Lydia had been gone a little over an hour by the time she reappeared at Hogwarts. Lessons were still in session but she needed something else. She cast around with her mind. McGonagall was in her office, but she was not right. Not for this. Verdi was taking a class. Neville was taking a class. Draco was in his office. Yes, he was alone. Much as she had hated her uncle and all of his friends only an hour ago her world felt to be changing rapidly. Draco was best. Draco was perfect.
She appeared outside Draco's door and hammered on it.
"Come in," Draco called out.
She opened the door, stepped inside and shut it behind her.
"Lydia? Lydia?! What's the matter?"
Draco dropped the book he was holding and sprang from his chair, knocking it over in his haste. Lydia felt… so many things, all at once. She began to tremble. She could not speak. Draco folded her in his arms and said nothing, but made gentle soothing noises.
Lydia did not know how or when the tears started, but she knew they lasted until she had no more tears to give. Draco let her cry. He held her firmly but gently and let her soak his robes with her tears. She had been right: Draco was the perfect person for her to turn to at that moment.
Eventually she lifted her head from his chest.
Draco smiled. "Come and sit down now, Lydia."
She sat in the chair he offered her. He pulled another chair up and sat close to her. He asked no questions, made no prompts. He waited for her to be able to tell him whatever it was that had brought her here.
"I found out about Uncle Ambrose, about you all working for him and his powers." She stumbled through her words. "I hated him and you. I hated you all."
Draco was nodding. "Stephano told me what had happened and that you had left. I'm pretty sure you saved his life. His… other form can deal with most things but hydras… well, hydras are up there with manticores and basilisks."
"I went to talk to Alorea."
Draco nodded but did not press her for information.
Lydia drew a deep breath and sighed it out again. "I took Harry to Trenton. We went in, we went to see Alorea. Tally and Director Harizanis were with us. I opened the egg. I knew how. I made her tell us everything. It wasn't very good 'cos it's been so long. I was going to put her back in the egg…"
Lydia put her face in her hands. "I did something very bad, Draco."
Draco put a gentle hand on her shoulder. "I'm sorry, Lydia. I couldn't hear what you said. You've got your hands over your mouth."
Lydia's little laugh was a sob. She took her hands away and looked at him. Her eyes were stinging but there were no more tears to be had.
"I did a bad, terrible thing. She cried and pleaded and begged but I put her back in because I couldn't trust her. I think I've killed her."
Draco gave her a compassionate look. He did not press her for an answer. He waited.
"I told you I had bad dreams."
Draco nodded.
"There was a man, or a figure. It was watching me. I knew it hated me."
Draco nodded again.
Lydia's voice became a whisper. "Alorea knew him. The Grey Watcher. She called him the Grey Watcher. That was the name I called him."
Draco nodded. "I remember you saying the name."
"She… they had a deal. She failed him. She was terrified. She was so scared and terrified that he was going to come for her because she failed him. She begged me not to put her back in the egg where he could find her. She promised to go away and hide. She said she would rather I killed her than left her to him. You should have seen her, Draco. She lost her mind."
Lydia stared at Draco's face. He was concerned for her and she did not deserve concern or compassion after what she had done. She wished she could cry.
"And I put her back."
Draco sighed and pursed his lips so tightly they went white and red. "Oh, Lydia. You had no choice. Look at all the things she has done, the things she has made others do. You could not trust her. You had no choice, so you can take no blame. You couldn't have killed her, you couldn't have set her free. You had no choice. I know how that feels."
Lydia nodded. Yes, he did know. And he had tortured himself for it. That did not help her. Yet, in a way, it did. For now she felt empty, or rather, emptied. He understood her. He cared. And somehow the pain and anguish and the turmoil had gone away somewhere – for now. She was empty and it felt so much better than feeling.
"What do I do now?" Her voice sounded more plaintive than she felt. That was OK, though.
"You are going to have a cup of tea with me," Draco intoned. "Then, if you wish, you are going to go to dinner in the Great Hall with your friends."
She shook her head.
"In that case, shall I cancel my detentions and send to the kitchens for food, so we can have dinner together here?"
She nodded.
"Would you like any of your friends to join us?"
"Soph and Freddie. Just them."
Draco smiled. "Good choice. After we've had a drink of tea, lessons will be nearly over. I'll go and invite them. After dinner you need rest. But we'll talk about that later. For now, tea. And we can chat as much or as little as you like. Don't think too far ahead, not yet."
Sophie and Freddie came down to Draco's office together. They came in quietly, something Freddie rarely achieved, and sat down at the dining table Draco had conjured, either side of Lydia.
The food was the same fare that was being served in the Great Hall. Only Sophie ate as she normally would, in between telling them about the prospects for the quidditch season. Lydia loved her for the normality it brought to the meal. Draco asked innocuous questions to try to raise a conversation. At the end of the meal, as Sophie tucked into treacle sponge and custard, Draco got up to leave. He told them they could stay as long as they wanted in the office but he would leave them to talk.
Draco stopped at the office door. "Would you like me to say what has happened before I go, Lydia? Or are you all right to talk about it?"
"I'll be OK, Draco," Lydia sighed and tried to smile.
He nodded. "Good. Tell them as much as you need. These are your school family, more than any of the professors. But I will ask both of you, please do not repeat any of what you hear to anyone else. Especially anything about… any of the professors. Promise?"
"Yes, sir," they chorused.
"Good," he nodded. "Now, if you'll all excuse me."
He left the office, giving a little nod to Lydia as he went.
"What happened with Verdi, Lydz?" Freddie demanded. "Where did you go? He came back in looking drastic! I was telling Soph. He looked like he'd bled half to death. White as a sheet!"
Lydia stood. She gestured to them to leave the dining table and sit in the comfortable seats near Draco's desk, where she began the story. She told them about the barely visible blobs in her crucible. How Verdi had triggered the appearance of the hydra in his office. How he had turned into the huge black vampire beast. How she had banished the hydra. How she had felt Ambrose and Verdi communicating. How Ambrose had pushed her away from reading what was said. She told them how mad this had made her and that she had got the crazy idea of opening the egg and talking to Alorea.
She told them how she had gone to Harry, then taken him to the MBI. How she had taken the director and Tally with them into Alorea's prison room. After a pause to steel herself, she told them how she had opened the egg and made Alorea tell them all she had done and all her plans. She told them how the others had questioned her but how little of it was helpful because of the time that had passed. Once again she paused. She told them how Alorea had broken down when she realised she had failed her mission and how vulnerable she would be when sealed back in the egg. She told them how hysterical, how utterly petrified, she had been and how certain of retribution. She told them how she had begged to die, there and then, rather than be left to her punishment.
"What, or who, she was afraid of," Lydia told them, "she called 'The Grey Watcher', who came to her in dreams."
"No!" said Freddie, his hands on his face.
"The same words you used, exactly," Sophie noted.
"Ambrose…" Freddie began to say.
"Yeah, he's been up to something all along," Lydia continued what she thought he was going to say. "He's been pushing me one way, then the other. He's been running all the people who are supposed to be looking after me. And I'm sure he stopped me opening the egg before. Well, two can play at that. I can shut him out of spying on me all the time."
Freddie leaned forward to explain. "Look, he only stopped you opening the egg because you didn't have the confidence to contain her. If he'd had to do it, well, that would have given him away."
"And he knew, when you could do it, that would make you more confident of your powers," Sophie added. "You need to tell him what happened, though. Just in case you did manage to shut him out."
They stopped. Lydia was open-mouthed and looking from one to the other and back as though she were watching a table tennis match.
"You knew?" she said. "You knew that he was a wizard? How long?"
"A couple of years, nearly," Freddie said. It was a casual remark. "Calibrating his scientific instruments."
"Christmas before last," Sophie confirmed.
Lydia was aghast. "Why didn't you say anything?"
Sophie sucked her teeth at Lydia. "Because he told us not to. You needed to grow into your power, until you could use it and control it. Man alive, I'm pretty sure we couldn't have told if we tried. He'd have stopped us. And we got our own parts in this, you know? Don't be givin' us hard times – plenty of them coming, anyway."
Lydia hiccupped.
Freddie leaned forward and held Lydia's hands in his. "Soph's right about telling Ambrose everything about Alorea. You're ready to hear things, now. You should talk to Ambrose. Go and see him soon, girl. Your time… to shine… has come!"
Lydia looked at them both, again. "Are you going to come with?"
"No," Sophie told her. "Ambrose will have things to say that he won't want us to hear."
Lydia looked to Freddie.
"Don't look at me," he said. "She's right. Anyway, I'm washing my hair that night, whenever it is."
"Friday night," Lydia decided. "Now I just want to crash. I might sleep until Friday."
"Nah," Freddie predicted. "Dark Arts tomorrow. You won't miss that."
Lydia might not have had the opportunity to sleep until Friday, but she needed sleep as soon as possible. She went to her Ravenclaw dormitory. She cast a charm to stop others from disturbing her, apart from Xander. She did not use her wand. It was a lovely wand but she did not need it. To be honest, she was unsure whether it could handle the amount of power she could now command. Her head was buzzing with thoughts of the magic she had cast in the past. She understood it all, now. But she needed sleep – not because of the magical energy she had used but because of the new ideas and knowledge she had faced.
She made herself stop thinking and worrying. She focused on controlling her breathing. Counting to four breathing in, counting to seven breathing out. Counting more slowly as she calmed down. She released the tension in her muscles: her shoulders, her jaw, her tongue, her brow…
She stepped out from the trees and walked towards the ruin. She pushed the rain back into the sky and told the clouds to flee. They obeyed. It was late evening and the sun was low. As the clouds moved to let the sun look upon the scene it cast a warm glow over the long-derelict building. The walls no longer looked foreboding. The leafless trees inside looked a tragi-comic echo of the roof and wooden beams the ruin must once have known. The ruin no longer threatened her, but there was one inside who did.
As Lydia mounted the steps to the empty arched doorway a figure appeared. It was cloaked in grey, as before, but now she could see that the grey was a mass of wisps which swirled about the form of the Watcher, not a cloak as she had thought. Between the wisps she could make out the thin form of a man.
"We meet again, little girl. What brings you here? Are you ready to reveal your inner self to me?" the voice scraped and resonated, as if it came from the stones of the hill and the ruin.
Lydia felt something approaching from behind. She turned to look. A dragon the size of a lorry was approaching her. Its scales and skin were silver, like polished armour, though touched around the edges with a black stain. It spoke to her in deep but friendly tones.
"Don't worry, mage-warrior, old Nosey Norman there cannot see me. I have a request, or is it a warning? Anyway, I would advise you not to look into his eyes. Not quite yet. I don't think he's in any rush to get started but our side could do with a little more time to prepare. You are doing well, but there is more you could learn. And the others are lagging behind you. Let them catch up. Don't let him trick you into looking into his eyes. We will decide when the time is right. Madoc asked to be remembered to you. He sends his love."
Lydia turned back to the Watcher. He was lowering his hood of swirling grey strands. Lydia turned to look at the ruin.
"I like what you've done with the old place," she said. "It's a bit Gothic for my tastes. I know some Slytherins who would like it, though. Do you have crypt? En-suite bathroom, I hope."
"Look at me, child," the Watcher grated. "Look into my eyes."
"No," Lydia replied. "I don't fancy the idea."
"LOOK AT ME!"
Lydia could feel a force trying to raise her head. She shrugged it off.
"No, I don't think so," she replied. "See you some other time, attention seeker dude."
Lydia awoke in a cold sweat. Her words had been braver than she had felt. She saw Xander sitting calmly, waiting for her.
"Come on then, Xander," she whispered, reaching out to him. "I think I need a hug."
Lydia knocked at Ambrose's study door.
"Please come in and berate me all you wish, Lydia," came his voice from within.
She stared through the door. Extending her senses was something she had been working on with Draco for a while now. She could see Ambrose was sitting in his armchair by the fire. He waved to her. Of course he knew she could see him. He may be a fraud as an uncle but he must be one heck of a wizard. She'd show him. She 'intended' to walk through the door as if it had no substance. Her mind prepared the door but it resisted. He was testing her! She pushed with her mind in a fire of fury and walked forwards. She did not care if the door was solid, vapour or liquid fire, she was going in. The door offered no resistance.
Ambrose jumped to his feet and held out his arms. "My dear lady, that was impressive. Stephano was correct, you have gained your true power at last. Please, before you tear into me, take a seat and I will answer your questions."
Another armchair appeared, half-facing Ambrose's and side-on to the fire. Lydia let her anger go and sat down. Ambrose took to his seat, too. She could see tears in his eyes and knew they were tears of pride. She softened her attitude towards him.
"You'll answer all my questions?" she asked.
"All those I can answer."
"And you'll answer truthfully."
"Yes," he replied.
She frowned. "What if I don't know the right questions to ask?"
He tilted his head. "That is entirely possible. Let me tell you the story, the background to all this. It may assist you in asking the most pertinent questions."
So Ambrose spent hours telling her his story, a skein of many tangled and interwoven stories. This time she believed him. She told him about the dreams she had been having. He explained how they fitted into the story and how they could be interpreted in the light of old parts of the story and parts of the story still to come. She told him about her meeting with Alorea Rakissen and the things she had said. By this time, Lydia could see how it meshed with what Ambrose had told her.
As the story and the resulting questions and answers came to an end, Lydia had one last one to ask. It had been preying on her mind.
"Who else knows all this?"
Ambrose smiled. "I try to keep the numbers down, if only because it all takes so long to tell. But Stephano has been a colleague for several years and knows me rather well. Minerva knows much of it. Draco, as the result of unfortunate circumstances, knows the basics, as does Filius. Your mother has known some of it for years. And, of course, Xander and I have discussed much of it during the times we have been together. You can learn a great deal from cats, Lydia. Admittedly, it is only cat stuff so not of much use to us, but there is quite a lot of it. Oh, and Freddie and Sophie, as you know.
Lydia nodded. "What about Harry? Does he know? He probably should."
"Indeed he should. And soon, he will."
7