Chapter Seventy-Six
Afterwake
"Harry."
Harry clenched his eyes closed. As much of an expert as he had become falling asleep in hospital chairs and as exhausted as he was from spending all night helping with clean up, he was still having trouble ignoring Sirius Black's voice attempting to wake him up. Sirius gently hit his arm with the back of his hand.
"Harry!" Sirius said again, raising his voice a bit louder and succeeding in getting a 'ssh' sound from a passing nurse. "Harry, look!"
Harry reluctantly opened his eyes and found himself staring at Sirius Black's bare arm and had to blink a couple of times to focus.
"I don't see anything wrong with it," Harry murmured tiredly.
"That's just it. The tattoo is gone," Sirius said.
Harry was slightly confused for a moment, remembering Sirius had gotten rid of them all. Then he remembered why Sirius had a new tattoo and sat up at last, rolling up his sleeve as far as it would go. His lion tattoo had faded into nothing, leaving only a shadow of residual that had built up on his skin.
"Wait... does this mean? Did you do it?" Harry asked. Sirius sighed with exasperation.
"I've been trapped all night in a cursed Big Wheel with a kid having nightmares about being kidnapped by a circus. Have you any idea how hard it is to convince a kid he's having a nightmare when his nightmare involves something that was actually happening to him?" Sirius asked. "Come on. Let's go get you some coffee and see if Rel's is gone too."
"Won't that be subtle? Rel's tattoo takes up most of his back," Harry said, getting up and stretching.
"Worse, he'll be sitting in the Snape corner of the cafeteria," Sirius said.
"Most of them are at Alex's house," Harry pointed out.
"Most, but not all of them. Come on," Sirius said. "Act casual as we go in there, which shouldn't be hard, considering you really do look like you need a cup of coffee. How good are you with Truth Seekers?"
"Good enough. I can do it," Harry said.
They quieted down until they got down the hall, stepping inside. Sure enough, Aurelius was sitting with a cup of coffee next to his father and Minerva, and none of them looked very awake. Harry walked over to them.
"Hi," Harry said. "How are you doing, Rel?" he asked. Aurelius blinked at him.
"I need to go to the loo," Rel said and got up quickly, walking out of the room.
"Too much coffee," Sirius surmised, sitting down by Minerva. "So how's Jennifer doing?"
"Still asleep," Severus replied. "She was given a potion for a full night's rest around eleven-thirty, so she should be waking up at any time," he said, checking his watch. "In fact, if you don't mind keeping Minerva company, I'd like to go check on Maurice and see if he'll let me relieve him so I'll be there when she wakes up. I'd rather she hear it from me."
"Absolutely," Sirius agreed, fishing a small pouch of tanna bark out of his jacket while Minerva poured him some hot water.
Not long after Severus stepped out, Aurelius came back in. He glanced at Harry, who stepped over to him.
"Well?" Harry whispered.
"It's gone. Nothing but reddened skin left," Aurelius reported, Harry nodding to him at that. "He's dead, he's got to be. That's the only thing that would make those cursed tattoos fade."
"Yes, but how? And who? And now what?" Harry asked. Aurelius pondered.
"Don't really care, don't really care, and now we figure out how to prove he's dead without not really caring about the first two," Aurelius said.
"And what's going to happen to Malfoy Industries?" Harry pondered. "He's got no living relatives except..."
"Yeah. Except," Aurelius repeated seriously.
Harry walked over to Minerva and Sirius, who were debating on whether or not it would be possible to cultivate tanna trees on this side of the portal.
"Has anyone seen Lunette this morning? Wait, better question. Does she even know what all went down last night yet?" Harry asked.
"I'm sure Anna contacted Lunette about what happened to Ben, but I'm not sure how much she said about everything else," Sirius replied. "Still, knowing how she feels about Jennifer, I wouldn't be surprised if she shows up here soon."
"Why are my ears burning?"
They looked up as Vallid walked in with a venti cappucino, glancing around.
"They needed a lawyer," Sirius improvised.
"Why, did you do it?" Vallid asked Harry and Aurelius. Minerva tilted her head slightly, wondering what she was missing.
"No, but we still need a lawyer," Harry said.
"Yeah, okay. Let's go see if we can steal a consultation room or something. How's Jennifer?" Lunette asked.
"Still asleep," Aurelius reported.
"Some people really have all the luck," Lunette said, leading them back out again.
When Severus leaned over to kiss Jennifer awake, she jumped so harshly that he immediately regretted it.
"No, no... it's me, Jennifer. I'm so sorry," Severus said, immediately calming her. "I didn't mean to startle you. I wont do that..." he caught himself before he could say 'again', realizing just how big of a wedge that would create between them. "Today," he finished weakly.
"Severus, I'm sorry," she said, feeling just as bad for jumping as he did for making her jump. "Kiss me again?" she suggested.
But when they kissed a second time, as warm and heartfelt as it was, it left them both feeling awkward as well. When he gazed at her afterwards, she saw how many questions he had that he was too afraid to ask.
"I'm alright, Severus," Jennifer reassured him with a smile. "Especially now that I'm back where I belong. And since it's morning and I'm still alive, I suppose you must have freed me from the curse. I knew you would."
"Technically, Harry freed you from the curse, although it's possible that I may have been there," Severus replied. "And I may have had to do a bit of temporal manipulation to make certain he was there at the right moment to do the job."
"Well, I trust Harry with my life too, more than anyone else but you, although my bond with Harry is different, of course," Jennifer replied. "Do you remember those long stories about the RBF that Ace Bellamy used to go on about?"
"And on and on, how he used to bore us with them, but what does that have to do with anything?" Severus asked.
"He used to tell stories about two friends he had, but they were more than that, because they kept pulling each other out of situations the other would died if they hadn't been so close. It's like that," Jennifer explained. "We're like war buddies, except we've never been in a war."
"The two of you have been in a war since the first time you both stepped foot into Hogwarts," Severus informed her. "And as such, I see it now. It makes perfect sense."
"So what have I been missing? What's been going on since I got stuck in that circus?" Jennifer asked.
"That depends on how much you know from being in the circus. Did you hear about the Hogwarts breach?" he inquired.
"What? Severus, I wasn't in a position to hear anything. Not long after I signed the circus contract, they dipped me in a vat of that clown makeup and stuck me in a vampire's coffin for most of the time I was there. What Hogwarts breach?" she asked insistently while he was still trying to recover from the thought of her being in such a situation.
"Those clockwork toys... apparently it wasn't just the augury items we should have been wary of. There were curses put in the metal alloy they were made out of," Severus explained, Jennifer putting her hand to her head for overlooking it. "They began hunting students down and dragging students off, as well as Laura when she tried to jump in. To her credit, there were less Ravenclaws taken than any other houses..."
"What was I thinking?" Jennifer exclaimed, angry at herself. "The moment that Oracle Ball proved to be a problem, I should have bought one of every single item on that entire table and ran tests on them to insure their safety."
"I'm kicking myself over that one as well, yes. We were so committed to the idea of refusing to do business with them that we overlooked basic precautions, and I did order staff and family not to buy anything from that booth," Severus said.
"Well, I feel very silly about it now," Jennifer said.
"I share your sentiment," Severus agreed. "Toby's wooden animals were the only things fighting them off, but there weren't enough of them to go around. We had to evacuate the castle since there was no way to insure that we had them all. There's a Ministry team going through the castle to root out the last of them at this very moment, with detectors that can pick up that cursed alloy that was used to make them. Once they give their stamp of approval, we'll be busing the students back from the Craw Mansion. As for the ones that were kidnapped, they were all safely rescued. Not long after I arrived at the circus to confront Mirage, help began to show up from all over. There were Aurors, LE Officers, and Agents there to help, not to mention Worley Maxen and one of Bagman's men, as well as Dumbledore and his friends. Even Aunt Viviane showed up and carted the Green Lady and her brood off, but what she did with them after that, I have no idea.
"Oh, and not long after Harry and I climbed the hill after taking out Mirage, we saw the oddest mechanical wolf you ever did see, made of pots and pans and patrolling the circus grounds, while helping the Enforcers root out circus troupers loyal to Mirage. Apparently, Tolly Tidwulf and Penwiggle took offense to their clockworks being turned into weapons and staged their own revolt, sabotaging the giant clockworks and gathering up all of the circus performers that were fed up with the curses and fear. Not only did they fight along side us as we rounded up the rest of Mirage's followers, but they also showed us where the circus had been hiding all of the clowns. A great many of the clowns weren't there voluntarily. Some were being held against their will by curses, while others were being mentally controlled by the circus vampire. Thanks to Doctor Cusp, a good dozen of them had been his puppets after receiving vampire bites... many of which, you'll be interested to know, came from the Daily Prophet."
"Including Colin Creevy?" Jennifer asked.
"Yes, including Colin, he's down the hall with a whole bunch of others, getting treatment for those bites. They have very little recall of anything that happened after Spanx and Cusp kidnapped them, and they were quite dazed and confused to find themselves in clown makeup when Owain rescued them. Cusp himself didn't survive the morning. Draco made it perfectly clear that there was enough evidence on scene to condemn him as a hostile vampire and ordered Owain to tie him up and let the sun take care of him," Severus said.
"That vampire war really did a number on vampire rights, didn't it?" Jennifer admitted.
"I'm sorry, but under the circumstances, I sympathize with Draco's stance on this," Severus confessed.
"What happened to Pyther? Is he alright? The last time I saw him, they put him in that Wheel ride," Jennifer asked.
"Pyther knew the Big Wheel was cursed and that he needed to get out as quickly as possible, so he managed to cut his finger enough that he could draw an image of a castle with his own blood and got himself out of there. Apparently, Pyther's strong sense of survival was much stronger than his fear of seeing blood and he was able to escape. However..." Severus glanced away then, attempting to give him a moment to think of his wording. "We did lose someone in that Wheel, Jennifer."
Jennifer frowned at that, seeing how reluctant he was to speak of it to her.
"A family member?" Jennifer asked, feeling her stomach drop.
"Yes. I wasn't quite ready to tell you yet, really. I wanted to fill you with all of the good news first, but here we are," Severus said quietly. "Part of the curse of the Wheel is that when someone left the ride, it would kill someone in the other carriages. The two trapped in the carriage were forced to choose who it would be, but if they refused to choose, the curse kills both," he explained, finally facing her again. "Before we knew details of the Big Wheel's curses and had any way of stopping it, it landed on Ben and Alex's carriage. The two of them refused to budge, unwilling to see the other die, and the carriage filled with a gaseous potion. But after Alex passed out from it, Ben somehow managed to break the right antidote potion and gave her an Elixir to help her survive long enough for it to work. She woke up in the carriage with Albus attempting to get her out, and with Ben dead at her side, still holding her hand."
Jennifer burst out in tears. Severus drew her in his arms in a futile attempt to try to comfort her, her bawling so loud that it rang through the halls. Doctors, nurses, family and friends looked up at the the sound, then glanced at each other, knowing who it was and what had happened.
Up at the vineyard, Owain and Ginger had their work cut out for them, leading a team of investigators and officers from the Ministry Morgue as they sorted out the dozens upon dozens of corpses buried in the far corner of the property. They used magic to carefully exhume each one and lay them out in a row, carefully checking over every detail they could. Owain and Ginger went down the line with a long scroll hovering in air above them and a Dictation Quill at the ready.
Owain touched him with a gloved hand, closing his eyes a moment.
"Marco Barone, twenty-two. Born in Lazio," Owain reported, the Quill writing it down.
"Sudden death... Unforgivable Death Curse, more than likely," Ginger reported, then followed Owain to the next one.
"Hakun Bremmer, forty-three, Copenhagen," Owain said.
"Possibly blunt force trauma, fractured skull... needs further review," Ginger said, and one of the investigators helpfully moved it out of the way.
"Matthew Rayburn, thirty-five, Kettering," Owain said.
"Asphyxia, likely Life Deprivation Curse," Ginger reported. Watching from the outskirts of the investigation area, Adam Hinge pulled his hood up over his head.
"Maya Portelli, thirty-seven, Malta," Owain said.
"Hypothermia... can you put her over there with the others?" Ginger asked, and someone solemnly lifted the body over to the others who had died from the cold.
No one else spoke as the names were called out, listening in shock as they went through them one by one. Even when Thomas came to get an update from Thatcher, he made certain to walk far enough away that their soft voices wouldn't interrupt Owain and Ginger's calling of their names.
It wasn't even interrupted when Minister Malfoy walked over with a hand-picked committee he formed to speak at the next Wizard Council meeting. Each one of them, from trusted advisers to Ministers, from legal counsel to esteemed writers of Wizardday Publishing, had... at one point or another... come up to him with a comment or complaint about how the LE Ministry had been overreacting to the presence of the circus, often with a few complaints about Hogwarts and Professor Snape's paranoia for good measure.
Some of them had thought about pointing out that most of them were circus performers, but didn't, knowing it still didn't excuse it. Others who had been looking to place the blame on the school for student negligence realized that none of the children had been a Hogwarts student. But most of them were too stunned to think much at all, having trouble simply grasping the extent of what they were seeing.
"Huh. I guess you were right all along," Draco said out of the blue. The committee, some of them straining to hear all of the names clearly, frowned at the interruption and looked over at him. "We were being overly cautious, paranoid even. There's no evidence of any wrong doing, and what happened back then doesn't matter in the slightest... because if you believe hard enough that history won't ever repeat itself, then it won't, right? After all, we've come a long way since then, haven't we?" Draco asked before stepping away, leaving them with their own thoughts.
Frank Byrd stepped up and knocked on the door to the Clemmons' house, and it was Alicia who opened the door.
"Oh, hi, Frank, Asher, Raymond. Come on in, but be warned, my sister is handling this like a Snape, and that's not a good thing," Alicia said in a low voice.
"We don't know how you do things over here, but we brought a cold cuts tray and a case of his favorite beer, so if we're breaking some taboo or something..." Frank said.
"Come on in. Nobody's going to turn it down in this house... except my uncle, when it comes to the beer," Alicia said, showing them in to the rather full living room.
Sitting at the open bar, Alex looked at them as they entered with a rather dark expression indeed.
"Why is it that everyone suddenly knows where my house is?" Alex snapped angrily.
"We've been over here many times, actually," Raymond replied. "You've just never been home."
Alex got up, glaring at them fiercely before storming off down the hall.
"She'll be back. She's been doing that a lot," Alicia reassured them, closing the door behind them.
"I'm glad she'll be back, because we wanted to talk to her about Ben's wake," Frank said.
"And life celebration," Asher put in.
"Yeah, that. We want to help set it up," Frank said solemnly. Alicia looked a bit confused, while Corey and Doug looked over thoughtfully at them.
"A wake? I'm all for that. Maybe I'll quit breastfeeding early..." Lucky said, Dale giving her a gentle nudge.
"Come on in, sit down and tell us what you had in mind," Alicia said. "Because as far as I know, we were setting up for a normal funeral."
"Ben didn't want that. He told us he wanted anything but that," Raymond informed her. "He said he even mentioned it in his will. He told us he changed it because some sort of spy war that went on here or something, and that he was sick of going to funerals."
"Aunt Anna? Wouldn't he have filed that with Lunette?" Corey asked.
"She's at the hospital at the moment, but I can pop over to her office and get a copy real quick," Anna volunteered, setting down her coffee cup before Disapparating.
"It won't take her long," Corey said. "She can Apparate over oceans."
"But... isn't she expecting or something? That's not good for the baby," Asher said concernedly.
"It's an Aethermage thing. She's a bit weird that way," Corey said.
"Our whole family is weird," Alicia said dryly.
"Where are Jay and Rus?" Frank asked.
"Over at the Craw Mansion with a dozen family members and hundreds of Hogwarts students. But don't worry, they're being looked after. Conner and Lindsay Donovan are also over there helping out," Corey explained.
"What's going to happen to them long term, though?" Raymond asked concernedly. "Ben was their main caretaker, and to be perfectly frank, their mother doesn't have enough time to spare to help them through this."
"Our parents are taking them in," Alicia said, and everyone noticed the three wizards' shoulders relax dramatically at that.
"We're very happy to hear that," Raymond said out loud.
"Yes. They're very good, understanding parents," Asher agreed.
"You know, for a long period of my life, I would have argued that point," Alicia told them bluntly. "But you're right," she admitted, glancing at Corey who was smiling softly at that. "We were damned lucky to have them."
Anna Apparated back to the same spot she had left from with a folder in hand.
"I'm back," Anna announced, everyone glancing over at her as she held up the folder. "And they're right. No funerals. He wanted a party, along with a no-ceremony cremation with his ashes spread near Haven's Bluff."
"Is there anything in there about who he wanted to look after the boys?" Corey asked her, and she flipped to the right page.
"First choice, Severus and Jennifer, followed by Aurelius and Ginger, followed by Corey and Rose," Anna replied, glancing over at them. "It looks like he wanted Rus to have access to a Truth Seeker parent, or..."
"Or a parent who had gone through losing loving parents," Corey finished, leaning in his chair and pushing back his hair. "God, he was such a good father to them."
"So, who wants to explain all of this to Alex?" Anna asked seriously. "Do you want me to go back there? I can show her the will and be up front about it, if you think that's going to be the best approach."
"No, Aunt Anna. If you do that, she'll just go further into the, 'I'm the Minister of Mysteries and I can't afford to show weakness' stage that she's currently in," Corey said, getting up. "She's too much like Dad in that respect. Here, hand it to me. I may be able to get through to her Mom side. I'll water proof it and bring an umbrella just in case I do. And guys?" he added, glancing back at Frank, Raymond, and Asher. "You three are in charge of the party. You're his mates, and the fact that the three of you know more about what he wanted more than we did proves you're the ones that should put this together. You good with that?"
"Sure, if you can find us a location for it and get the word out to everyone who needs an invite, we can take care of the rest," Frank agreed.
"Deal," Corey said, going to the back.
The next day, Severus entered the hospital with both Jennifer's cloak and one of her black dresses over one arm, gliding through the security checks until he got back to where Aurelius and Harry were sitting. They immediately grew quiet when Severus walked over to them.
"What are you two still doing here? I thought you'd be getting ready for the wake by now," Severus said. "Everyone's been released but Jennifer, and she is getting released in a few minutes. Morfinn said he wanted to discuss something with me, but he informed me that she's perfectly fine, so we'll both be over there."
"That's great news," Harry said. "Actually, there's something we wanted to talk to you about before Jennifer was released and decided this was going to be the easiest way to find you. Can you come into the consultation room for a moment?"
"Very well, if it's important," Severus replied.
"Actually it is, it's very important," Harry said. Severus frowned as they passed Jennifer's room and went inside, a bit surprised to see Lunette Vallid sitting at the desk and Sirius in a chair nearby.
"I see you caught him," Lunette said.
"What is this all about?" Severus asked as Harry shut the door. Lunette, Aurelius, and Sirius all looked at Harry, and Harry sighed at being voted spokesperson again.
"It's about Amadeus Longbottom, actually," Harry explained. "He's dead."
"In fact, we just got done with the paperwork this morning," Lunette agreed.
"Paperwork?" Severus repeated.
"Well, we can't find the corpse," Lunette explained. "We know from Owain that he wasn't buried in the vineyard, and all of the Malfoy properties have been gone through. The only reason that we know he's dead is that all of the flags have dropped off the boards in a manner that says his warrants are all invalid, and everyone who had a cursed tattoo with with his name on it have reported that they've completely faded away, including everyone in this room and Thomas as well."
"I wasn't even aware Thomas had one," Severus said.
"His didn't have an alarm on it that made sound like ours did," Harry explained.
"Mine didn't either," Sirius said, and Severus glanced in his direction. "I guess that temporary tattoo was even more temporary than I thought it was going to be."
"Anyway, since there are so many spells that can kill someone without a trace, things like missing tattoos as well as official Ministry documents behaving like someone is dead can be admissible as evidence to determine whether someone is dead or not, so we've been working to get all the paperwork filed to get him declared dead," Lunette said. "Thomas signed off on it right away, but Draco wanted to double check for any other explanations for tattoos fading like that... like erased memories or something... but there have been a lot of cases where something like that has happened and it didn't affect the paperwork in the same way. Draco finally signed off on his death certificate this morning, with plenty of witnesses since it's been determined that he's mentioned in the will."
"Fine, so he's dead. Good riddance. Shall we have a party for him as well?" Severus said evenly. "I don't see what this has to do with me, other than having one less thorn in my side."
"He was a lot more than that, Severus," Lunette warned, Severus glancing at her. "Amadeus was secretly obsessed with Jennifer to an extreme level. In fact, it's been the sole motivation for every dastardly thing he's done for at least the last twelve years, and probably longer than that."
Severus tried to put his hands on his hips, then realized he still had Jennifer's things under his arm and put them over a chair.
"Why am I just now hearing of this?" Severus asked.
"It was my idea, Severus," Harry said immediately, walking to the center of the room with a quick glance towards Aurelius. "Aurelius and I were on a case trying to identify a child's mother and discovered she was a witch with a similar name, height, and features as Jennifer. He had forced her to dye her hair and made her pretend to be Jennifer and intentionally got her pregnant. She tried to prevent it, only she got caught up in the Minute Alchemist scandal. Aurelius wanted to gut him right away, and to be honest, and I was close to doing the same thing myself, Azkaban or no Azkaban."
"As was I when I heard about it," Lunette said, and Sirius raised his hand.
"Late to the party, but me too," Sirius agreed. "I just confronted them about this a few weeks ago, when they started to get worried about how much Amadeus was getting involved with the circus."
Severus' expression darkened dramatically, and he felt his anger rise.
"Are you telling me," he paused, attempting to control the pulsing sensation he was feeling. "Are you telling me that the clown that was attempting to impregnate Jennifer was Amadeus?"
"We think so," Harry said. "Actually, I've been waiting to see Thomas' report on his interview with Jennifer to confirm it, but he's classified it and refuses to talk about it, pointing out that it's part of the circus investigation and that his department still had a long way to go in process all the individual reports coming in. Has she told you anything?"
"Of course not! She's not ready to talk about it yet. She still flinches sometimes when I hold her, as much as she tries not to," Severus snapped. "How could you, the people she trusts most in the world, keep something of this magnitude from me?"
"To save your family," Harry replied, matching his volume. "To make sure you didn't lose your cool and go after him when it would have put you in Azkaban, or worse! To take that burden ourselves so that you didn't have it, and to protect you from plots that probably would have made you snap had you heard about them! It was bad enough how many times I had to keep Aurelius from snapping from some of the things Amadeus pulled, Severus. I know damn well that I personally wouldn't have been able to stop you if you had known about them! The whole reason he joined the Four Horsemen was because Nelson was supplying him with Polyjuice Potions of her, and he wanted the Snape family Erased to get all of you out of the way so he could take Jennifer for himself! After the Four Horsemen thing when we realized he was going to be let off for his crimes, we intervened so that you wouldn't be subjected to his motives in the courtroom so that you wouldn't be tempted to murder him in front of everyone. We wanted him to face justice for everything he's done! No one wanted it more than us!" Harry shouted fervently. "But we weren't willing to risk your family or your sanity for it. We've been trying to protect your family from him for years now. And when we realized how deep Amadeus was getting in this circus thing, Lunette even quit her job to come over here and try to help us figure out what he was up to."
"I was planning on quitting soon anyway," Lunette admitted. "Unfortunately, we didn't realize that the clown makeup was also messing with the flag boards. We thought they were accurate. We didn't realize until everything blew up that he was actually spending a lot more time at the circus than we thought we was."
"Yeah, he was," Harry agreed somberly, staring Severus in the eye. "And the fact of the matter is, after all of our efforts over the last twelve years, we failed in the end. You have no idea just how sorry we are for that."
"Yes. So you did," Severus agreed, strangely calm. Since they had been expecting a more explosive response to their confession, all four of them stared at him in shock. "I understand everything now... it's all clear to me at last. You did do the right thing, you know. I forgive you for your failure, and hopefully, once the whole story is told, Jennifer will forgive you too. Craters, who am I fooling? Jennifer would probably forgive you even faster than I.
"Because when I think back twelve years ago and how I was behaving then, I realize why you wouldn't want to trust me with such information, Harry," Severus continued. "I was in the throes of a midlife crisis, and any twig in that bundle I was carrying could have made me snap... especially if I had learned that Amadeus was using women to put Jennifer into his sordid fantasies. Undoubtedly I would have ended up on a much darker road, even if I had managed to stay out of prison for carrying out my revenge. And considering everything that came after that point, from Lilueth to the Vampire Wars... I understand why you felt you had no choice in the matter but to keep this to yourselves. You were trying to protect Jennifer and my family. Moreover, you were trying to protect me," he said, shaking his head slightly at the strange words.
"Short of Jennifer herself, it has been quite some time since I felt as if anyone was going out of their way to protect me," Severus admitted. "After all, it is my job to protect everyone... my school, my family, even the blasted universe more often than not. And here I have been wasting so much time these last few months worrying about visions and predictions about losing my sanity, when all of you have had my back the entire time. In fact, my entire family has had my back the whole time, as well as all of my friends, from Bael to Albus, and my staff, from John to Hermione and even Mad Ick. Even lately, as I have been actively attempting to convince myself to have more faith in those around me, I managed to underestimate you at the same time," he acknowledged. "Of course, had this information come out under different circumstances, this conversation might have gone differently. If Jennifer hadn't successfully pulled a Mulligan when she chose to rewrite her fate, I may very well have gone mad. If Amadeus had succeeded and I had heard about this pact of yours afterwards, I may have turned on you, blaming you for what had happened because you kept this from me. Or perhaps not, we'll never know," Severus said with a thin smile. "Because once again, Jennifer managed to stack the cards in our favor." That was when he saw that Lunette's jaw had dropped. "Lunette, you aren't going to tell anyone of that stray thought I had just now, are you? It would be quite inadvisable," Severus warned.
"You mean I didn't read too much into that?" Aurelius asked.
"Lunette, Rel, you're both doing it again," Harry said with exasperation. "What are you talking about?"
"I wouldn't mind knowing myself," Sirius put in.
"Sorry, it's not for us to decide. It's not our secret," Lunette said seriously.
"Yes, that is true," Severus said with a nod. "However, I suppose we should include them in this new pact," he decided. "It might be nice to have some backup. And if there's one thing I've learned from this conversation, it is that I can depend on the four of you to keep a secret."
When the five of them came out of the room a few minutes later, Severus had to go back inside for Jennifer's dress and cloak before the five of them walked through the corridor towards her room. Morfinn Bliant was standing just outside the door impatiently, smiling when he saw them walking over.
"There you are! Jennifer's been getting quite wound up. She's not used to you being late," Morfinn said to Severus.
"Yes, sorry, we had some confidential business to take care of first," Severus replied.
"That'd explain why you came in from that direction," Morfinn Bliant said. "But I need to talk to you a minute about Jennifer's condition," he said, glancing back at the others.
"Whatever you can say to me about Jennifer, you can say to them. They are our most trusted friends," Severus replied.
"I see. Well, I have some... mixed news," Morfinn said cautiously.
"Go on," Severus said, frowning at how he worded that.
"Jennifer is in splendid health and completely cured of curses. In many ways, she's back to her old self again, although you might want her to see Conner for a bit..."
"That would be a challenge and a half, if not completely impossible," Severus said. "But?" Severus prompted, when Morfinn hesitated again.
"I can't get the potency potion out of her system. It seems to have changed her hormone levels somehow and nothing I've tried has altered it," Morfinn said. Severus stared at him. "Trying to give her anything like Oats Bane to change that situation hasn't really worked... I even tried giving her Pellet Potion style contraceptives and saw no improvement. Do you suppose she'd ever consider... I don't know... Muggle surgery?" he suggested. The four standing behind Severus shook their heads emphatically.
"Unlikely at best," Severus said evenly, not even noticing them.
"Ah. Well, then your best option at this point is probably waiting it out. You'll have to abstain for a bit until the potion finally runs its course and it sorts its way out of her system," Morfinn recommended.
"I see. For how long?" Severus asked.
"Oh, not all that long," Morfinn said carefully. "Just a few...well... maybe six or seven..."
"Days?" Severus asked, then saw his expression. Aurelius and Lunette were already behind him exchanging glances. "Not weeks," he said ominously.
"Months," Morfinn said. "Minimum." Severus stared at him. "To be perfectly honest, it'd probably be better if you waited twelve months. Just to be safe."
There was a long pregnant pause.
"So! Who wants to be first in the pool?" Sirius asked the others.
"A pool for possible birthdays, or one just to see how long they can hold out?" Lunette wanted to know.
"Ah, good point. Let's do both!" Sirius suggested cheerfully.
"Okay, but I get to pick that they don't last the week," Aurelius said drolly. Severus turned to face them.
"I'll ask you four to please keep this situation to yourselves, if you don't mind. And for the record, Jennifer and I came to an agreement several years ago that we were both quite done with that stage of our lives and that we are both ready to move on to other pursuits," Severus told them firmly.
"I believe you when you say you both made that decision in the past, Severus, but did you forget who it was who stacked the deck?" Lunette pointed out.
"Aurelius, if you don't mind covering for me... I'd like to handle this in my own time and way," Severus said.
"Don't worry, Father. I covered you the moment he said he couldn't cure the formula," Aurelius assured him.
"Thank you. I will see you all at the wake," Severus replied in a low voice.
"See you there," Harry agreed.
The four of them continued down the hall discussing likely dates while Severus afforded himself a long exhale before going in.
"There you are, Severus! What took you so long? Oh! You found my cloak!" Jennifer said with interest.
"Yes, Belinda helped Pyther locate your things. I have them all back, in point of fact..." he said, pointedly taking her locket out of her cloak pocket and handing it to her, receiving a warm smile as she put in back on. "And I brought the dress you wanted for the party."
"If only it was for another occasion," Jennifer said with a frown.
"Yes, I know," Severus said. "Let me get the door for you," he said.
"Thank you, Severus. I am going to be so glad to get out of this bed and into some real clothes again," Jennifer said emphatically as he closed the door, pulling some underclothes out of her cloak and removing her hospital robe. "So why were you lurking so long at the door, anyway? I noticed you talking to Morfinn... he ran all sorts of tests yesterday and hasn't been back inside this room since. It's just been nurses who don't seem to know what the tests were about. Is he trying to hide something from me?" Jennifer asked suspiciously.
"Don't worry, it isn't anything all that terrible," Severus assured her, leaning against the door and watching as she pulled her dress on.
"Did you want to help me with the back, Severus?" Jennifer asked.
"Always," Severus said, coming over as she pulled her hair out of the way. "Tell me, Jennifer. How would you feel if I went to Tir Na Nog for a week stay?" Jennifer gasped and turned her head stared at him.
"You're leaving me again?" Jennifer asked anxiously. "I'd be alone here for nearly a year!"
"I was just joking," Severus said unconvincingly after seeing her reaction.
"Well, it wasn't a very funny joke," Jennifer said critically. "And why can't I read you all the sudden?"
"I promise that I will tell you all about it tonight when we get back to the castle. Let's just get through this party, and we then we'll discuss it over dinner in my sitting room," Severus promised.
"And have a game along with it?" Jennifer inquired.
"Actually, if it's all just the same, I'd very much like to shelve Trial and Error for a while. After the last few days, I think we need a breather from it," Severus said firmly, leaving the last button undone. Jennifer turned and smiled at him, using her wand to finish putting her hair up so that they could leave.
Jay and Rus sat at one of the outdoor tables at the Craw Mansion, staring at the stage that Andrew had constructed. They watched as Doc Smith prepped his tables on one side of the stage while the Four Winds set up on the other, along with Dale, John, and several other volunteers from Dale's jazz class who had wanted to participate.
Albus and Wind Elk, who were walking the grounds, noticed the two boys sitting there while everyone bustled about to get ready, putting out food and drinks. And while they didn't change their pace or quiet discussion, they did change their path so that they walked past the boys' table.
"Good afternoon Jay, good afternoon, Rus," Albus said as they paused at the table. "I see you're watching the bands set up for tonight."
"Yes, it's all pretty weird, isn't it?" Jay said critically. "Having a party like this when we'll never see our father again."
"Might we sit down for a moment? We've been walking around the grounds and could use the rest," Albus suggested.
"Sure, why not," Jay said, and the two wizards sat down.
"I understand how difficult this is, Jay," Albus said quietly. "Your grandfather was the same age as you when he lost his parents, you know. I became his guardian so that he could finish school."
"Is that why grandfather is taking us in?" Rus asked curiously.
"I believe your grandparents are taking you in because you are family and they love you and want what's best for you," Albus replied. "And it isn't as if you are losing your mother. She will spend as much time as she can with the two of you."
"As much time as she can means barely none at all," Jay complained. "And I think it's stupid to have a party. And why are so many different people wanting to play music?"
"It is not as uncommon as you might think," Wind offered. "Many cultures, including mine, sing to honor the dead, protect their spirits, or help them find their way to the spirit world. Music is often thought to transcend the planes between the living and unliving, for it is a communication deeper than words and often comes from the heart."
The two boys stared at the stage again.
"Well, maybe that's true of some music. But the way they make music? I'm not so sure," Jay said with a frown, Albus and Wind smiling softly at that.
"What matters most is the music that exists in your hearts. Only you can decide what music is best for what's inside of you," Albus replied. "There are many times when it is easier to express our emotions of love, happiness, sadness, and yes, even loss, through music rather than through words."
"Yes, I very much agree," Wind said, then glanced around. "Ah, there's my little squirrel. Do you mind terribly if I leave you long enough to see Jennifer?"
"Not at all. I think I shall stay here and have some cocoa with the boys," Albus said.
Jay and Rus looked around, and sure enough, there was a silver cocoa service filled with steaming cocoa and enough cups for the three of them and anyone else who wanted to drop by.
Wind got up and went over to where Jennifer walked through the garden with Severus, immediately offering her a hug.
"There's my favorite student! I am so glad you could come. I've heard you've been through some trials," Wind said to Jennifer.
"Yes, but I'll mend," Jennifer assured him. "I was actually very lucky. A great many people got hurt worse than I did, to be perfectly honest. Although... well, it's caused a bit of a mental setback for certain." Jennifer admitted.
"May I ask about it?" Wind asked thoughtfully, glancing at Severus, who chose one of the longer paths to get around the garden.
"Well, you know better than just about anyone how Severus and I have been working to equalize our professional lives and our relationship over the last few years," Jennifer said, Wind nodding at that. "I had just gotten to the point where I was truly beginning to feel that. I was feeling.. more sure of myself, and was trusting my own decisions, and because of that, I was also feeling very optimistic that a day would come in the future where everyone would be judged by the weight of their own merits, and not by gender or anything else," she admitted. "And then, after the years it took for me to get there... those ideas were all taken away from me. In a few short hours... I'd lost all faith in them. It's nothing but a fantasy."
Wind Elk stood in front of her.
"It is not just a fantasy," Wind said sternly. "It may be one of those unobtainable goals that you must forever fight for, but it is most certainly something worth fighting for. You of all people should know that when you are pushed back from your goals, it becomes all the more important to get back on your feet and work past whatever obstacle is in your path and push beyond it. And then you refuse to look behind you, for only when we move forward and away from those who would stop those efforts will we achieve true progress." Jennifer looked down slightly with a tear in her eye, while Severus stood comfortingly behind her, listening. "There have been many, many times in my life when I have faced people who have done everything in their power to strip me of my humanity. They've tried to make me less than what they were, unworthy of the most basic of rights that so many take for granted. But it is their attempt at stripping away humanity which is the true lie, because no matter what horrible things they do, it does not, in truth, make a person any less human."
"Or more of one."
"Now, you know perfectly well that wasn't what I meant, Severus," Wind said, but it did cause Jennifer to smile a bit. "Do you understand what I am trying to say, Jennifer?"
"Yes," Jennifer said quietly.
"Good," he said. "I'm sure you'll get past this little obstacle in no time. Don't you think so, Severus?"
"I do now," Severus replied. "Thank you, Wind, for finding the words that I could not."
"We must all do our part in supporting each other as best we can, and accept support graciously when it is afforded to us," Wind replied.
"Was that directed at me?" Jennifer protested with a laugh.
"No, that one was directed at Severus," Wind explained, then glanced at Severus. "Albus was just telling me that Severus was beginning to truly understand that lesson."
"Yes, I am indeed," Severus agreed, and they stepped out of the garden and over to the pavilion.
Quintin got away from Sharon and Luke and ran over to greet them and get hugs, Jennifer especially holding him tight and giving him a firm kiss on the forehead before he dashed away again to play with Timmy, Jeremy, and his cousins. Wind went over to speak to them, but was soon replaced by Thomas, and even he seemed to be in a hugging mood.
"I'm glad they released you in time so that you could make it, Jen-girl," Thomas said.
"Yes, me too," Jennifer said.
"We do have a bit of a family situation, though," Thomas admitted seriously. "Alexandria went in the house a bit ago... see, most of your kids have been teasing Andrew about how Laura and he escaped the curse, calling him sleeping beauty and humming the waltz and the like to give him a hard time. It was meant as harmless sibling taunts, but Alex heard about it and hasn't come back out yet. I don't know if she's more upset about the fact it wouldn't have worked for her, or if it's because she feels guilty about being angry that they both survived it."
"I'd best go talk to her," Severus sighed.
"No, Severus. You stay, I'll go," Jennifer told him, then walked towards the house.
"Think she'll actually get through to Alex?" Thomas asked dubiously.
"No, not a chance, but I wanted to speak to you alone for a moment anyway," Severus said, taking a step further away from the pavilion and Thomas did the same. "Just what happened to Amadeus?"
"He died. Do you want to see his death certificate?" Thomas asked evenly.
"Yes, but how did he die?" Severus inquired.
"Who knows?" Thomas shrugged.
"I think you do, actually," Severus replied. "I think that you might have decided to save yourself some paperwork."
"Is that some sort of accusation?" Thomas asked. "On what evidence?"
"You know perfectly well there's no evidence."
"Then why are we having this conversation?" Thomas inquired. "Technically, there isn't any evidence of foul play, either." Severus gazed at him dubiously. "Nor has anyone filed a complaint that there might have been any indication of it. You know what? I'm going to go to the road to make sure Rus and Jay's Aunt Mary and Nana Mary Clemmons can get in here, being Muggles and all... I might have gotten the settings wrong or something..."
"I wonder, Thomas, if Amadeus had been arrested, just how much paperwork would it have been?" Severus asked.
"So much that it wouldn't have been worth the trouble," Thomas grunted, walking over to the road.
Deciding that was the closest thing he was ever going to get to a confession, Severus joined Viorica and Apollo by the stage, getting their instruments ready for their selection.
