepare yourself."

Felix blinks. He turns automatically to the window for some indication of the time. The streaky glass reveals darkness, though Felix isn't sure it can be trusted to show the sky's actual appearance since it's secretly a door. He hasn't thought to check the time once since he's been here, has entirely forgotten the world outside the hospital room. None of it seems of any importance in light of Juniper's peril. But this job at the Romanian Reserve is a rare opportunity. And if he misses his interview, there's no knowing when the position will come available again.

As if he can read Felix's thoughts, Snape adds, "I doubt very much whether Miss Windsong would appreciate if you missed your interview on her account." And Felix cannot argue against that.

"I'll come back. After the interview." It's a statement, not a request.

Snape arches an eyebrow but makes no other response. Felix takes a reluctant step back.

"And if something were to happen to her before then...would you...let me know?"

The Potions Master's slow blink is his only indication of assent.

Felix takes another step, then pauses, shuffling his feet. His fingers come up to trace the scar on his neck unconsciously.

"Professor." Felix meets Snape's eyes imploringly. "I'm not any of the things he said. Moody. I'm not - I'm not a Death Eater."

Snape's face is still entirely inscrutable, but he gives the smallest of nods as he answers, "I know, Felix."


*A/N: This is a reference to one of the last bits of the Quidditch Season 1 storyline (which I'm aware is technically supposed to take place in MC's second year, but which in my story is moved to her third.) The title of the article is my own invention.
**A/N: Reference to my Felix Rosier backstory Four Things Felix Rosier Remembered.