Chapter Six
A Shadow in the Night
Hagrid did what was either one of the bravest things he'd ever done, or one of the dumbest; he jumped in between Jennifer and Lucius before either of them could move any closer. Jennifer's wand had already appeared out of her cuff as Lucius eyed her with matched hatred. If there was anyone Jennifer hated more than Voldemort, it was Lucius Malfoy. At least Voldemort freely admitted his crimes; Malfoy hid behind corruption and money, sometimes even letting others take the fall for him, and other times getting away from lack of evidence.
"Com'on now, Professor, we should be gettin' back," Hagrid said firmly.
"For someone on borrowed time, you seem to be quite eager to return it," Malfoy warned icily, having noticed her wand.
"Is that a threat?" Jennifer asked, moving around Hagrid. "Go ahead and try it. At least here we have enough witnesses I can be sure you're going to be put away for a long time."
"I was not the one who pulled the wand," he reminded her coldly, "but I guarantee if you begin it, I will finish it."
"What, like you finished my mother? Or did your servants do that for you as well?" Jennifer challenged. Malfoy squinted at her, malice ripping through his gaze.
"That's quite an accusation. You had better be careful denouncing someone for something you have no evidence for. You might get burned." Malfoy's thin smile was quick to indicate that he might not mind seeing that.
"Let's go, Professor. We have people expectin' us back. Best not keep them waitin'" Hagrid said again, putting a hand on her shoulder. She began to back up, keeping a wary eye on him, pushing the wand back in her cuff but not quite releasing her grip on it.
Just as they got ready to leave, Jennifer saw a flash of red light and she instinctively rolled onto a knee. Malfoy was knocked off his feet, thrown across the alley and lay sprawled out on the ground. Suddenly alert, Hagrid had pulled out his umbrella as he looked for the source of the spell.
"Up there on the roof!" Hagrid pointed at a shadow moving across the top of the building. The shadow leaned over, as if looking down at the street and moving to get closer to where Malfoy was laying. Then, she heard the familiar word, "Crucio!" and the figure pointed at Malfoy, who began screaming in pain.
As much as she hated Lucius, she had no intention of letting anyone use an Unforgivable Curse in front of her without some sort of response. Taking out her wand, she crawled forward trying to try and get a better shot.
"Expelliarmus!" she shouted, pointing at the shadow. And then… nothing happened. The figure paused in surprise, moving as if to look over at her, the Cruciatus Curse subsiding as his attention wavered.
"Is that the best you can do?" the shadow whispered in apparent disgust. "It really is a wonder you're still alive. Move away and leave this one to me, Jennifer Craw." There was no way she was going to get a good aim to Stupefy him in this dim alley, she thought. What she needed was a little light.
"Lumos!" she said, aiming her wand in his direction. The figure countered it after a mere flash of light had erupted, in which she was vaguely aware of a lone figure standing covered in a Night Shroud from head to ankle. He tried to hit her with a Petrify spell, but it was quickly countered by Jennifer. She dove to find better cover, satisfied she had his attention away from Malfoy.
Suddenly the alley began to fill up with Ministry Enforcers. Before they could realize what was going on, the figure bowed his head to Jennifer and Disapparated. Jennifer immediately offered her wand to the Ministry as she got to her feet, peering warily over at Malfoy, whom they were helping up.
"Officers! Arrest this woman at once! She just tried to have me killed!" Malfoy yelled. Hagrid and Jennifer looked blankly at him while the officers tried to calm him down. "I was just on my way past her when she pulled a wand on me. The next thing I know, I had a Stupefy spell thrown on me and someone began performing the Cruciatus Curse on me! You sent him, didn't you? He knew your name! Admit it!"
"See if I ever come to your aid again," Jennifer snorted and then promptly ignored him, giving her statement calmly to the officers. "I did pull a wand," she admitted. "I felt threatened, and this isn't exactly the safest place in the world after dark. But I only used it when a curse was cast on Malfoy to try and break it, and then a Light spell to try and get a better look at the man up on the building. I've only cast Disarm and Light in the last four hours or so."
"And who was the man up on the building?"
"I couldn't say. He had a long Night Shroud pulled over him. He didn't particularly like Malfoy too much, and he did cast the Cruciatus Curse on him." The officers exchanged glances.
"Alright, if we have any more questions we'll contact you at the school," he said after checking out her wand, having cast a charm on it to see what her last few spells were. "Nice wand, looks old," he commented politely, as he handed it back.
"Rare too," Jennifer nodded, determined to show she had nothing to hide, "12 ¾ ebony with banshee hair. Family heirloom. It's on the books." The officer looked startled for an instant and studied her carefully, but then nodded.
"Good evening, Professor."
They were still getting a statement from Malfoy when Hagrid and Jennifer Disapparated.
"You know, them banshee hair wands ain't legal ta buy anymore," Hagrid said when they got on the grounds. "Too many people couldn' handle 'em, lotsa claims they had minds of their own."
"Yeah, that's why I went ahead and mentioned it before it came back to bite me. I've had this wand since I was seven; it was my great-great-great grandfather's… from my father's side of course. Anyhow, it's family loyal. If it hasn't turned on me yet, it won't." Jennifer was quiet for some time before she finally shook her head. "I can't believe he thought I set him up! He can't possibly be that paranoid!"
"Wull, if yer hadn't pulled yer wand like tha' maybe he'd not have said tha'."
"Hagrid, that man would kill me in a heartbeat if he had the chance," Jennifer said.
"Tha' may be true, but I doubt he'd be doin' it in front of an alley full o' witnesses," Hagrid pointed out.
Jennifer walked inside the castle and towards the dungeon, glancing at her pocket mirror along the way. She often used it when she was unsure of her expression or feelings. To a Truth Seeker, a mirror sometimes had a way of organizing thoughts. The guilty, nervous expression was much too plain, and she tried to look more relaxed as she started down the steps to the dungeon. She flipped her mirror shut and put it in her pocket as she reached the office door, knocking softly. After a moment of tapping her foot impatiently, Severus let her in, looking at her with suspicion.
"What took you so long?" Severus demanded. "Did it ever occur to you that I might be waiting on some of those ingredients? Get in." Jennifer rolled her eyes and walked in, knowing perfectly well he wasn't waiting on anything. She sat his bag on the desk as he shut the door.
"Sorry I'm so late. We ran into a wee bit of trouble, but as you can see, we're back now," she smiled weakly. "You should see some of the stuff I found for the class, though, it should be really interesting…"
"What sort of trouble?" Severus asked, squinting at Jennifer. He had walked up to her and was standing so close she had to take a step back to look at him. He took another step forward, and Jennifer found herself backed against the wall with one of his hands drumming his fingers against the wall expectantly.
"Well you see, what happened was… we'd just left the pawn shop and was heading back because it was starting to get dark. Hagrid didn't like being there at night, and… do you have to keep drumming your fingers like that? You're making me nervous!" she said flustered, looking up at his thoughtful face.
"You? Nervous?" Severus said softly and stopped drumming his fingers. A nearly imperceptible look of amusement crept across his face. "I was starting to think nothing rattled you; Dementor armies, Death Eaters, even aggravating students, and yet I make you nervous?"
"Nobody's perfect," Jennifer said softly. He leaned over and kissed her, and she relaxed and returned it, letting it linger before she leaned back to gaze at him. "Are you going to let me sit down?"
"Not until you tell me what happened." Severus said, and began drumming his fingers again. He was not about to let her distract him. Taking a deep breath, Jennifer recounted the events from the beginning, watching as his frown deepened when she finally reached the end. "I cannot believe you pulled a wand out on Malfoy," he said at last.
"Never mind that, who do you think the other wizard was? It has to be someone that knew him… perhaps another Death Eater? I mean, the figure didn't seem too concerned about using the Cruciatus Curse in public."
"A Death Eater wouldn't publicly go against Lucius Malfoy. I think it's more likely that it's someone who has a personal vendetta against him," Severus said thoughtfully.
"Oh, I find that hard to believe," Jennifer said sarcastically. "You don't think Malfoy actually thinks I'm behind that, do you?"
"Well, I'm sure we'll be finding out soon enough," Severus said, absently rubbing at his arm. "In either case, I want you to try to stay out of this as much as possible, and the next time you need to go down the Alley, I'll escort you."
"Severus, don't you think it's going to look awful conspicuous if you start escorting me everywhere?" Jennifer scowled, hands on her hips. "I think I've proven more than once I can handle myself quite well –"
"No arguments. I'd rather not have any more close calls like we did last year," he interrupted her, putting a hand across her mouth. "We've been lucky so far, but our luck isn't going to hold forever if we keep pushing it." Jennifer pulled his hand down.
"I trust you, Severus. I have since the day we met. And I've always done what you've asked. It'd just be nice if someone trusted me for a change," Jennifer said, walking out of the room. Severus stared out the door in bewilderment. What had prompted her to say something like that?
Early on Saturday, Jennifer decided to go to the gym. She spent a lot of time staring at herself in the training mirror at the end of the room as she practiced some defense forms. It wasn't long before she had a small audience behind her.
"Hello guys, what are you up to?" Jennifer smiled at the five Gryffindors.
"We were going down to watch the Slytherin Quidditch practice. They're playing Ravenclaw tomorrow," Hermione told her.
"Yeah, maybe if we watch we can figure out what kind of dirty tricks they're going to play this year so we can be ready for them," Harry added. Jennifer chuckled.
"Professor? Your reflection is tapping her foot," Ginny said puzzled.
"Oh. Sorry about that, take five," she told her image and walked away from the mirror. "Training mirrors can be so touchy sometimes. Hey, how come you two girls aren't in the dueling club?"
"I usually study during the evenings," Hermione said.
"Oh, come on, Hermione, you've already read up until Christmas in my subject and it's the first week of school. Some exercise won't hurt you. How about you, Ginny?" Jennifer asked. Ginny looked uncomfortable.
"She just doesn't like Snape," Ron said, getting jabbed on either side by Ginny and Hermione.
"It's just no fun with Snape yelling. We get enough of that in potion class," Neville said. "In fact, I was thinking of maybe not going back. I only did it because they talked me into it."
"And you were doing so well too, it really is a shame," Jennifer sighed.
"I was?" Neville said surprised.
"You know, so long as you guys aren't using your real wands, there's no reason you
can't come up here and practice drills and forms on the weekends. I know Harry and Ginny have Quidditch practice, but if you guys are ever here when I come in, I'll be glad to give an edge to anyone willing to work for it." Jennifer winked. "Look at it this way, it'll give Snape less of a reason to yell at you if you're ahead on your moves."
"Well, I'm not sure about joining the club, but I wouldn't mind learning a few things if you're in here anyhow, Professor Craw," Ginny said.
In the end all of the students decided to stay. Jennifer quickly paired Hermione and Ron up and Harry and Ginny up so that the boys could help them with the forms they'd started. Then she put Neville in front of the training mirror, whose reflection quickly pointed at his gross stance, showing him how to make it better. So Jennifer, who had expected to spend a nice quiet morning, ended up kicking feet into place and demonstrating some snap wand movements. But after a while, Neville's reflection starting complaining, rubbing its tummy and looking at the clock. Jennifer chuckled, and broke the group for lunch, walking downstairs with them.