AN: Another month, another chapter. Enjoy!
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Vandalism
Lily was laying on her back on the floor of Severus' flat, legs up on the couch, a glass of white wine next to her. Visiting her friend on his birthday the first time after they had had their fallout in school felt strange and good at the same time.
"Why exactly are you here today and not somewhere romantic with Regulus?" Lily smiled, lazily moving her hand back and forth on the carpet.
"Because I invited you here today." Severus answered, his usual bite only slightly touching on his tone.
"You could have invited him instead." She wasn't going to let herself be distracted quite so easily.
"He is visiting some distant relative on the continent. Pass me the wine, it's the least you can do while being this nosy." Severus was sitting, legs crossed before him, at the other end of the couch, leaning back comfortably.
He was closer to the wine bottle than Lily was, but she had her wand close by. So she picked it up and cast a silent Wingardium Leviosa at the bottle. Severus deftly caught the bottle out of the air and filled his glass once more.
"So you want me to pretend there is no second toothbrush at the edge of the sink in your bathroom?" Teasing her friend was way too much fun for Lily to cease doing so anytime soon.
Severus groaned. "Why am I your friend again?"
Lily just laughed at him.
Then she smiled.
"I'm happy for you, Severus." Lily turned so she was facing Severus from her position on the floor. "So I'll make sure the two of you sit next to each other at the wedding?"
"Could I stop you?" Severus clearly meant this to be a rhetorical question as he didn't wait for her to answer. "So you have picked a place for the festivities?"
"Yes." And she was so very glad that they had. "Your idea didn't work out. The places were to similar. But Filius asked us if we would use Potter Manor. It's by far the best option. No one will be able to claim favouritism and we'll have more control over basically everything."
"You'll just have to be prepared for the old gossips and the rag that calls itself a newspaper to find fault with you marrying the man you cheated on your husband with in your late husbands home." Her friend warned, taking a sip from his wine.
"They are going to find something to criticise us anyway. We can't really do anything about it."
Tom had fantasied about killing one of the worst offenders as a warning to the others while they were making plans a few days back. If Lily hadn't known him as good as she did by know, she might have feared that he was serious.
"True." Severus said with a nod of his head. "Talking about newspapers, have you seen what happened in Europe over Yule?"
Lily sat up, she indeed had read that particular article over breakfast that morning. "I can't believe someone would do something like that." She crossed her legs in front of herself and picked up the wine glass. "Who do they think they will convince of their goals that way? Everyone for whom the places are important won't react well to them being defiled." Lily felt herself flush in anger, her voice rising.
Severus' face was sombre, his own anger well hidden. If Lily hadn't known him as well as she did she would have been fooled as well. "I don't think that they planned to convince anyone of anything by toppling standing stones, cutting down a sacred grove, or throwing slaughtered animals into that one holy spring." Severus' eyes were almost spitting fire and his voice was laced with contempt. "Just as any other terrorist they want to inspire fear, contaminate important places with fear and bad recollections."
Lily pursed her lips. "And they did attack the sacred nature of those places as well. Didn't they?" It hadn't been mentioned in the paper, but Tom's face had clued her in without the need of any spoke words. Most rituals, festivals, and prayers to honour Magic could be performed just about anywhere. Or at simple shrines, altars and the like. The biggest and most important celebrations on the other hand always took place in sacred places. This attack was more than a prank. Whatever some might claim.
Severus nodded, and then emptied his glass in one big swallow.
Seeing as there was nothing the two of them could do right now, and there was nothing to be gained by brooding and rehashing this over and over again, Lily took a deep breath. "Let's talk about something happier, shall we?"
Severus gave her a sceptical look. "And you are convinced that there is a topic that will distract us from the terrorism on the continent?"
"Yes!" Lily grinned when Severus's expression switched to one of worry. "How was your first date with Regulus out in the open?"
Severus rolled his eyes at her. "You are way too predictable, Lily."
"I'm not trying to be mysterious, Sev. Come on! Tell me!"
He snorted, moved around on the couch to find a more comfortable position, before he started to talk. "We went to Madam Puddifoot's. Regulus was over the moon." Sev looked over to her a soft smile on his face. Lily loved to see her friend this happy.
"Thank you for that suggestion." He narrowed his eyes at her. "Even as the place is too pink, the tea over steeped and too sweet, and way too many students around, Regulus loved it."
Lily pestered her friend until he had recounted the whole afternoon for her before she reluctantly said goodbye to return home.
Finally home in the Headmaster's tower, Lily slipped out of her shoes and walked down the corridor and into the living room.
Tom was stretched out on the carpet in front of the fireplace, Nagini draped over him and Harry playing silently next to his father.
Lily smiled at the picture before her. Walking into the room, she saw first Nagini turn her head and flick out her tongue before Harry looked over to her too.
"Mum!" He shout whispered, waving with one hand still holding one of the colour changing building blocks he was playing with. "Dad is sleep. Not loud."
"I'll be quite." Lily smiled, her little boy could be so earnest, it was just too cute. "Did you have a nice day?" she walked over to sink down to sit on the carpet.
"Yes!"
Harry, not yet three years old, wasn't as quite as he had reminded Lily to be and therefore had woken Tom, who was lazily blinking up at her, a smile forming on his face.
"That's great my little bear." Lily said, accepting the block Harry handed to her.
"Not a bear!" Was Harry's indignant reply.
"What are you then, Harry?"
"A snake!" Tom chuckled and then hissed at Nagini, making her move.
"Our little snake!" Tom exclaimed, sitting up and sweeping Harry up into the air in one motion.
The whole situation escalated from there, leading to tumbling, running, chasing, and climbing all over their rooms.
It was considerably later when Harry finally was in bed, sleeping peacefully, that Lily and Tom curled up together in front of the fire.
"While you were away an owl arrived for you." Tom said, sounding content and sleepy. "I placed the letter on your desk."
Lily nodded, snuggling deeper into Tom's side. "And there it can stay until the morning." There was no way she would get up for a letter now that she was so comfortable.
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They had elected to have breakfast in their own quarters today, as Harry had had a rough night – waking several times due to some nightmares – leaving them all rather tired and grumpy.
Subjecting the whole Great Hall with their mood had seemed unkind.
Not to mention that the great number of students – and staff – would grate on their nerves as well.
"What has Remus written in his letter?" Tom decided to ask after Lily had opened, read, and folded the letter of her friend.
"That Sirius has contacted him via Patronus message."
Lily had the most adorable scowl on her face, but Tom knew better than to mention that in this situation. Instead he hummed to let her know he was following, even as he was currently chewing on some scrambled eggs.
"He has taken the initiative to call in a warder to re-enforce the wards around the property and especially the grove of old olive trees." Lily tried to sound all business like, but Tom knew her well enough to notice the slight tremble in her voice.
"That sounds very reasonable. Remus Lupin has proven to be a responsible and competent manager." Lily had made a good decision when offering the werewolf to escape to the Mediterranean.
"I simply wish it wouldn't be necessary." Lily sighed, placing the letter to the side, and smiling at Harry who was looking on with quite intensity. "Do you like your eggs, Harry?"
"I like eggs." Harry answered, nodding. "Tomatooss?"
"You can get a few tomatoes as well."
And like that the topic was closed. Not that Tom had anything against a drastic topic change. This was their family time, no need to fill it with too much serious talk, distracting them from spending time with Harry. There would be enough time to talk later in the day.
And so they talked about the plans for their day instead. Lily's plan to start her students on a new shorter project combining runes, arithmancy, and charms to create a small toy, sounded like a lot of fun, and Tom found himself making several suggestions for Lily to use, if one of the children couldn't think of something.
His plans involved a meeting with his people to organise some measures to protect other sacred sides around Europe, and maybe track down the people responsible.
After a long time Tom stood in his whole Dark Lord getup in the big gathering hall of Headquarters, waiting for his people to arrive.
It didn't take long and then Tom started the meeting.
"You all have now learned about the atrocities that happened on the continent just after the yule holidays."
An angry murmur want through the room, and Tom gave them a moment to settle down again.
"Among you are those who have money they can offer to the communities who are affected, so they will be able to repair what is possible to repair. Or to pay warders to put protections around the remaining sides."
Tom let his eyes sweep over the assembled wizards – he really had recruited rather biassed – making eye contact with those people he had been referring to. Abraxas, the elder Nott, Greengrass, the Carrows.
From most of them he got a slight incline of the head. Order received and understood.
"The warders among you should offer your services to those among our community in charge of the sacred sides here on the Isles. While they have attacked places on the continent, we can't assume that they will not target sides here." He did another sweep over the crowd, getting another round of silent acknowledgements.
"I also will send out some groups to track the terrorists. Everyone who has the time to take part in that endeavour please stay behind." He would need to organise the groups, where they would go, and who to contact on the continent. Stepping on anyone's toes would not do, after all.
After Tom had finished dealing with the younger members of his organisation who had volunteered to help in the hunt and catch parties he went back to his office. He wanted to get out of his dark robes before going home and sort through the mail and reports now that he was here already.
Entering the office he spotted Abraxas, sitting in one of the visitor chairs, reading a small book. It was on poetry as far as Tom could see.
"Did I forget that we had something to talk about?" Tom asked, starting to undo the ties on his sleeves.
"No." His friend answered, closing the book and slipping it into a pocket of his robes. "But I think you need to unwind a little."
Tom snorted. And wasn't that the truth?
"So, I decided to ask you to come over for a few practice duels." The smirk remembered Tom of their time at school. Abraxas had always been up for some duelling back then.
"Yes." Tom agreed in relief. "I very much would like to duel for practice."
When Tom returned to Hogwarts later that day he was tired but content. He had needed that opportunity to burn of some of his pent up energy.
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My left wrist is doing a lot better. Still not completely fine again, but typing is almost as easy as it was before. Which will make writing a lot more fun again!
First published on 10th of June 2022
Next chapter scheduled for 8th of July 2022