A/N: this will be known as the "late chapter" but I can't do anything but apologise….. anyway, thanks for your support, your comments, your encouragement and the happy tingly feeling I get when I read your reviews!!!
Lately, I decided to name each chapter, starting now, and when I have a bit more free time, all previous chapters. Suggestions for titles are welcome.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything owned by the talented Ms Rowling and/or WB, Scholastic Books or anyone else that is getting a profit out of our favourite characters.
FAMILY MATTERS
PART XXIII: NO ONE KNOWS WHAT YOU'RE DOING….. NOT EVEN YOURSELF!
"Svetlana, wake up!"
Svetlana did wake up suddenly, all her body tensing up, her blue eyes panickedly examining her surroundings in search of the male voice which had just whispered in her ear. Severus was asleep by her side, one of his arms thrown over her waist to keep her from leaving, and there was no-one else in the room.
"Svetlana, are you awake?" Terror sweeping through her, Svetlana recognised the voice: it was Oleg, her Strategy and Tactics instructor, her mentor and one of the highest-ranking officers of the Fleurs.
//Oleg? Oleg Rshevsky? Where are you?// asked Svetlana in panic; when she saw the room was indeed empty, she realised what was happening and sighed inwardly, relaxing against her husband. //Oh, it's telepathy!//
"So it is" answered the voice, which only sounded inside Svetlana's head "How are things going, Firefly?"
//Everything is going according to plan. I have just overcome an important obstacle and I'm ready to keep working// Svetlana chose her words carefully and kept the rest of her mind blank, a technique she had learned even when she was at school.
"I'm glad to hear that. We have just received an important piece of information, and I'm afraid you'll have to change your strategy"
//What now? I had it all worked out!//
"Harry Potter is under the protection of….."
//…..of a very ancient and powerful spell that won't allow anyone to harm him magically or otherwise. I know, Oleg//
"And is everything going according to plan?!"
//Yes, I think it is//
"I trust you, Firefly, but I don't think I quite understand your strategy….. don't bother explaining it to me now, you'll tell me when all it's done. Anything we can do for you? I know you are not allowed outside Hogwarts' grounds"
//The werewolf. He has disappeared, but I know he's alive somewhere. It would be uncomfortable if he was caught and tried, or managed to investigate on his own//
"He won't" answered Oleg quietly "Anything else?"
//None that I can think of. Is the Dark Lord still intent on killing me on account of my husband?//
"The Family Reunion programme, as he called it, is still working, yes. Don't leave Hogwarts if you can help it"
//I won't, I have work to do//
"Are you sure you don't need reinforcements? We can always send Delacour there"
//I'm doing just fine; just keep Lucius Malfoy out of my way for a while. I'll contact you if I need anything later.// answered Svetlana //By the way, how can I contact you?//
"Not by owl or Floo, those messages can be intercepted, and you can't afford to lose your cover….. I told you you needed to learn telepathy! I will contact you in a month, to see how things are going. If you need anything in the meanwhile, there's always the emergency channel"
//Very well, Oleg. Thank you//
"You're welcome. And remind me to give you a wedding present when I see you again"
//Oleg? How on earth did you find out? Oleg?! Oleg?!//
Svetlana gave a disbelieving snort and looked over to where Severus was sleeping, his dark hair staining the pillow like ink, his white skin almost blending with the bed-sheets, his left forearm on her waist, the dark outline of the Dark Mark resting over her bellybutton. With the smile of someone who understands the irony of it all, Svetlana reached for her wand without awaking Severus, and preformed a Concealing Charm on the tattoo on her left shoulder.
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Ron was on the North Tower, sitting on a balcony at the very top of the Hogwarts building. He usually came to this place to think, when he was upset of confused about something and Hermione couldn't or wouldn't be any help. And at the moment, with Potions cancelled by Snape's illness, he had taken a time to think about Harry.
It was hard for the impulsive red-head to even hear Harry's name without feeling a wave of anger hit him, but with the cold wind nipping at his nose and the whole of the Hogwarts grounds extended at his feet like a map, he could take it easy, think about it almost as if it had all happened to a different person.
The problem was that he felt betrayed. The problem was that Harry had let him down when he most needed him, when he was most necessary to protect their honour, their Gryffindor pride and even their physical integrity. And while a small part of Ron understood *why* Harry had drawn away from the conflict, Ron didn't want to understand: he wanted to be at Harry's side when they pulled a spectacular stunt to humiliate the Slytherins, he wanted to hold Crabbe and Goyle down while Harry took on Malfoy, he wanted to smile superiorly when Hermione answered correctly on Potions, he wanted things to go back to what they were before.
But Harry had changed. He had grown up and matured and had began to worry about adult things like war and humanity instead of remaining a hormonal teenager like his classmates, like his best friend. And that was something Ron didn't want to forgive; because he had been there for Harry always, and he didn't deserve Harry letting him down now.
That's why The Boy Who Lived would have to try a bit harder to break down Ron's resistance. But he would. Sooner or later, they would go back to be friends. They would. They just needed time.
But maybe time was the only thing they didn't have.
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Severus woke up when Svetlana relaxed against him. He wasn't used to human contact, he had never been; he had always hid away from any kind of affectionate caress, from any kind of casual touching, in the very few occasions that could have occurred. With his parents, affection was not a problem: there was none from either side, and that was it. While in Hogwarts, the little Potions genius, already bitter, entrenched in a fight against the Gryffindors, surrounded by his aloof Slytherin companions, didn't have any opportunities to practice what is was like to be a human being. At the service of the Dark Lord, what could you expect? And when Svetlana, fragile Svetlana, the shy beautiful girl had come into his life, Severus was afraid to try.
He had always been afraid of her, that was the truth: he had flinched away from her touch, afraid that he would melt under her fingers, because he just didn't know what would happen if he just gave in. //Looks like you're about to find out, doesn't it?// And now she laid in his bed, her soft skin against his, her body completely encased by his left arm, her dark hair tickling his face.
"Are you awake?" she asked softly, so softly he almost didn't hear her.
"Yes" he answered. And then he noticed how terribly inappropriate his mind was for those situations, how woefully inadequate he himself was for any kind of family life.
"Serguei will be arriving soon" she commented, apparently unaware of his discomfort; with a lazy yawn, she stretched luxuriously on the bed, her body rippling under his arm, and then she turned to face him. //I can't believe I'm doing this//.
Her blue eyes looked into his black ones and she smiled tentatively, searching for any signs of repentance from him; seeing none, and feeling very satisfied with it, she leaned in and kissed him lightly, ignoring his nervous flinch.
"I'll get up now," she said without enthusiasm. "because I haven't had anything for lunch, neither have you, and the Slytherins are hoping I'll go to visit them this afternoon" She began to sit up, keeping the sheets wrapped around herself, when she felt the weight of Severus' gaze increase upon her "Severus, are you OK?"
"Yes" he repeated, not knowing what else to say.
"And will you go back to using polysyllabic words any time in the next century?" she asked playfully.
"I don't know" he answered with the shadow of a smirk on his lips.
"Very well then" Svetlana reached for her robes, which laid just by the side of the bed, and began to search for her other garments. //How did my stockings end up here?// she muttered in amusement as she took them off the bookshelf.
Once she was dressed, she turned back to Severus, who hadn't taken his eyes off her. She didn't know what to say to keep the atmosphere light-hearted, and he didn't know what to say, period. Fortunately, Serguei's arrival into the living-room saved his parents the trouble of having to say anything meaningful.
If the child was surprised to see his mother emerge from his father's room, he didn't exteriorise it; he just kissed his mother on both cheeks and asked seriously why his father hadn't gone to class.
"He isn't feeling very well" answered Svetlana, absent-mindedly smoothing the boy's hair.
"And you were taking care of him" stated Serguei, keeping his eyes alert for his mother's reaction.
"I was, yes:" answered Svetlana, smiling down to Serguei "things have changed between us….."
"I see" said the boy tartly.
"…..just like they changed between you and him long before this" she continued.
"Can I see him?" Sudden change of strategy from Serguei, but he wasn't going to have it easy.
"Aren't you going to leave your bag in your room first, wash your hands and do your homework?"
"I wasn't planning on any of that" he answered; at Svetlana's lack of response, Serguei tried to convince her with the charming smile he had used (successfully) on McGonagall.
"Well, I was" answered Svetlana simply ". If you don't want to do it, you can always go and pick your sister up"
"You'll find me in my room" Serguei said with acquiescence.
Owner of the battlefield, Svetlana smiled at both closed doors and took the fire to Willow Vector's room. As soon as she was gone, the door to Serguei's room opened, and the child knocked carefully on his father's door.
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Remus Lupin arrived at the Ngaoundéré Sanctuary when dawn was rising. The place in itself didn't give him a particularly good first impression: it consisted of a group of five huts huddled close together, surrounding a place where some ashes still gave off some smoke and heat. Unsure of where to go, Remus dragged his bag and himself over to the ashes and sat there, waiting for someone to appear.
He had to wait not more than a minute before a man came out of the smaller hut. That he was a wizard, it was clear from the wand on his hand, but even without it, he seemed like a very old and very wise man, the dark-skinned version of Dumbledore down to the twinkle in his black eyes.
"Good morning, Mr Lupin, we have been expecting you. My name is Ahmadou and I'm the one in charge of this place"
"Good morning, sir" answered Remus, getting up clumsily and shaking hands with Ahmadou "I see you had been warned beforehand of my arrival."
"I had indeed" The old wizard regarded Remus for a long minute, until the werewolf started fidgeting and looked down "I must say that I was reluctant to admit you into the sanctuary, Mr Lupin, considering the circumstances that prompted my old friend Albus Dumbledore to facilitate your exit from Hogwarts. But I can see that you are an honest man, and that whatever happened before, will not happen again"
"I assure you that I'll do anything to avoid that" promised Remus.
"I'm sure you will, my friend. Now, come with me: I will show you the place where you will sleep, and then we can have breakfast. I hope you are not afraid of snakes, are you?"
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Oleg Rshevsky sat in his office, looking fixedly at an invisible spot on the white wall in front of him. Sometime he, the third-in-command of Les Fleurs du Mal and one of the most powerful men of his time, wished he knew what his subordinates were doing.
He was thinking of Svetlana Snape, of course. Years before, he had picked her out of a group of twenty-something wizards and witches recruited about the same time, and he had trained her himself. He hadn't done it out of patriotic sympathy, or out of the goodness of his heart, but because he had seen potential, he had seen a thirst to prove herself, and the truth was that she had never failed them. Since her first jobs as a courier, through her first mission in a simple vigilance that almost went wrong, to the assault on Grundings, the German wizarding bank, she had never come back from a mission whose aim wasn't fully achieved.
But it wasn't because of that reason that she had been chosen to carry out the mission at Hogwarts; the real reason was that the Fleurs couldn't get past Dumbledore's examination of the transfer students and new staff, and Svetlana, who had the obligation of going into the school, wouldn't be subjected to such an exam.
But Oleg hadn't liked the idea. It did give them an operative inside Hogwarts, one that wasn't as suspicious as Lucius Malfoy or as inexperienced as Delacour, but it breached one of the Fleurs' first and foremost commands: 'Never put an operative in a situation where s/he will be forced to breach his/her personal principles'. Unlike other organisations, which asked for blind obedience from their agents, and even forced them against friends and family, the Fleurs never put any of their operatives through hard decisions. They didn't, simply because an agent who doesn't have any personal relation to the mission he's on, will regard it professionally and won't make mistakes.
But now Svetlana was very likely to have to betray her husband, and Oleg knew her well enough to foresee that it would be a problem for her; how much of a problem, he didn't know yet.
And then, while he worried about Severus Snape's unknowing influence on his wife, through one of their many, many contacts around the world, word had come that ancient magic had been used to immunise Harry Potter against magical and psychical attacks on him. That put in serious problems the mission Voldemort had paid them to do. Oleg didn't know yet what they could do, and had contacted Svetlana to put the mission on a standstill. And what had been her answer? Not only she knew that very classified information, but she had apparently worked out a solution.
Oleg sighed for the third time that evening, and rubbed his eyes. Sometimes he just wished he knew what his agents were doing.
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A/N: I know that nothing much happened this chapter….. how about spicing things up with a little murder? Hey, I can hear your cries of joy from here, how wonderful is that?! Anyway, you'll have to wait for next chapter for the action/adventure bit and in the meanwhile you can help my inspiration by sending a review!!!!