A/N: Later in this chapter I describe Heather's rooms at Hogwarts. I actually was so bored the other day that I started creating the rooms in The Sims. I'm sure I'm going to upload it to the official Sims site, I just don't know when. I'll inform those who want to see them as soon as I do, however.
-*-*-
Heather Hidden
Chapter Six
-*-*-
August first started with a thud for Heather. Literally.
"Come on now. We can't eat until you're up." Cut through her dreams.
"'amnit, 'Ad…'ivedoorinutes." She slurred her speech, but the elder understood none-the-less.
He sighed at her. She was tired. Spending half the night fighting with one's brother would make anyone exhausted, but he had been unable to keep his emotions in his own mind, forcing her to spend more of her own precious energy to hold a shield against it. However, Harry wouldn't eat until he knew the redhead was there to protect him from everyone else, "You have to get up, Heather."
Reluctantly, the girl ran a hand over her face, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. "I have to get that boy to understand that I get hurt when he can't stop his mind." She mumbled, falling out of the bed with a dull thump, "Ow."
The elder man just sighed again, and moved to her dresser to begin fishing through the rumpled clothing for something that was actually clean, "Will you ever fold your clothes?"
"No." She replied, sleepily. The teenage professor stumbled into her bathroom, never shutting the door and started to brush her teeth.
"Here." Severus handed her a pair of wrinkled jeans and a long-sleeve blue cotton, button-down shirt.
"Could you please get me…"
"I am not going into your underwear drawer." He deadpanned.
"Please?"
He glared at her, "When you were seven, I would've. But you're almost nineteen."
She stuck out her tongue at him, "Fine." Heather giggled at herself suddenly, and the elder man realized she'd finally looked at the mirror to see the picture she presented.
Warm rouge hair, which she had placed in a ponytail before she fell asleep, was partially pulled free of its binding and stuck in different directions. Her emerald eyes were bloodshot from not having woken naturally, and her lips were chapped from the dry air that the castle had provided in her rooms.
"You should open the windows at night." He advised, then turned, "I'll inform Albus that you're awake."
"Would you please tell him that I'm sorry that I've been calling him uncle? I just don't think it'd be easy to explain to the children that I call him my grandfather because technically he is."
"I think you'd have a harder time explaining that you call me uncle and Minerva your aunt even though we adopted you a decade ago." He sent back, exiting the room.
The nineteen-year old smiled to herself. She hadn't been able to have just a few minutes alone with the man for days. Not that she minded, after all she finally was about to be with her baby brother.
'Not a baby anymore.' The thought hit her and she choked back a sob. Gods, she hated when this happened. For years her adoptive-parents-slash-godparents had tried to get her to understand that her parents had loved her, that her brother was safe…'Oh, he was safe. Locked in a bloody cupboard. At least he was protected in that space…or maybe not.'
Grimly, she pulled on her clothes, brushed out her slight-curled hair and replaced it to it's holder, before scrubbing the few tears from her face. Slowly, then in a dead run, she made for the Great Hall. She paused a moment outside the doors, caught her breath, and entered the room.
Everyone was already settled at an oval table, Harry nestled 'thank heavens' between Ron and Severus.
The redhead smiled cheerfully, "Good morning!"
"Have a good night's sleep?" Hermione inquired as everyone greedily dug in, and Heather shoved her uncle over to sit beside her brother.
"Mostly."
The boy had appeared in her chambers that night, so no one but the potions master knew what had happened.
I'm sorry.
One apology down.
He stared at her, his mouth hanging open, But I kept you up all night.
If I hadn't wanted you there, I would have brought you down to Uncle Severus' rooms.
Oh. The fifteen year old lifted his gaze from her face, sending it back to his food. His stomach threatened to revolt just looking at it.
"Would you like something with less…substance? Soup and a piece of toast, perhaps." The new teacher inquired, "I'm sure Dobby would have no problem with at least making you some broth."
Nodding dumbly, he allowed himself to daze out and lean against her shoulder while she ordered his new meal. He hummed under his breath.
"Your mum used to sing that to you at night when you didn't want to sleep." Paddock whispered, a smile on her lips as she chopped up her eggs.
"Really?" That piqued his interest. He'd had no one to tell him what his parents had been like, or what he had been like as an infant, beyond what little Sirius, Remus, Dumbledore, and Snape had already told him.
"Uh hum. You, my friend, were a very talkative baby. You liked to speak to anyone nearby, and got mad because they couldn't understand what ever it was you were trying to say."
He asked his soul for permission to smile and was granted a brief one, unsurprised when a small bowl of chicken broth appeared with a large plate of toast.
She tsked at the sight, "I probably should have told him a small bowl and a small plate."
"I won't have to eat all of that, will I?"
The question, asked with the voice of the Harry they once knew, made the redhead's heart leap, "No. Just as much as you can."
He nodded and hungrily shoveled a spoonful of the warm liquid in his mouth. It hit his stomach and stayed, "I don't like this."
She looked at him oddly, "Do you want something else?"
"No." He sighed, "I mean that I'm hungry, but that I can't trust my stomach to keep anything in."
"It'll get easier." Paddock leaned over and kissed his hair, then returned to her food.
Hermione finished chewing the egg she had shoveled in, "What are we going to do today?"
"Well, lucky for us, these nutcases…" The new teacher pointed to her co-workers, "…have some business to attend to, so I thought maybe we could go in Diagon Alley or Hogsmeade and then fool around in my potions la…"
Severus spat pumpkin juice across the table, "Potions Lab?!"
His goddaughter looked at him innocently, "That's what I said."
"I…I…no. You can't even make a simple mixture. Who gave you a lab?"
Her innocent look turned evil, "The Order."
"When?"
"Three months ago."
Of course,
the one day that he had not been able to attend the meeting, she had ended up
with a lab… "Where is it?"
"Next to yours."
"Destroy anything – ANYTHING
– of mine and you'll be grounded until you're fifty!"
"As you so astutely reminded me this morning – I'm almost nineteen. You can't ground anymore, Uncle Severus." She laughed at his red face, and rose to her feet, "Well, on that note, I think I'll go clean up my rooms. I'll save him the heartattack and we'll just hang out in my rooms today."
The students nodded their content reply, all eyes on her as she wheeled and exited the Hall, humming as she went.
-*-*-
A half hour had passed before any of the others appeared at the portrait which hid the entrance to her quarters. Harry had appeared first and had quickly claimed part of the large couch for himself, followed by Ron who stretched out on the fuzzy wool rug in front of the couch. Hermione was next with the Weasley twins in tow, a book cradled between them.
The knowing glint often inflected in Albus' eyes once again occupied Heather's, while she softly told the boy that there was a late birthday gift.
"Professor Dumbledore wanted to give this to you yesterday, but he got called away before he could and it wasn't completely finished until last night." Fred stumbled over his words a bit, and George pressed the book forward.
He didn't open it. He didn't need to to know what was between the leather covers, "Thanks."
"Well, do you all want to just hang here? I've got a small library through that door, if anyone wants to read." She stared pointedly at the brunette girl, "Or like I said before, we could take a trip somewhere. Some place close by preferably if we do. Tommy and Thea had a family emergency to attend to so they won't be here for the next day or so to help me keep all of you in line."
The Youngest Mr. Weasley, as he was happy to be called by Paddock, stole a quick glance at his best friend, who had started to nap on the couch, "I think we should just hang here and let him sleep for a little while."
"Good idea. We can always go out later." She smiled gently, shifting to pick up the fifteen year old and then carried him into her bedroom. She deftly tucked him in between the gold-star and red sheets, "Nite, Harrison." She placed a faint kiss on his forehead, and ducked back into the living room.
The quartet of kids stared at her as she returned.
"What?" She looked at them incredulously, pulling off her outer robe and draping it over a chair situated by her chess table.
"Heather, you treat him like he's your brother." One of the twins told her.
Her hand reached behind her, closing the door, "I told Uncle Albus that you're all too bloody smart to miss all the clues." She muttered, "I think all of you should sit down."
They complied readily, worried and already getting angry.
"Alright. What I'm about to tell you he can't know for a little while more. Not until I can explain this to him my self." She breathed deep, "Yes, Harry is my brother. I know for his own reasons that he only recently told you of the voice he hears in his head."
"And you're it."
The redhead nodded dumbly, "It's called Adiuvo. It is a bond only between siblings, and it is begun by the parents. The day my parents died was the day that they created the strings of it, and it's been thickening from that day on. But despite this wonderful bond, after they died, I was separated from him and I was not able to do anything more than comfort him." She collapsed on to the couch and put her head in her hands, "I knew something was going on in that house, but I could never get anyone to go there. The Wards are protecting him." She mimicked the Headmaster, "If he were getting hurt, we'd know. Bullshit."
The anger immediately melted from the other's eyes, even Ron's, which surprised Heather mightily. George lisped out the words, "You tried to get him away?"
"Many times. I had screaming matches with my family so often, they actually knew when one was coming."
"When are you going to tell him?" Ron refused to meet her eyes. He wasn't angry with her, but that didn't stop him from losing just a bit of respect for the girl.
"I don't know. If it weren't for my responsibility, I'd tell him right now. But I know my family wishes I wait until he is recovered." She noticed a blue twinkle outside her window, "I thought they weren't going to be back for days."
She hurriedly wandered to the window, shoving a sheer curtain to the side.
Thomas and Dorothea were stumbling across the grounds, the blue-haired man trying to support his sister despite his obviously wounded leg demanding limp.
"Fred, go to the Headmaster's office. The password is Peanut Butter Crunch. There will be a small Snowy owl with Fawkes. Send a letter to Madam Pomfrey with it." The boy ran off, sensing the urgency, as the girl turned to the second twin and the youngest boy, "Stay here. Watch Harry, alright?"
She didn't wait for an affirmative, instead grabbing the other girl's hand and running for the hospital wing.
Halfway there, the two girls intercepted the twins. Both Tommy and Thea appeared to be bleeding from virtually every part of their bodies.
"What happened?" Heather demanded.
"Portkey was tampered with." Tommy groaned, continuing on for the wing, leaning his sister onto their friend's lean shoulder.
"That's not possible. I made the key."
"But someone else delivered it." The Swedish girl sighed, struggling to keep her head up.
The wheels of the nearly-nineteen year old's mind began turning, trying to figure out who the traitor in the ranks was.
Eventually the now-quartet made it to their destination, where each twin gladly fell into beds.
"What
happened there?" Paddock implored once again, the told Hermione to bring her a
potion from the medi-witch's stores, "Well?"
"We got there in time to see
Voldemort leaving our house. He sent
the message." The man replied, knowing his sister was too concentrated on
trying to breathe, "Heath, he knows that Harry is with you."
She appeared to ignore the last sentence, casting a quick glance at her other best friend, "How'd you get hurt?"
"He saw us and sent a couple of Death Eaters in our direction. We were just able to apparate into Firenze's den."
Poppy ran into the room at that moment, Fred taking up the rear, "Keeping taking care of him." Was her posthaste order, turning to Thea and setting up several sustaining spells around the girl.
Heather didn't speak again, though Tommy could read her eyes. He knew she had come to certain final decision.
Finally finished with all the care that she could provide, she kissed his forehead, letting her lips linger for several seconds, then moved as if to leave. Kayesfort grabbed her wrist, "Wait until tonight. Severus will be here."
She averted her eyes, "I can't keep it a secret from him anymore." The green orbs sought out his, "He's being brave because he thinks that he has to prove himself worthy of being loved. Last night, after I let him finish yelling at me, he admitted that it was that it was the first time in his life that he felt normal." The intense gaze she took on let him know that fighting with her was going to end up proving futile, "Who am I to deny him a family? A normal life? Even I got a chance to just be a kid. My fate is likely to be an early grave, as is his, yet when given the choice between work and play, no one complained if I decided to be a child.
"Doesn't he deserve the right to be a kid?" Her voice was barely a whisper.
Thomas rubbed the skin that had been gripped too tightly, "I should know by now that you're usually right when it comes to him."
Quietly she slipped away, smiling sadly.
-*-*-
*v* Cassie Jamie *v*
cj.1@cassie-jamie.com
