Hello again! Look, see updating again; aren't you all proud of me? This story is annoying and hard to write but it's coming along nicely I swear. Sorry it's taking so long to finish but I'm working on a few other projects at the same time. I'll try and be better on the updates, I promise. Till then…enjoy! Read and review!

Chapter Twenty-Two:  Days filled with Misery

          "Trouble sleeping?" Valentine asked, glancing up from the glasses he was polishing. It was early morning and one of Silas' parties had just broken up.

          "What time is it?" Snape yawned, stretching his aching muscles. Imre was drilling him daily now, but he found none of the serenity he had felt training. Sleep gave him no comfort as well, as he had become prone to nightmares. So he took to pacing, quietly sliding out from beside Jackie and walking around the empty halls of her villa or, on nights like this, the Looking Glass. The theater's entire upper floor had been converted to several large loft-like apartments, places where one could rest a night or two if needed, or make their home.

          Home…

          "Half past seven," Valentine answered, tearing off a sheet from an old newspaper to dry another glass. He looked at Snape, over the rims of his shades. "You look beaten. Jackie keeping you up at night?"

          "Something like that." Snape stretched again before rubbing his stomach and smiling ruefully. "She's turning me soft."

          "The price of being a kept man, no?" Valentine laughed, switching the glasses.

          Severus favored him with a smile before letting it fade quickly. He couldn't say he liked the idea of being Jackie's pet, no matter how fruitful the bounty. He was not a libertine nor did he like the idea of being labeled one. He exhaled and took the paper Valentine was using for rags to give himself something to do.

          The newspaper was a week old and clamored with reports of war. Names he had read back at Hecate now made the headlines as a growing body count came from more frequent attacks. He read over the paper, searching for news of Hecate. The immortal Compound had been besieged by legislation from the IWC that seized power from the Compound and gave it the respective Ministries. This robbed Aurors of power, forcing them to obey the guidelines of the countries. Hecate was screaming to have her authority restored and be granted full war powers. A move like that would legalize the use of the Unforgivable Curses.

          Snape inhaled. Until now the general public did not consider this a war. He could only imagine what event would force the politicians into proclaiming a war.

          Valentine must have seen the expression on his face. "I know. Time does fly in here, doesn't it?"

          "This place really does swallow up time."

          "That's the idea," Valentine offered, ripping off the front page to clean his cantor. "The Looking Glass was created so you'd lose sense of time and place. Silas designed it so you could forget yourself in here and just…eat, drink, and be merry. It's good at what it does, isn't it?"

          "Like it has a life of its own." Snape moaned, leaning his head against the bar. "How do you stand it?"

          "Stand living here?" Valentine shrugged. "I keep busy. Idle hands are the devil's plaything, you know." He replaced that glass.  "And you should, too."

          "Keep busy? How? Lord Voldemort's potions hardly keep me up at night. Rudimentary poisons and children's brews," Snape scoffed. He turned around and looked out at the empty theater.

          And again in his stomach, he began to feel the unease of a life being wasted. He shook his head and exhaled angrily.

          An action Valentine caught. "Hey, Sev, you're pretty good with Potions right?"

          "That's the rumor."

          "I've got a friend who deals with Potions. She's working up there by Kingston, something to do with mandrakes and belladonna. Do you think you could help her out somewhat?"

          "Belladonna? Mandrakes? What is she doing? Poison studies?"

          "Actually, she's working on some sort of personal quest, something that has to do with lycanthropy."

          "That is by no means my field of expertise."

          "Never was kept up by the werewolf stories?"

          "One tried to eat me once. Does that count?"

          "I suppose it could." Valentine nodded. "Can I ask you to meet her?"

          Snape searched the barkeep's eyes. "Sure, I'll do it."

          "Good. I told her you'd meet her this morning. Eight o'clock, at the Rimbauer restaurant. Been there before?"

          "Yeah." Snape frowned, pleasantly surprised. "How did you do that?"

          "Do what?"

          "Know I was feeling listless before I told you?"

          "I'm a bartender, Severus." Valentine poured some coffee and slid it towards him. "I make it my business to know my clientele."

          "You're too good for this life, Valentine."

          "That's the rumor." He laughed, pouring himself some of the black liquid and staring at it distastefully. "Her name is Nicanora Vargas, but everyone calls her Nora." A soft, begrudged smile crossed his lips. "That or Queen Bitch."

          "Gee, that's reassuring," Snape said, standing. He smiled at Valentine. "Thank you, by the way."

          "Hey, you seem like a decent sort of fellow," the barkeep said. "Might as well let you know that there's more than one out there."

          Snape watched the man and was struck by how young he looked. Valentine was shorter than most men and had this impish charm to him that made women swoon. His hair was always mussed and commonly dyed red at the tips. He  wore jeans flared over his jackboots and tight shirts that proudly displayed the icons of various bands. There was something in the way he moved that reminded Snape of Billy.

          That could be the reason Snape trusted Valentine from the beginning.

          Valentine looked up. "You're going to be late for your meeting."

          Snape stuffed his hands in his pockets and smiled at Valentine before taking his leave. He walked outside, looking up at the rising sun. He felt the wind blow against him softly, and he tugged on his cloak.

          It was colder now, he noticed. The trees were beginning to lose their leaves and brace for a cold winter. Snape bit his lip and nodded at the huge church that greeted him.

          The squat, round priest who was sweeping the stoop looked up, smiled at him and waved. For a moment, Snape considered waving back, but thought against.

          He had promises to keep…


          "Gideon Mallory, you better get your sorry ass back here before I personally hunt you down and make you regret the day you eve chose become an Auror!" Amissa Moon shouted over the Floo.

          The specter in the flames made a face.  "How about I just send Clare in my stead? Will that make things better?"

          "Bring that damn Ravenclaw with you!" The Runes Master smiled at her friend, brushing back her curtain of frost-colored hair. "Besides, who else am I going to have to gossip with at the wedding?"

          "So," the man said, a coy smile tugging at the corners of his mouth, "you're going through with it?"

          Amissa lowered her head and studied the ring on her finger. "Sydney made a mistake…I know he never meant to hurt me. He's only human, and that's something all of you war dogs tend to forget." She smiled softly. "He loves me. I know he does."

          "And what about the kid?"

          "Oh!" Amissa announced, as proud as she would have been had the child been her own. "We got the first pictures from the doctor's today! You can make out her feet."

          "So it's a girl?"

          "Well, Sydney thinks it'll be a boy, but I know better. It's a girl."

          "Does she look like her father?"

          "Sure does," Amissa said, with a smile that made people nervous. "All curled and useless."

          "I swear if I can I'll make it…But no promises."

          "You better." Her voice softened. "Hecate isn't the same without you."

          That disarming grace that all Malfoys were known for came through full blast as Gideon bowed his head softly towards her before flipping off the Floo. Amissa tsked at the fireplace, before turning away and gathering the files she had to deliver to Sydney. As she walked down the halls, Amissa began to recount all that had passed in the last year.

          It was Friday October 26 and within three weeks, it would be the one year anniversary of Billy Moore and his family's deaths. Finally, old wounds were beginning to show signs of healing. Sanyu and Ellis' witch-hunts had died down when it was shown they weren't accomplishing anything.
 
          Since then, Amissa had been appointed Minister of Runes at Hecate Compound was spending a small fortune on her wedding, which would take place that following March at her home in Wales. It was rumored that she and Sydney were working on a new, legitimate heir to the Moon-Van Ness estates.

          And the squad had received a new Auror, a woman nicknamed Celia 'Sky' Falls. Her youthful spunk and talent seemed to bring Billy's soul back to the group, and Jean Andre and Jude were quickly falling into a friendship that rivaled the one that had been broken.

          Finally, Malachi Smith had been given an honorable discharge and was now aide to Hecate's leader Vladimir Fenrir.

          This left the command of Hecate's Unspeakables open…

          And Sydney Van Ness was a whisper on the lips of important men.

          He was poised to become the replace Malachi Smith, making him one of the most powerful men at Hecate Compound.

          But he had promised Amissa he would retire and even though, in his blue eyes, people could see his resolve to do so fading, his word to Amissa bound him. He had almost lost her once, and he was certain he wouldn't do anything to endanger their relationship again.

          He wouldn't leave her side for all the gold in the world. Amissa smiled to herself. Nor would she leave his. They were going to grow old together…in that ranch he was always talking about.

          "Wonder who'd take his place?" Sky Falls was saying as Amissa entered. She had finally decided that working was overrated anyways. She pushed away from her desk and yawned. "I thought it was you, Jude."

          "Not likely," Remington said, throwing his files over the desk and cursing. His hair was mostly gray now and his eyes seemed dead. He looked like a corpse that had forgotten to die. The last year had been harder on him than most. People said he felt the Moore family's death rested on his shoulders. "I heard it was Phoenix Hawke's if he wanted it."

          Andre Lafayette sipped his drink and narrowed his eyes. "The politician? What does Hawkey boy know about fighting?"

          "Phoenix knows how to play fields, the politics and the fighting," Sky defended.

          "Besides…" said a voice from the doorway that nobody had heard for months, "…he's like his father."

          "Ari?!" Jude exclaimed, raising from his chair, disbelieving. "Is it really you?"

          "A little worn for wear but I'm still good." She said, wincing from the stiffness of battle fatigue. "At least that's what they tell me."

          She was dressed in pitch black, from her high collar to her polished leather boots, save for the image of an orange and red phoenix that was over her right shoulder. It was bitchy Ari, Jean announced playfully, complete with dangerous look and gloves.

          Jude pulled her into a hug, which caused her to stiffen. He pulled away and frowned. Ari pulled off her coat, revealing a masterfully kept frame under a tank top.

          On her neck were a painful set of vampire bites, but peering out from her back were a pair of tattooed angel wings. Three Japanese glyphs rested on the back of her neck and trailed into her wings. She smiled at them, shrugging. "Figured you couldn't fight demons unless you're an angel, eh? The bites are from a secret admirer named Isaiah. Dumbledore sent me to hunt down some rumors and they were true."

          "What was it all about?"

          "The vampires and werewolves tried to unite. There's chaos in the underworld now that somebody killed Daniel. It's like a civil war." Ari winced again as she positioned herself against Jude's chest. "Well, Albus wanted me to interrupt the games…Vampires got away, but I got a couple of weres for my walls."

          "Don't let Amissa hear you," Falls quipped. "She'll have your hide."

          Amissa took this chance to nudge Ari with her boot. "Damn straight."

          "I promise you, I put them down quietly, Frosty." Ari moved just in time to avoid another kick. "In any case, Dumbledore let me have a vacation, so here I am."

          "How long?"

          "I'm expected back late November." She gave Andre a private smile. "God, it's good to see you again." She looked up. "You too, Jude."

          "And what about me?" Sydney entered the room, smiling. "I never thought I'd see you again, Ari."

          "Why are you all acting like I died and came back from the dead? I just went to England."

          "Ah, yes, England," Sydney mused. "Where all bad Aurors go when they die." Now it was his turn to have Amissa kick him.

          "Come, Ash," Andre said, walking over and claiming Ari for himself. He smiled softly at her, calling her by a secret name only Severus had called her. "Let's go grab something to eat."

          "Old friend coming back from the dead," Sky announced, already handing out the coats. "Yes, that warrants taking off the rest of the day for a welcome back. Where to?"

          Amissa smiled. "Where else? Sick Dick's."

          The Kaga mused in mock distaste, "There's nothing quite like that old, ragged barbeque joint for a welcome-home party."

          "Eat, drink, and be merry!" Jude said playfully. "For tomorrow you die."

          Ari glanced at him, frowning. She had heard that before…from a Death Eater during an attack. She met his eyes, searching, but he just smiled softly at her.

          "Make sure you get your coat back on," Jude whispered. "It's getting cold out there."