A/N: oh well, I lied! I said this chapter was going to be in on Friday, and it's Monday again….. I'm not going to make more excuses, and I'll only apologise humbly. As a treat and reward for your patience, I have prepared a murder on ice for today….. I hope none of you likes Gryffindors!
Loonyluna1: you seem to be having problems with your e-mail, because it bounces all my messages back….. or maybe you just have a problem with me! Anyway, thanks for your comments and encouragement and a cookie for liking Svetlana!
Disclaimer: I have no creativity left to make a witty comment here, so refer to previous chapter for disclaimers.
FAMILY MATTERS
PART XXIV: YOU DON'T HAVE MUCH TIME
"Father, can I come in?" asked Serguei from the other side of the door.
"Come in" said Snape's voice from the inside. Serguei pushed the door open and stepped carefully into his father's room, feeling as if he was treading on explosive ground.
"Mother said you were ill" started Serguei, standing respectfully a few feet away from where Severus was finishing getting dressed. "and I wanted to see how you were." A pause, and Serguei dared another comment "You don't seem ill at all"
"I'm not ill anymore" announced Severus, checking on the mirror that his appearance was as it should be; he felt in control of his emotions for the first time in days and he couldn't be more relieved. "Who gave you the lesson today? It wasn't Dumbledore, I hope"
"They gave us a free lesson. Apparently there wasn't anyone available to look after us: Dumbledore was covering the Ancient Runes lesson for the fifth-years and the nurse was taking care of all those people who have the flu"
"A free lesson!" snorted Severus contemptuously "That's what happens when I'm not there…..Well, haven't you got anything to do now? I have to go to my laboratory to prepare a batch of PepperUp Potion."
"Mother also wanted me out of the way." commented Serguei with a tinge of indignation "What happened between you two?"
"Should you need help with your homework, ask your mother, I'll be busy for the rest of the evening." said Severus, pretending he hadn't heard his son's question. "Off you go, then"
Serguei left for his room, looking suspiciously at his father as he left the quarters.
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"….. and I'll give you the Honeydukes catalogue tomorrow, it's really helpful for people you don't know very well" said Svetlana to Willow Vector. They'd been talking of the impending Christmas season and the gifts they had to buy by mail order, since they couldn't leave the school.
"That'd be lovely!" said the Mrs. Vector, looking at her two babies for a moment. The witch seemed tired and worried, and she kept glancing at the door, undoubtedly waiting for her husband's return.
"Thank you for taking care of Siena today, and remember that tomorrow is my turn with the babies" Willow nodded distractedly and Svetlana stood up "Thanks again and I'll see you tomorrow at breakfast"
"Bye!" said Mrs. Vector, falling back on her couch as soon as her friend was out of the room.
"What is wrong with her?" asked Svetlana to Siena; the baby only looked at her with her intelligent blue eyes and kept silent.
Mr and Mrs Vector's quarters were in the North Tower and Svetlana, feeling immensely happy and relieved and wanting to express that somehow, decided to go and see the Hogwarts grounds from the top of the tower. A light snow had fallen during the afternoon, but now the sun had come out and the school looked like something straight out of a fairy tale. As she climbed the last steps to the top of the Tower, she heard a soft noise, an indication that someone else was at her destination.
Standing a few feet away, but hidden from whoever had come to the Tower before her, Svetlana wondered why she had stopped so suddenly: she wasn't doing anything wrong, but there must be a reason why she didn't want that person to see her. Who could it be? Who could be standing in the cold balcony that afternoon? Racking her brains, Svetlana remembered a conversation she had overheard long before in a corridor, between two young Gryffindors.
The Russian witch descended until she reached a broom closet and turned to look at the girl in her arms. Siena looked back, her eyes very wide under the realisation that something was happening.
"It's OK, sweetheart" whispered Svetlana soothingly, taking her wand out "Stupefy!"
Siena, now unconscious, was deposited in the broom closet and Svetlana resumed the ascension of the tower.
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Hermione sat on the Library with a heavy Potions volume in front if her. Seeing that they wouldn't have Snape that afternoon, she had decided to study that day's lesson by herself; Ron had plain refused to accompany her, and instead stomped off God-knows-where, and Harry had shaken his head sadly and retreated to the dorm.
But Hermione hadn't revised much herself. She couldn't stop thinking of what was happening to them, of how the friendship that was supposed to last forever had broken into pieces. And as sensible and sensitive as she could be, she couldn't but admit that Harry could have done things much better, that he could have eased the pain Ron was going through.
And sometimes it was hard for her not to blame Harry when Ron drew away from her, when the usually boisterous red-head remained in sullen silence, when their own relationship was affected by Harry's attitude. But Hermione knew she had to give both boys time: maybe by Christmas they would have come to their sense and they would be happy again.
Yes, Hermione would give them until Christmas to sort things out. In the meanwhile, she would resort to more patience and understanding and the delivery of the occasional subtle hint. And in the end, it would all work out, she was sure. She kept daydreaming of the merry season they had ahead until it was time for her study session with Ron.
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Harry kept staring at the red curtains of his bed, not seeing them, not even realising he was in his Hogwarts dorm and the first snow of the year was falling outside. He felt awfully bad for Ron, and the pain the red-head was obviously going through, but he still didn't see a way to comfort his friend without compromising what he believed in.
When had they drifted apart? When had Harry grown to be a mature, worry-laden adult while Ron was still the carefree teenager he was supposed to be? How had war gone by without dimming the red-head's petty problems, while Harry felt on himself the weight of the whole world? Life just wasn't fair.
Harry could face anything they could throw at him, as long as he had his friends to support him; he had done it since his first year in school, and he could do it even now. But without Hermione's knowledge, without her common sense and sensibility, without Ron's courage, without his unwavering faith on their happy ending, Harry felt lost and vulnerable.
He couldn't do what they asked of him on his own. He had never done anything entirely on his own: since his mother's magic saving him in front of Voldemort, to his friends' help in everything he had gotten himself into afterwards, Harry was someone who depended entirely on the people who surrounded him. That was his greatest strength and his greatest weakness.
And now his strength failed him, and his weakness was exposed for all to see.
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Svetlana treaded noiselessly the few steps until she reached the doorway leading out into the balcony and peeped out from behind a column. Ron was sitting there, looking out into the grounds, his face red from the cold and his bag abandoned anyhow at his feet. Svetlana hid again, feeling her heart beating too fast and a growing wave of fear and anxiety sharpening her senses, blurring reality with too many details.
Taking a deep and silent breath, Svetlana tried to remember whether anyone had seen her going up to the Tower and decided that she hadn't found a soul since she left Willow Vector's room. There were no portraits in that part of the castle either, all of them removed to more inhabited halls and corridors, and the ghosts also preferred to haunt the lower levels. Satisfied with that point, she damned herself for only bringing her usual wand, and not the one given to her by Les Fleurs: if she was to do something, she would have to do it without magic, so that she couldn't be traced afterwards. //Well, you're alone, in a high tower, with a depressed and angry teenager….. I think the answer is obvious//.
Svetlana put her wand back into its pocket and looked in annoyance at her high-heeled shoes and long earrings: the snow that covered the balcony would keep her tiny footsteps in record, and the heels and jewellery would pose a problem for any kind of physical fight. But it was now or never, and Svetlana took off her shoes, her earrings, her rings, put them by the side of the door and placed a temporal Levitating Charm on herself, enough to float over the snow without leaving a trace, but without actually appear she was floating. With a final deep breath, Svetlana advanced into the balcony, coming into Ron's full view.
"What are you doing here?" asked the Gryffindor in surprise "I mean, Mrs Snape, sorry, I thought you were someone else….."
"You thought I was Harry Potter or Ms Hermione Granger?" asked Svetlana with a condescending smile.
"I though it was Harry….. Potter, I mean. Hermione doesn't know I come here" admitted Ron, blushing and looking away.
"I see" said Svetlana, walking towards the battlements. "Actually, I was looking for you; I wanted to show you something" she added, surprising Ron.
"Me? Why not Hermione? I mean….."
"It's about Ms Granger" insisted Svetlana, leaning over the balustrade and looking down "Come here and see; the view it's not too good, but they can't see us either"
"Who can't?" asked Ron curiously, going over to Svetlana and leaning down to see the snow below.
"Can't you see, half hidden under that tree?" instructed Svetlana, pointing to a tree almost out of their sight. Ron struggled to see better, leaning as far as he could over the stone battlements.
"Is it Hermione? Who is she with? I can't see anything….." protested Ron, leaning a bit more, trying desperately to see.
Svetlana pushed herself off the balustrade and, in a single movement, took Ron's legs and lifted them off the snowy ground. Ignoring the boy's strangled protest, and with a strength not easily discovered in her, she pushed Ron's body off the balcony.
But Ron was stronger than most boys his age, and his survival instinct was very well honed: he was left gripping the stones of the ledge with the tips of his fingers. With a supreme effort, he climbed over the edge, and managed to crawl onto the balustrade, panting and trembling.
"What the Hell are you doing?!" he asked in disbelief.
"I'm sorry," said Svetlana, unfazed "it's nothing personal. It's because of Harry, you know? You should have kept your questions for later, though, in the position you're in, you should keep your mouth closed….."
And with that, she pushed Ron again. She had lost the element surprise, but her strength, and Ron's position on the edge of the battlements, made it even easier than the first time, and the red-headed boy couldn't even grab anything as he fell down the highest tower of Hogwarts and into the snow below. There was no-one to see the fall, no-one to hear his cry, everyone too occupied with sitting by the fire to register Ronald Weasley's death.
With a trembling sigh, Svetlana checked the state of Ron's things in the balcony, his footsteps on the snow, the position of his body on the ground below: everything would back up the suicide theory. She then checked to see if she hadn't left any kind of trace on the ground or if anything of hers might have found its way onto Ron's body. But it didn't seem that way, and Svetlana made a quick retreat of the balcony just as the Levitating Charm wore off. She put of her shoes and jewels and collected her unconscious daughter on the way.
When she reached the lower levels of the castle, still not meeting anyone on the way, she put Siena on the floor and awoke her.
"Enervate!" As the girl opened her eyes slowly, Svetlana pronounced the second charm "Obliviate!"
Thus sure that Siena would never remember what had happened, Svetlana hoisted her into her arms again and entered her quarters, ready for a cup of tea.
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Hermione bit her lip and looked for umpteenth time her watch. Ron wasn't Mr Punctuality, but he wasn't usually so late, not even for study sessions. She remembered that he *had* been looking quite peeved when he had left her the last time, and decided to go and look for him. With that decision in mind, she went towards the boys' dorms and knocked.
"Come in" said Harry from behind the closed curtains of his bed.
"Hey, Harry, how are you?" she asked, entering the room, empty but for the Boy Who Lived, who mumbled in response to her question. "I wanted to borrow the Marauders' Map for a minute, Harry: Ron didn't show up for our study session, and I want to look for him"
"Sure" Harry rummaged in his truck for the parchment, given back to him after Barty Crouch Jr.'s death. "I swear I'm up to no good"
The spidery lines began to take shape in the parchment and both Gryffindors looked at the many, many points moving around. Most people were in their common rooms, or in the Library, and the few dots that moved outside those domains belonged to Filch, the staff of the clear grey dots of ghosts.
"I can't see him, Harry!" exclaimed Hermione with a note of panic in her voice.
"Neither can I, Herm" agreed Harry, trying to calm down the hyperventilating girl at his side "Let's go and see Dumbledore, maybe the Map is malfunctioning"
Hermione assented and followed Harry out of the dorms.
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"….. and finally, you equal both sides of the equation. I'm afraid Arithmancy was never my forte at school, and I can't be of much help in this. On the other hand, I'm sure that Professor Vector can give you an explanation during your next lesson" The room hushed suddenly and Svetlana looked up from where she had been helping a sixth-year Slytherins with his homework to see Severus advancing into the common room, dark and threatening like a storm-cloud. He walked up to her, and she stood up.
"Have you seen the Weasley boy lately?" Snape asked in a murmur, knowing that everyone in the room would be trying to guess their words.
"No, I haven't" answered Svetlana, looking at her husband with a question in her eyes.
"Where were you this afternoon?" he asked again, still not giving her a clue.
"After I left your room" she whispered ", I received Serguei, and then went to pick up Siena; I spent a while with Mrs Vector and then went for a walk, I needed to think….. I went back to our quarters after a short while, had a cup of tea and then came here. I've been here over an hour. What happened?"
"The Weasely boy went missing. Granger went to see the Headmaster a while ago to say he hadn't gone to meet her….. at first we thought he had just forgotten, but she said that Potter used a tricky little gadget he has and said the boy isn't on the school grounds. We're on red alert again"
"No-one can leave the school, there are wards!" said Svetlana, still in a quiet murmur.
"Exactly" said Severus, looking around himself.
"Oh, Merlin, you can't mean…..! Not again!" Svetlana bit her lip and also looked around her. The whole of Slytherin was quiet, looking at them. "I'll stay with them, maybe you can take the older students to help you search for the boy….. he has to be here!"
"Mr Malfoy, gather all the sixth and seventh years and come with me. The rest of you, stay in the room; there'll be a hundred points taken off our house if you try to leave" Severus left, followed by a group of confused and wondering students.
"Silence!" said Svetlana, calming down the scared hubbub of the Slytherins "Keep working, if you please!" And she took a deep breath and tried to console Siena, who for some unknown reason, was crying desolately.
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A/N: Poor Siena! I actually feel rather sorry for the girl….. her mother doesn't really love her, and to top it all off, she get used as a weapon and excuse more often than not.
But what will happen with Harry now that Ron is gone? How is Christmas going to be at Hogwarts? There are few chapters left of this fic, and I need to solve everything: there may be some twists and turns coming soon!