Narcissa was annoyed to find that someone had recognized her with that mask smeared all over her face, but then again, that was because of that stupid cow that had called her "Madame Malfoy" in the first place. She was standing face-to-face now with a witch with her sandy hair half-curled and her hazel eyes boring into Narcissa's with a vehemence that spooked her. Who could this woman possibly know that she knew? She'd never seen this woman before in her life! "Who are you?" she demanded. "Who are you talking about? You don't know the people I do."
"If we could have a moment in private, I think I can answer your questions. My name is Nadiera, by the way. Nadiera Sedai."
"Is that your mongrel there?" she asked Nadiera.
"Well, yes," Nadiera said.
"Get it out of here. I can't abide mangy animals..." Narcissa complained coldly.
"Once you get that stuff off your face and agree to speak to me, I'll take Padfoot out of here." Nadiera ignored Padfoot's whine. Narcissa looked down her nose at the black dog, which was way too big for her peace of mind, and sneered.
"So, you think to blackmail me into speaking to you?" she frowned, as if this tactic was so far beneath low that she could not comprehend it.
"One way or another, we are going to have this conversation. Therefore," Nadiera answered as she put on her very best Cold Aes Sedai Expression, "I suggest we get ourselves prepared for our talk before that mask stains your face blue and I catch my death from wet hair."
Narcissa was left gaping as Nadiera turned on her heel and sat back down in her chair and snapped at the dowdy girl styling her hair to finish her business already. Under any other circumstances, Narcissa would have admired the way this woman handled herself. But naturally, because she was at the business end of Nadiera's attitude, she loathed the woman on sight.
Nadiera was a bit annoyed with herself; Aes Sedai are not supposed to let women like Narcissa get to her. But then again, Aes Sedai were supposed to be the ones who "danced thrones like puppets on strings." She herself had not done any "throne dancing" during her tenure as Aes Sedai; she was not Gray Ajah. She could have used a Gray Sister's knack for negotiation though, because it looked like Narcissa was a bit upset with her. Well, it was her own doing, with that attitude of hers. Imagine calling Sirius a "mongrel!" It was only when Nadiera realized that she was gripping the sides of the chair with her hands so tightly that her knuckles turned white did she understand how furious she was at this woman. All she was doing was trying to help her!
She eyed Padfoot crouched in the corner, and his gold eyes staring at her. Part of her wanted to beat him away with a stick, and the other part wanted to beat Narcissa with one instead. Maybe she should have been a bit more forthright about her plan, but if she told everyone her intentions, then the plan would come to ruin before it even began.
Her mood only slightly improved when the hairdresser showed Nadiera the finished product. Her hair was now in an elaborate upswept style, with tiny crystals attached to each strand, or so it seemd to Nadiera anyway. She never had dreamed that she could look so beautiful. Suddenly, her dress seemed inadequate, and her face looked pale and drawn. She paid the girl, who thankfully had ceased her prattle about her boyfriend woes, and gestured for Padfoot to follow her out.
Narcissa, if it was possible, looked even colder without her mask on. "I thought we weren't taking that creature with us!"
"And so we are not, but I couldn't very well leave him in here, now could I? Go to Lupin," she ordered Padfoot. "I'll be back in an hour or so. I have things I must attend to."
Narcissa thought it was rather odd that the dog, who was supposed to be a mindless beast, gave one loud booming bark of indignation and took off, as if it understood exactly what this woman had said to it. "Let's go have some ice cream," she suggested firmly to Narcissa.
"Ice Cream?" Narcissa scowled.
"Yes, I rather like it. Especially the raspberry-chocolate-peanut butter flavor. We never had ice cream where I come from," Nadiera explained as she led Narcissa to Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream stand.
"Where do you come from?" Narcissa demanded to know.
"Actually, I'm from a city called Tar Valon, which I am sure you have never heard of. Are you from here? You must be since you come for your beauty treatments here. I've been told that there's a whole city beyond this Alley; do you live there?" Nadiera asked her as she began working on her ice cream cone.
Narcissa sulkily spooned some of her vanilla ice cream and asked Nadiera "What do you want with me? You said we had to talk about a 'mutual aquaintance.' Just who is that?"
"I wanted to talk to you about Voldemort," Nadiera told her.
Narcissa gagged on her ice cream, and then glared at Nadiera. "What makes you think I know him?"
"Several weeks ago, I stumbled into that boarding house where you and he had apparently had a, er, meeting." Nadiera frowned at the memory. "I had only just arrived here, and I am not very good with Floo Powder. I accidentally wound up in Knockturn Alley. I heard what he had said to you," she told her.
Narcissa's face darkened. "You are trying to blackmail me," she accused her.
"No! I'm trying to help you! I heard the things he said. He said he owned you, and your husband, and that soon, he would own your son as well. I don't know about you; I don't have a husband or son myself, but if I did, I wouldn't want the likes of him to own them!"
"It's none of your business!" Narcissa hissed.
"I don't know where you took off to after that charming little talk you and he had, but he discovered me and we had a bit of a run-in. I managed to get away, but I wonder how many people over the years didn't manage to escape him. I mean to do something about him, Narcissa. You can be a part of it, if you are so inclined."
"You're mad! No one can do anything about the Dark Lord! He's come back from death! How can you stop someone like that?" she whispered with anger in her voice.
"If you want to make a change, and stop being his victim, then I will tell you. If you want to finally free your family from his clutches, then you will know. Otherwise, I can't tell you my plan," Nadiera stated.
"Why are you trying to involve me in this? What do you care about me?" Narcissa argued.
"You are nothing to me, except another witch that can aid me in eliminating Voldemort once and for all. But I suspect that Voldemort's downfall would mean a great deal to you, Narcissa. Think about it. If you wish to help in bringing it about, once and for all, then meet me at Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry on September the 25th, four in the afternoon. I take it you are familiar with the place?"
"My sone goes to school there," Narcissa said thoughtfully.
"Your son, Narcissa. Think about your son's future. If he becomes Voldemort's servant, he will have no future. Remember that."
Narcissa looked down at her ice cream as the Aes Sedai rose from her seat and walked away. Nadiera could only hope now that her words made the difference.
While Nadiera was having her little discussion with Narcissa, Sirius and Lupin returned to Lupin's flat. For a while, all Lupin could do was scowl at Sirius, until Sirius finally demanded to know what his problem was.
"Are you getting involved with that woman, Sirius? You follow her around constantly. You even stay at Hogwart's now, rather than here, where Dumbledore told you to," Lupin frowned. "You're taking a terrible risk. Leaving Buckbeak in Hagrid's care is also a risk, not only for you, but for the hippogriff as will."
Sirius scowled. "What? Hagrid loves that hippogriff to death! I think the Ministry has more to worry about than a hippogriff, don't you? Besides, there are people at Hogwart's who know who I am, and the others don't question a black dog running around the school. They most likely think that I'm Nadiera's pet."
"Are you her pet?" Lupin cut in.
Sirius sneered. "Lupin, get your mind out of the gutter," he advised his friend.
"My mind? You're the one running around panting after her, and don't think I don't know why! You stay as a dog, so you can ignore the human emotions that come up whenever she's around. Though I'm sure that emotions aren't the only thing that comes up whenever she's around..." Lupin quipped.
"Alright, that's it! You're just talking like this because you like her too! That's typical," Sirius growled, "just when I find a woman, you go ahead and..."
"Look, I'm not blind. She's quite a woman, but let's face it, she would'nt have either of us!" Lupin pointed out.
"And why do you say that?" Sirius asked dangerously.
"Because she hates men," Lupin answered.
"How do you know? Just because she acts nervous around you doesn't mean anything," Sirius snorted.
"Actually, Severus told me, when he brought me my last dose of Wolfsbane Potion. He's told me about that business she can do to make a man unable to do magic any more. Needless to say, he's scared out of his wits," Lupin revealed. "He feels that only a woman who has a profound hatred for men could bring herself to do something like that, and I have to say, I agree with him."
"Oh, that's just great!" Sirius drawled in disgust. "You and Snape gossiping over Wolfsbane potion about my prospects of pissing off Nadiera and getting myself gentled! You know, both you and Snape always had this tendency to worry about shit that I would never worry about! She's got no ill will towards me, and as far as Snape is concerned, I'm very glad he's steering clear of her; this way I won't have to kick his ass in the next time I see him."
Lupin sighed and added, "Oh, so that's what it's called, gentled? Sounds a lot like castrated to me."
"Heh, she'd be a fool to do that to me! Just think of what a loss to the women of this world it would be if I couldn't..."
"I was going to say 'screw' because I thought we were talking about castration," Sirius frowned.
"No, I was talking about gentling, not castration."
"Never mind, Remus. You know you're a shithead, don't you?" Sirius asked, but in a more affectionate tone. "You've been talking to Snape, who passed his shithead disease to you. I had better steer clear of you before I become contaminated."
"As if you already weren't already one! You got it from Peter, though. I'm sure of it..." Lupin countered.
At the mention of Peter's name, Sirius dropped all humor from his face. "Wormtail... Even if Nadiera were as hot for me as I am for her, and even if she was a perfectly normal witch, I could never have a hope of a future with her with Dementors chasing me through the streets. Until I get my name cleared, I will never be free to have a life at all. I can't even be a proper godfather to Harry! While I'm nowhere near as badly off as I was in Azkaban..." Sirius shuddered as he thought about the wizard prison that he'd escaped, "I am still wanted for murder. I can't ever ignore that."
"Which is why you must take more precautions! You're in danger if you continue hanging about Hogwart's!" Lupin argued.
"How am I going to stay away from her?" Sirius asked in such a low voice that Lupin might not have heard him say it at all.