Chapter Four: Picking up the pieces
Amethyst, Taja and Draco all got out of the hospital two days later. They were released with strict instructions to take it easy for one week.
Sirius took Taja home. She had taken the lightest beating of all of them, but she was still horribly sore. Sirius convinced her to let him stay.
"Taja, I will not lie and say I am not attracted to you." he said. "But right now I am more the concerned friend than wolf at your door."
Taja smiled. "Well, you can stay, but you better behave or I'll have to wup yo' ass."
Sirius backed up in mild shock. "Don't hurt me too badly." he laughed. "Amethyst told me about you American wizards."
Taja chuckled. "Amethyst." she said, shaking her head. "She is some piece of work. She and I were probably best friends, but I don't know that the girl has friends, know what I mean?"
Sirius nodded. "A lot of that is my fault. I overprotected her most of her life." and he paused, unsure.
"I didn't know she had a brother until I got here." Taja said. "She hardly ever talked about where she was from, or her past or nuthin'. I knew she was from England someplace. Lots of people thought she might be running from some trouble here."
Sirius shook his head. "I sent her there." he admitted. "To keep her away from Severus, truth be told."
"How you gon' do that?" she said. "She was grown."
Sirius turned a bit red. He'd noticed that Taja's accent changed dramatically when she started getting upset. He didn't know exactly what that meant, but there was something about it.
"Taja, it's hard to explain. I fucked up big time with both of them. I lost my mind and lost my sister for a long time. The idea of losing her in that explosion -" his voice faded.
Taja lounged on her couch while Sirius sat in a chair near her. "Amethyst came with me one summer. My last living relative had been killed. A Mug. Cousin. Shot in a drive-by. She shed a tear at the funeral. That told me a lot. And she didn't even seem to notice she was the only white person there. I don't know about here, but that means something in America. She and I were both sort of beat up at Salem. Her because she was foreign and me because I was the only mixed sistah in the whole school, teacher or student."
Taja patted his hand. "I knew Amethyst knew death like I did, or the pain of it anyhow. She only told me about Severus once of twice. She never let him go in her heart, if you know what I mean? She told me she would never love another" and Taja laughed. "Wouldn't let nobody get nowheres near her. I was the closest friend she had and I can't even say we was all that close." she looked carefully at Sirius. "That girl got something else, having two men do for her like you and Severus did. I don't know nobody do that for me."
Sirius grinned. "You must have plenty of blokes trying to talk you up, a doll like you."
Taja grinned. "I'll take that as a compliment."
"Good, because it was one." Sirius said.
"You an OK dude, Sirius." Taja said. "We can hang."
Sirius grinned. "I'll take that as a compliment." he said.
"Good, because it was one." Taja said.
Harry got Draco home and fed him. Nothing effected Draco's appetite and he swore he was starving. Harry sat him in their kitchen and they talked while Harry cooked an old fashioned Muggle meal.
Draco watched him going from refrigerator to stove. "Magic is quicker, you know." he smirked.
Harry threw him a softball sized pepper which was electric blue. "Eat that, it's from Amethysts garden. It'll tide you over." he said. "Don't worry, I know how to cook."
"That was pretty fucked up what happened to Amethyst." Draco said so low Harry almost missed it.
"Yea." Harry agreed. "But Severus and Sirius got revenge for her, didn't they?"
Draco raised his eyebrows. "Yes, they did." he said slowly. "But somehow I didn't think you'd think that way."
Harry paused a moment, a large knife poised over a pile of stew beef. "Well, the asshole deserved what he got, didn't he?" and he began chopping up the beef and throwing it into a pot with a little oil. "He could have killed you all."
Draco nodded, then grinned. "Were you worried about me, Potter?"
Harry bit his lip. "I was worried about all of you. Severus wouldn't leave Amethyst. Sirius was going between Amethyst and Taja. I kept an eye on you."
Draco remembered that it was Harry's face he saw when he woke up. He'd been touched, really, to see him there. "That was the first time I ever woke up in the hospital with anyone waiting for me to wake up." he said. He took a large bite out of the pepper.
Harry was chopping onions and looked over his shoulder quickly. "The first time?" he said, bewildered. "How many times have you been in the hospital?"
Draco shrugged. "At least once a year for almost as long as I can remember." he said. "Father had a temper, remember?"
Harry chopped the onions with vigor and threw them into the pot. "Your father put you in the hospital once a year?" he said, hardly believing.
"About that." Draco said. "That summer after you beat us for the cup, I went in twice."
Harry threw the last onion into the pot and threw in some flour and spices. "Your Dad did that because you lost the cup?" he said, feeling suddenly guilty.
"Well, yea." Draco said. "I'm not the Quidditch player you are. Nowhere near as talented. I knew it, Father knew it."
"But he beat you for it?" Harry said, his voice rising.
Draco straightened up a bit. "Listen, Potter. Don't go getting all guilty on me. My father didn't need much of an excuse to kick my ass all over Malfoy Manor. If it weren't you it would have been my grades or something." he said.
Harry sniffed. "Onoins make your eyes water." he said, turning and beginning to chop up a few carrots and turnips.
Draco grinned again, "Don't get me wrong, Potter. I'm touched, I really am."
Harry threw the carrots and turnips into the pot and added some apple cider. "Yea, right" he said, and he began hurrying the stew up with his wand.
He heard Draco moving around in his chair. "Really, Potter. I am touched. No one cares about what happens to me and here you are letting me into your home and watching over me in the hospital and now."
Harry watched the stew bubbling. He waited a few minutes and tasted it. "Done." he said and dished up two plates. He joined Draco at the table and they began eating.
"Your right." Draco said. "You can cook."
They ate in silence, and when their plates were clean, Draco got up and took the plates to the sink. Harry heard the water and turned to Draco. "You're supposed to be taking it easy."
Draco didn't stop. "Washing a few dishes without magic won't kill me, Potter." he said.
Harry didn't argue. "Listen, Malfoy. This is not just my place. It's yours too."
He saw Malfoy stiffen. "OK, Potter."
Harry figured he may as well continue. "I have to admit, when Sirius first suggested we live together I was like, 'No Way!'. But I had to admit that we had enough in common that it just might work out."
Draco was scrubbing out the pot. "We do have a little in common, at that." he admitted.
Harry said, "Both from fucked up families, if nothing else."
Draco laughed. "Wanna play my family was more fucked up than your was?" he asked.
"I was raised in a cupboard under a flight of stairs." Harry said, "It was my bedroom."
Draco had finished the last of the dishes and turned to face Harry, wiping his hands. "OK, you win that one." he said.
When they turned in for the night two hours later, they both had to admit that their families seemed to even each other out.
Severus opened his eyes. It was the deep dark of the dead of night. There was no moon and the bedchamber was very dark. He could feel that he was alone. He closed his eyes and connected with his wife.
She was looking at the darkness. There were no clouds, no stars, no moon. He opened his eyes and took a guess at where she was. He got out of bed and threw on a pair of pants. He left their bedchamber and walked through the dark house and down the stairs. He left through their frond door and walked across their grounds.
He found her standing on their original clearing. Her hair was loose and it just touched the grass. Her head was bent towards the dark and empty sky. He approached her, aware that she stood where they once picnicked years and years ago. He reached out silently and gathered her hair on his hands. He gently lifted it over her shoulders. She was wearing his shirt, which ballooned on her more than on him even. It reached to her knees. He dropped her hair on her shoulders and wrapped his arms around her, holding her close.
Still looking at the empty sky, she said, "You located me."
Severus said nothing. He just held her. He looked up into the sky with her.
"I feel so -" she began, but Severus shushed her.
"It was not meant to be." he whispered, but he trembled ever so slightly.
He felt her as she drew a great shuddering breath and let it out. "You are right." she whispered. "But it cold have been worse. Far worse." and she lifted her arms to caress his.
"I almost lost you." he whispered. "I don't know that I would have been able to bear it."
"You do not hate me." it was not a question.
"Never."
Amethyst drew another deep breath. "You were torn. At the hospital."
"I stayed with you until I knew where to find him." Severus said. "They tried to stop us. Both of us. But I would not be denied my revenge."
"You both annihilated him."
"Yes."
Amethyst nodded.
Severus turned Amethyst around to face him. "I avenged both of you." he said, looking deep into her eyes.
Amethyst eyes snapped. "I knew you would." she said.
They remained wrapped in each others arms until the sun rose.
Ron and Christopher spent the week fielding questions from the Ministry of Magic. They ignored owls and reporters from the newspapers. The papers were saying that a group called the Taipan was responsible for the death of the bomber. The Taipan were allegedly a group of rouge wizards that dispensed their own brand of justice.
"What rubbish!" Ron exclaimed in disgust as he folded the newspaper and tucked it under his arm. He and Christopher were also looking for alternative accommodations for their offices. They were waiting at a warehouse now for the owner. Both were dressed in Muggle suits.
"Well, it is feasible that the Taipan annihilated that fool." Christopher said. "You should have seen them, Ron. I have never seen such rage. He was almost dead before they ever pulled their wands on him."
Ron nodded. "Each alone is a force to be reckoned with." he said. "I have seen them both in a towering rage and never hope to again." he sighed. "That Iraqi fucked with the wrong wizards, no doubt about it."
They ceased their conversation as a fat man in an ill-fitting suit approached them. They chatted with him while they toured the building, then convinced him that he wanted to sell it to them for six hundred pounds. The man handed them the deed and walked away convinced he had made a perfect sale.
"My wife thinks it is wrong to cheat the Muggles like that." Ron said as he pocketed the deed to the property. "Says we should buy it right and proper." he imitated Hermione. "They all have the money. Between Sirius, Amethyst, Severus and Harry they could buy half of London. They're just not being fair!"
Christopher laughed. He'd met Hermione several times and liked her and their triplet boys very much. "Is Hermione campaigning for Muggle real estate agents now?" he asked.
"You would think triplet toddlers would keep her busy, wouldn't you?" Ron said, chuckling. "But, no. She's already planning on taking Amethyst out for a day of shopping in Diagon Alley as soon as she is ready."
"That might be a while." Christopher mused.
Ron was shaking his head. "Amethyst will deal with it and put it away sharpish." he said. "She isn't one to dwell on tragedy, is she? She has been dealing with it forever, it seems. Thought her lover was dead for eighteen years. Dealt with it."
"Or made it look like she was dealing with it." Christopher said. "Such an odd couple, her and Severus."
Ron was shaking his head again. "No way!" he said. "I knew Snape - Severus - at Hogwarts. He was my Potions instructor. The man is downright handsome now compared to those days. He got worse and worse with every year and no one ever knew it was because he thought she was dead and was pining."
They walked into the warehouse, which was quite dilapidated. Ron went to the second floor and Christopher took the first floor. They waved their wands and the place began to put itself right.
They met just outside the place and together charmed the place against Muggles. The place would, to a Muggle, continue to look like the wreck of a building it was, before they began renovations.
"Anyway," Ron said, picking up the conversation again. "Amethyst is plain old cheerful compared with Severus, and she is nothing to fuck with. As dangerous as a poisonous spider." and he shuddered at the thought. "Those two are meant to be together. Birds of a feather, I tell you."
The two men spent the rest of the week preparing the new warehouse for its occupants. They send owls at the end of seven days with directions.
Amethyst, Taja and Draco all got out of the hospital two days later. They were released with strict instructions to take it easy for one week.
Sirius took Taja home. She had taken the lightest beating of all of them, but she was still horribly sore. Sirius convinced her to let him stay.
"Taja, I will not lie and say I am not attracted to you." he said. "But right now I am more the concerned friend than wolf at your door."
Taja smiled. "Well, you can stay, but you better behave or I'll have to wup yo' ass."
Sirius backed up in mild shock. "Don't hurt me too badly." he laughed. "Amethyst told me about you American wizards."
Taja chuckled. "Amethyst." she said, shaking her head. "She is some piece of work. She and I were probably best friends, but I don't know that the girl has friends, know what I mean?"
Sirius nodded. "A lot of that is my fault. I overprotected her most of her life." and he paused, unsure.
"I didn't know she had a brother until I got here." Taja said. "She hardly ever talked about where she was from, or her past or nuthin'. I knew she was from England someplace. Lots of people thought she might be running from some trouble here."
Sirius shook his head. "I sent her there." he admitted. "To keep her away from Severus, truth be told."
"How you gon' do that?" she said. "She was grown."
Sirius turned a bit red. He'd noticed that Taja's accent changed dramatically when she started getting upset. He didn't know exactly what that meant, but there was something about it.
"Taja, it's hard to explain. I fucked up big time with both of them. I lost my mind and lost my sister for a long time. The idea of losing her in that explosion -" his voice faded.
Taja lounged on her couch while Sirius sat in a chair near her. "Amethyst came with me one summer. My last living relative had been killed. A Mug. Cousin. Shot in a drive-by. She shed a tear at the funeral. That told me a lot. And she didn't even seem to notice she was the only white person there. I don't know about here, but that means something in America. She and I were both sort of beat up at Salem. Her because she was foreign and me because I was the only mixed sistah in the whole school, teacher or student."
Taja patted his hand. "I knew Amethyst knew death like I did, or the pain of it anyhow. She only told me about Severus once of twice. She never let him go in her heart, if you know what I mean? She told me she would never love another" and Taja laughed. "Wouldn't let nobody get nowheres near her. I was the closest friend she had and I can't even say we was all that close." she looked carefully at Sirius. "That girl got something else, having two men do for her like you and Severus did. I don't know nobody do that for me."
Sirius grinned. "You must have plenty of blokes trying to talk you up, a doll like you."
Taja grinned. "I'll take that as a compliment."
"Good, because it was one." Sirius said.
"You an OK dude, Sirius." Taja said. "We can hang."
Sirius grinned. "I'll take that as a compliment." he said.
"Good, because it was one." Taja said.
Harry got Draco home and fed him. Nothing effected Draco's appetite and he swore he was starving. Harry sat him in their kitchen and they talked while Harry cooked an old fashioned Muggle meal.
Draco watched him going from refrigerator to stove. "Magic is quicker, you know." he smirked.
Harry threw him a softball sized pepper which was electric blue. "Eat that, it's from Amethysts garden. It'll tide you over." he said. "Don't worry, I know how to cook."
"That was pretty fucked up what happened to Amethyst." Draco said so low Harry almost missed it.
"Yea." Harry agreed. "But Severus and Sirius got revenge for her, didn't they?"
Draco raised his eyebrows. "Yes, they did." he said slowly. "But somehow I didn't think you'd think that way."
Harry paused a moment, a large knife poised over a pile of stew beef. "Well, the asshole deserved what he got, didn't he?" and he began chopping up the beef and throwing it into a pot with a little oil. "He could have killed you all."
Draco nodded, then grinned. "Were you worried about me, Potter?"
Harry bit his lip. "I was worried about all of you. Severus wouldn't leave Amethyst. Sirius was going between Amethyst and Taja. I kept an eye on you."
Draco remembered that it was Harry's face he saw when he woke up. He'd been touched, really, to see him there. "That was the first time I ever woke up in the hospital with anyone waiting for me to wake up." he said. He took a large bite out of the pepper.
Harry was chopping onions and looked over his shoulder quickly. "The first time?" he said, bewildered. "How many times have you been in the hospital?"
Draco shrugged. "At least once a year for almost as long as I can remember." he said. "Father had a temper, remember?"
Harry chopped the onions with vigor and threw them into the pot. "Your father put you in the hospital once a year?" he said, hardly believing.
"About that." Draco said. "That summer after you beat us for the cup, I went in twice."
Harry threw the last onion into the pot and threw in some flour and spices. "Your Dad did that because you lost the cup?" he said, feeling suddenly guilty.
"Well, yea." Draco said. "I'm not the Quidditch player you are. Nowhere near as talented. I knew it, Father knew it."
"But he beat you for it?" Harry said, his voice rising.
Draco straightened up a bit. "Listen, Potter. Don't go getting all guilty on me. My father didn't need much of an excuse to kick my ass all over Malfoy Manor. If it weren't you it would have been my grades or something." he said.
Harry sniffed. "Onoins make your eyes water." he said, turning and beginning to chop up a few carrots and turnips.
Draco grinned again, "Don't get me wrong, Potter. I'm touched, I really am."
Harry threw the carrots and turnips into the pot and added some apple cider. "Yea, right" he said, and he began hurrying the stew up with his wand.
He heard Draco moving around in his chair. "Really, Potter. I am touched. No one cares about what happens to me and here you are letting me into your home and watching over me in the hospital and now."
Harry watched the stew bubbling. He waited a few minutes and tasted it. "Done." he said and dished up two plates. He joined Draco at the table and they began eating.
"Your right." Draco said. "You can cook."
They ate in silence, and when their plates were clean, Draco got up and took the plates to the sink. Harry heard the water and turned to Draco. "You're supposed to be taking it easy."
Draco didn't stop. "Washing a few dishes without magic won't kill me, Potter." he said.
Harry didn't argue. "Listen, Malfoy. This is not just my place. It's yours too."
He saw Malfoy stiffen. "OK, Potter."
Harry figured he may as well continue. "I have to admit, when Sirius first suggested we live together I was like, 'No Way!'. But I had to admit that we had enough in common that it just might work out."
Draco was scrubbing out the pot. "We do have a little in common, at that." he admitted.
Harry said, "Both from fucked up families, if nothing else."
Draco laughed. "Wanna play my family was more fucked up than your was?" he asked.
"I was raised in a cupboard under a flight of stairs." Harry said, "It was my bedroom."
Draco had finished the last of the dishes and turned to face Harry, wiping his hands. "OK, you win that one." he said.
When they turned in for the night two hours later, they both had to admit that their families seemed to even each other out.
Severus opened his eyes. It was the deep dark of the dead of night. There was no moon and the bedchamber was very dark. He could feel that he was alone. He closed his eyes and connected with his wife.
She was looking at the darkness. There were no clouds, no stars, no moon. He opened his eyes and took a guess at where she was. He got out of bed and threw on a pair of pants. He left their bedchamber and walked through the dark house and down the stairs. He left through their frond door and walked across their grounds.
He found her standing on their original clearing. Her hair was loose and it just touched the grass. Her head was bent towards the dark and empty sky. He approached her, aware that she stood where they once picnicked years and years ago. He reached out silently and gathered her hair on his hands. He gently lifted it over her shoulders. She was wearing his shirt, which ballooned on her more than on him even. It reached to her knees. He dropped her hair on her shoulders and wrapped his arms around her, holding her close.
Still looking at the empty sky, she said, "You located me."
Severus said nothing. He just held her. He looked up into the sky with her.
"I feel so -" she began, but Severus shushed her.
"It was not meant to be." he whispered, but he trembled ever so slightly.
He felt her as she drew a great shuddering breath and let it out. "You are right." she whispered. "But it cold have been worse. Far worse." and she lifted her arms to caress his.
"I almost lost you." he whispered. "I don't know that I would have been able to bear it."
"You do not hate me." it was not a question.
"Never."
Amethyst drew another deep breath. "You were torn. At the hospital."
"I stayed with you until I knew where to find him." Severus said. "They tried to stop us. Both of us. But I would not be denied my revenge."
"You both annihilated him."
"Yes."
Amethyst nodded.
Severus turned Amethyst around to face him. "I avenged both of you." he said, looking deep into her eyes.
Amethyst eyes snapped. "I knew you would." she said.
They remained wrapped in each others arms until the sun rose.
Ron and Christopher spent the week fielding questions from the Ministry of Magic. They ignored owls and reporters from the newspapers. The papers were saying that a group called the Taipan was responsible for the death of the bomber. The Taipan were allegedly a group of rouge wizards that dispensed their own brand of justice.
"What rubbish!" Ron exclaimed in disgust as he folded the newspaper and tucked it under his arm. He and Christopher were also looking for alternative accommodations for their offices. They were waiting at a warehouse now for the owner. Both were dressed in Muggle suits.
"Well, it is feasible that the Taipan annihilated that fool." Christopher said. "You should have seen them, Ron. I have never seen such rage. He was almost dead before they ever pulled their wands on him."
Ron nodded. "Each alone is a force to be reckoned with." he said. "I have seen them both in a towering rage and never hope to again." he sighed. "That Iraqi fucked with the wrong wizards, no doubt about it."
They ceased their conversation as a fat man in an ill-fitting suit approached them. They chatted with him while they toured the building, then convinced him that he wanted to sell it to them for six hundred pounds. The man handed them the deed and walked away convinced he had made a perfect sale.
"My wife thinks it is wrong to cheat the Muggles like that." Ron said as he pocketed the deed to the property. "Says we should buy it right and proper." he imitated Hermione. "They all have the money. Between Sirius, Amethyst, Severus and Harry they could buy half of London. They're just not being fair!"
Christopher laughed. He'd met Hermione several times and liked her and their triplet boys very much. "Is Hermione campaigning for Muggle real estate agents now?" he asked.
"You would think triplet toddlers would keep her busy, wouldn't you?" Ron said, chuckling. "But, no. She's already planning on taking Amethyst out for a day of shopping in Diagon Alley as soon as she is ready."
"That might be a while." Christopher mused.
Ron was shaking his head. "Amethyst will deal with it and put it away sharpish." he said. "She isn't one to dwell on tragedy, is she? She has been dealing with it forever, it seems. Thought her lover was dead for eighteen years. Dealt with it."
"Or made it look like she was dealing with it." Christopher said. "Such an odd couple, her and Severus."
Ron was shaking his head again. "No way!" he said. "I knew Snape - Severus - at Hogwarts. He was my Potions instructor. The man is downright handsome now compared to those days. He got worse and worse with every year and no one ever knew it was because he thought she was dead and was pining."
They walked into the warehouse, which was quite dilapidated. Ron went to the second floor and Christopher took the first floor. They waved their wands and the place began to put itself right.
They met just outside the place and together charmed the place against Muggles. The place would, to a Muggle, continue to look like the wreck of a building it was, before they began renovations.
"Anyway," Ron said, picking up the conversation again. "Amethyst is plain old cheerful compared with Severus, and she is nothing to fuck with. As dangerous as a poisonous spider." and he shuddered at the thought. "Those two are meant to be together. Birds of a feather, I tell you."
The two men spent the rest of the week preparing the new warehouse for its occupants. They send owls at the end of seven days with directions.