Chapter 26

"What? She's awake? Where!" Adrienne nearly ran from the room before the location was divulged by the sulky Malfoy, sullen at no longer being the centre of attention.

"Where she was; where else?" Then he was left to himself, sitting in the Great Hall, so empty when it was devoid of children. I never realised just how much it echoes in here. Maybe it is because I was always surrounded by a sound board, he smirked, sadly, at the memory of Crabbe and Goyle; faithful to his previous image. Too bad father died. Too bad Hermione killed him. Too bad he was too proud to change, was too set in his ways. Too reliant on the parties, too reliant on the company of old. Too reluctant to become a 'good' wizard. Disdained of it all. Too bad, Draco could feel the twinge of regret that he had thought long forgotten, but brushed it aside. His father had made his own choices, much as he, himself, had. Chosen that one night to defy his father, and end up fathering a child of his own. Draco's petulant put became a gentle smile at the memory of his child's face, her brilliant aura. Had his father ever felt this way about his own child? Had there been enough love in his heart to feel anything for his child? Maybe, but maybe not, Draco shrugged; remembering the defiant look of disgust in his father's face when he had told him that he would become an Auror, that he would turn his father in if given the chance. The cold shine of his steel-grey eyes glaring at him as though he had become a mouse, not a man at all. 'You'll never be my child, then,' he had said, though Draco never knew if he said it out of spite; he never had a chance to recant.

Draco was disturbed from his introspection by a tall, dark haired man. Jeremy Potter slumped into his seat, apparently exhausted; his eyes reddened from extended reading by insufficient candlelight.

"Reading?" Draco asked pleasantly. Jeremy started, looked at the man, then returned to staring abjectly at the table.

"Yes. Researching. But Madam Pince is the only one who has access to the lanterns- I've been forced to study by candlelight. It's frustrating, and not just mentally. My eyes ache." As though to prove this, he rubbed his eyes roughly.

"Rough."

"Indeed. So tell me- what have you been doing for the past eighteen years?" Jeremy asked, his tone light.

"Oh, you know," Draco returned, in the same tone, "A bit of this and a bit of that. Learning soul-magic, mainly. It seemed like the thing to do."

"Oh," Jeremy replied, at a loss as to what to say to that. "Well, what does soul-magic require?"

"A lot of patience," Draco replied with a grimace. "It took me four months to master how to talk."

"Really?"

"Yes. There's not really any air in the soul-realm; so sound doesn't travel very well. It's all telepathic talking there. Although, I didn't really have anyone to teach me. I just learned as I went along," he mused.

"Oh. Was that hard?" Jeremy asked, not sure if he cared.

"Not really. Just time consuming. And I only had myself to practice with, really. And it was a lot quieter in the soul realm. No noisy reporters, no nosy neighbours; I built myself a hut in the woods where I could spend days in my trance without being disturbed. I did that once," he said, "Just stayed in a trance to see how long I could do it. I wandered around for a while, then came back to realise that I'd been gone four days and really needed to go to the toilet. I did have a little trouble, though, because the ground kept swimming before me- I was dehydrated. And extremely hungry. I decided that I could die out there in the soul realm, and never know it until I came to go back to my body- and realised that it wasn't waiting up for me." Draco grinned a little at his joke, but Jeremy only shook his head at Draco's humour, smiling.

"Ah, you have changed a lot from all the tales told about the Ferret of Slytherin," Jeremy grinned at Draco, who looked indignant.

"Ferret of Slytherin? What misconstrued stories have you been told, boy?" He spluttered.

"Oh, my father had this little story about you being turned into a ferret by a man who was pretending to be Mad Eye Moody, but wasn't really."

"Since when does that earn me the title Ferret of Slytherin? And who's your father?"

"Oh, Harry Potter. You know, dark hair, round glasses, green eyes, a bit scrawny? He said that you weren't technically the Heir of Slytherin, although you acted that way sometimes; the only title you could actually claim was Ferret of Slytherin. Since then, you've always been the Ferret of Slytherin. The things you miss when you're closeted away in a hut in the middle of the woods for eighteen years," Jeremy found that he was enjoying this. At the mention of his father, Draco had begun to flush angrily, the his face paled, maybe in memory of the Last Battle, before he returned to glaring, annoyed, at the man before him.

"Oh, yes. I can see it now. But your eyes are blue? How did that happen?"

"Well, my mother has blue eyes, you see. I would have thought someone would have told you this, but- when a mummy and a daddy love each other very much, they get…"

Draco turned a little pink around the ears, "Ok! I don't need to think about my parents having sex, thankyou very much."

"Does that make you uncomfortable, Draco?"

"Yes, it does. Now, if you don't mind, the Ferret of Slytherin would like to retire from this tennis match with some small shred of dignity intact."

"Aw, but I was having fun. Just because you were losing…" Jeremy mock-pouted, but laughed at Draco's expression. "You're not half as bad as Dad and Uncle Ron tried to make you out."

"Thankyou," Draco replied, his face twisting as if the words tasted bad. "I'm glad you've come to that conclusion."

Jeremy laughed again, then lunch appeared on their plates.

"Where's everyone else?" Jeremy asked around a large piece of Shepherd's Pie.

"Oh," Draco replied from his steak-filled mouth, "Lianna woke up. They're all cooing over her as though she were just born."

Jeremy began to choke on his potato at this news. "She woke up? Why didn't anyone tell me?" He began to stand, but Draco pulled him back down.

"Because this school doesn't have an Intercom system," he answered wryly. "Sit down; the poor girl's probably swamped with all the attention and people she needs right now."

Jeremy took the point, and began to fill his mouth again. Silence reigned. Jeremy looked up oddly at Draco. "Since when do you know about Intercom Systems?" Draco just laughed.

"Another story for another day, my boy. Another story."

~*~

"You mean that was my father?" Lianna said, maybe a little too loudly.

"Yes. Maybe you have prophetic blood in your veins somewhere- though Merlin knows from where," Hermione replied. "The last words you said before you left apparently were 'find my father'."

"'I think you'd better find my father' actually." Lianna replied. "The memories are all back now. They are obviously kept in my subconscious, not in my active mind that goes searching. I don't know what difference that makes." She turned to look at Adrienne. The girl sat on the chair beside the bed, while Hermione perched on the side of the standard issue single bed. Adrienne's dark eyes were emotion-filled, and Lianna knew that her heart was bursting; yet she also knew that her sister wouldn't say anything until Hermione left. She had come running in a few minutes ago, panting from her exertions, flushed in her cheeks. Then she had seen Hermione perched on the bed, and had made her way, calmly and sedately, to the chair beside the bed.

Now she just watched, listening. Lianna wondered what was going on in her mind.

As if responding to some subconscious request, Lianna began to see swirls of colour surrounding her sister. She was worried that she was astrally travelling for a moment, but realised that she could still talk to her mother without having to reach out to her with her mind.

Around Adrienne was a swirling aura of midnight blue- a few shades darker than the spirit who had found her- her father- and shot with the same gold as her own. Permeating her base colours were roils of colour that Lianna had come to recognise as emotion. She was frustrated, Lianna saw, and troubled. Reddy orange and watery green. Lianna smiled at her sister, hoping to reassure her somewhat. Suddenly the colours retreated back to normal, and Lianna was left again to guess at what her sister was feeling.

"Oh!" Hermione exclaimed, "It's lunch time. I'm hungry- do you girls want anything? I'll go down to the kitchens and get us something."

"Sure, mama. You go and get whatever they're serving. Whatever they cook is fabulous." Lianna smiled vibrantly at her mother, and Hermione left the room.

Lianna turned to look at her sister, expectantly.

"I thought you'd never come back and that I'd be stuck by myself forever." Lianna was amazed at her sister's newfound ability to state the way she was feeling. "I also thought that mama would never leave, so that we could talk."

"I saw," Lianna replied smugly.

"What do you mean, you saw?" Adrienne peered into her sister's face, somehow now unable to ignore the likeness between her sister and her father.

"I saw your aura just before. I don't know how I did it, but I could see what you were feeling, and I wasn't in a trance or anything."

"Do you think you could do it again?" Adrienne asked, suddenly curious.

I wonder what colour curiosity is? Lianna thought, and, abruptly, her vision switched to aura-mode. "Oh," she said aloud, "So curiosity is purple. I didn't know that."

Adrienne looked at her sister until she explained herself. Lianna consciously turned off her aura-vision, creating a switch in her mind to allow herself to do so at will.

"There we go- thanks, Ri. Now I can do that whenever I want," Lianna leaned over to hug her sister, and Adrienne returned the hug fiercely, tears stinging her eyes.

"What do you think of my father, Ri?" Lianna asked when they had separated again.

"What do you think of my father, Li? I think that your father has had far too much time on his hands for eighteen years, and is now putting into practice all the methods he has imagined to ruffle people."

Lianna looked at her sister for a moment, before asking, "Did you break all your furniture again?" Adrienne looked down at her hands, feeling her the colour rise in her cheeks again. I must learn to control that, she berated herself silently.

"I fixed it all," she said sullenly, and Lianna burst out into peals of rippling laughter.

"Ah, Ri, where would I be without you?"

"Probably still lost in the spirit world," Adrienne replied, but she smiled at her sister, picking her face up from observing her hands in her lap.

"Indeed. And what sort of existence is that!" Lianna exclaimed, gripping her sister's hands.

"No existence at all," she replied in the formula that they had created years ago, falling back into the rhythm of living with her sister again.

I will have to learn to live without her, though, Adrienne thought to herself, if I am ever to marry, or allow her to marry and move on. We can't live through each other all our lives. This thought didn't ruffle Adrienne's delight at finding her sister, merely made her aware of the need to facilitate her continual growth in her character. She smiled broadly at her sister.

"You have no idea how difficult it is for me to see a Snape smiling, do you?" At the door, a blond-haired man stood leaning on the doorframe. Adrienne's smile quickly morphed into a snarl.

"Ah, that's more like it. You'd make your daddy proud," he said, walking over to pat her on the cheek. Lianna laughed, and Adrienne forced herself to see the funny side of it. She sighed, then let herself be amused by this man. If her sister trusted him, the least she could do was trust him as well. He was her father, after all.

"I'm sure. I like to think he'd be more impressed by my Potion making ability, though," Adrienne replied, a slight challenge in her voice.

"Oh, I'm sure he would. Not that he'd ever say so," Draco replied, grinning.

"No, that he never would," Adrienne smiled. Lianna grinned as well, and Hermione returned, basket of food under her arm.

"Oh! We have more guests than I'd planned upon?"

"No, fair lady," Draco said gallantly, making Adrienne grimace and Lianna giggle, "I have already eaten. Fear not for your ferocious hunger! It shall be annulled." Hermione rolled her eyes.

"Ok, Draco. Drop the act. Sure you don't want anything to eat?"

"Sure. The house elves stuffed me full of steak and vegetables. If I eat even a bite more…" Draco trailed off as he saw the collection of sweets in the basket.

"What were you saying, Draco?" Hermione asked sweetly, her hand protectively over the sweets left in the basket.

"Nothing, Hermione." He tore his eyes away from the sweets. "Where did Jeremy go?"

"Oh, I passed him in the corridors. He said that he'd come by to visit later. He went off in the direction of the library."

"That boy's going to need spectacles by the time he's finished," Draco said wearily.

"Oh?"

"Researching by candlelight."

"Oh. Yes. Even I refrained from doing that if at all possible."

"Yes, but you're smarter than he is."

"Are you sure?"

"Oh, of course, fair lady!" Draco reverted to his chivalrous mask. "Never would such a fine lady as yourself wish to compromise her beauty for a few moments of literary pleasure," he winked.

"Mama, don't even dignify that with an answer," Adrienne said from her chair, a mock grimace on her face.

"Wouldn't dream of it, darling."

"Good."

~*~

A/N: But what is happening with Asa'Morana? Stay tuned…

*kitten