Chapter eighteen, by Dizmius
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he ho hum, that was great fun to write, having my two selves in the story brawl like madwomen, I'm itching to write another semi chapter in the style of 16B, of what happened to incite Draezyc and Eddie, and what happened after, (ie lots of smoochy Snapey stuff, which would be highly unrealistic, but hey, the whole story is unrealistic, that's the point, right? Yes. I think we'll have a chapter 18B after this, purely for fun, and my pleasure.
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Remus wrapped a dark green towel around himself as he stepped out of the voluminous bathtub and into his bed chambers. Once again he had woken up at the ungodly hour of five thirty in the morning. The few late owls were flying in from their destinations through the early morning haze that settled over the hills.
He looked down at the sleeping figure of Anna under the thick blankets on his bed. She was grinning.
"Nobody grins in their sleep." Remus muttered, sitting down on the corner, running a comb through his hair. "I did try not to wake you,"
"You failed wonderfully." Anna yawned, stretching under the blankets. "I wonder what Edea and Draezyc are going to be like at breakfast this morning."
"Edea probably wont show, more due to the fact of Sirius than her being afraid of Draezyc, because she is, you know." Remus pointed his wand at his head, and his hair dried in an instant.
"Edea? Afraid of Draezyc? Didn't seem like it last night." Anna frowned, rolling over to face Remus. "How come?"
"Not sure if it's true or not, Edea never talks about it, but apparently, just before Voldemort's downfall, Draezyc was at one of those Death Eater meeting things, and Edea's Auror group turned up for an ambush, which went in their favour." He pulled a shirt over his head. "You know what I told you about Draezyc and Sirius, well, this must have looked like the perfect opportunity for vengeance. Edea was unconscious in St.Mungo's for the next two weeks, which meant when she woke up, her fiancé was in jail for life, and two of her best friends had been murdered. Draezyc had got away scott-free"
"That's awful." Anna closed her eyes. "Do you think Draezyc really did put Edea in St.Mungo's?"
"It's highly likely." Remus nodded, leaning over to kiss her forehead. "But I wouldn't worry. She doesn't seem to have that penchant any longer."
Or at least, not to us. Edea is in a category alone no doubt. But there are other priorities now, like Harry, and finding out about this Soul-Syphon ring. Clearing Sirius' name rates quite high, not just to myself either. I must talk to Dumbledore about the start of term. It would be highly suspicious for us all to be here without reason, and perhaps we might come up with something for Anna's safety as well. Maybe as a Muggle studies assistant or something. It's too risky to let her go home, not that I want her to go home, but I suppose it's not really my decision.
~*~
At breakfast that morning it was clear that Remus had been both right and wrong in his predictions. Edea wasn't there, that was true. But neither was Draezyc or any of the other two Snapes. Sirius however, was sitting at the table absently poking at his slice of grapefruit.
"Morning." Anna ruffled his hair cheerfully.
"What're you so happy about?" Sirius mumbled, trying to mask a yawn. "It's a Monday morning, you're crazy."
"Well if you hadn't been so busy last night…" Remus laughed.
"ME? Do you know how long it took me to stop Edea being hysterical? Four bloody hours of Edea swearing her arse off about Draeyzc." Sirius wailed. "And then, just as I get her into a semi state of normalcy, guess who knocks on our door? Mister Snape himself, ordering me to keep Eddie away from his wife on pains of a very brutal death… You can't let me die a blonde Moony!"
"Well, if you'd taken my advice and gone to the library…"
Sirius snorted into his pumpkin juice, "Have you such a bad memory that you forget my unhealthy aversion to anything remotely library-ish?"
"Oh no, I remember it well, but this IS for your hair's sake, and for our sanity too." Remus took a bite from his piece of toast. "You did go to the library though, in the company of a pretty young lady, or if my memory serves me well, in one instance quite a few pretty young ladies."
Anna raised an eyebrow.
"Ah, that was brilliant." Sirius leaned back, closing his eyes at the memory. "Five of them… All fancied the pants off me."
"Nightmare." Remus shuddered, turning to Anna, "You should have seen the state he came back in…"
"Wasn't my fault they nicked my trousers as a souvenir… pity really, they were good leather." Sirius shrugged.
"You wore leather trousers?" Anna wrinkled her nose.
"Father wore leather trousers once." A small voice piped up from behind Remus' chair.
Sirius broke into a wide grin. "Pytheus… how lovely to see you!" He shifted left. "Come sit with us, tell us about your dear old dad, what's this about Snapey in leather?"
"Mother bought him a pair of black leather trousers… She told him he'd look good in them." Pytheus sat down and dished himself up a bowl of cereal. "he wore them once, when they went out somewhere."
Sirius was grinning like a maniac. "Has he got them here?"
"No. He refused to take them." Pytheus smiled up at Remus. "Father made you some special potion because you are ill. He told me to tell you to go to his cauldron to get some later on one condition."
"Oh?" Remus asked, curious as to what Snape wanted in trade.
"He and Mother had to go out, to a meeting or something, and mother wants you and your lady friend to look after me." Pytheus smiled. "She said you'd be nice people to help me with my chess."
"I don't play chess much." Anna sipped at her goblet. "So your mother likes me?"
"Yes. I heard her talking about you last night, when Father came back from hurting people."
"Hurting people?" Anna scowled,
"He said he was going to castrate the Auror's lapdog." Pytheus grinned evilly, very similar to his mother's grin. "And display the remnants on his classroom door."
"That's nice." Sirius balked slightly, "interesting visual."
"That puts a twig in the plans for today." Remus whispered in Anna's ear. "But I'm sure Sirius wouldn't mind taking over for a few hours." He smiled, and kissed her cheek. "Of course Pytheus." He turned back to the small boy. "Do you know when Snape's going to be back?"
"Nope." Pytheus smiled widely. "I found out they charms Father uses on his stores last night, I want to go look in them."
Sirius' grin grew even wider.
I have a slightly bad feeling about this… Sirius Black let loose in Severus Snape's private potions store.
"I think we have a new marauder in training." Sirius wiggled his eyebrows, standing up. "Wait for me, Pythie, I got to go wake up her royal highness." He swaggered off down the hall, tossing a lock of his blonde hair behind his shoulder.
"He's happy." Anna commented.
"He's planning something, I can tell." Remus frowned. "Some sort of baiting game."
Pytheus pushed his empty bowl away. "Will you come to the dungeons afterwards?"
"Yes, after I've finished what I have to do for Dumbledore." Remus nodded, watching the small Snape dash off between the tables, obviously intent on getting into Snape's storage cupboards as soon as possible.
"Oh dear." Remus absently scratched his head. "Come, we have things of importance to discuss with Dumbledore, I think he wants to give you a job, to make your stay at Hogwarts stand out less, once the children arrive tomorrow."
"Oh? And what am I going to do? Help the elves in the kitchens?"
"Oh no, the elves would protest!" Remus laughed. "He said something about a Muggle Studies assistant."
"Why me?"
"Because you know a lot about non magical people, you used to be one of them, who better to help the students? And plus you get paid."
"Ah, big bonuses then." Anna nodded, following Remus out of the great hall, where the tables were clearing themselves of the food and plates.
"Oh yes." Remus nodded. "You'd enjoy it… that is… if you're willing to stay."
"Of course!" Anna blinked. "Why would I want to leave, its amazing here, and plus… you're here aren't you."
"Well, I won't be all the time, but ninety nine percent, I'll be here." Remus nodded. "I'm glad you're staying."
They paused on their way to Dumbledore's office to take out a book from the library on personal modification charms. As it was obvious Sirius wasn't going to make the effort to go there. Or at least, not whilst his mind had other distractions.
~*~
"So it is to your liking?" Dumbledore steepled his fingers and watched Anna over the rim of his half moon glasses.
"Yes, I'd be honoured." Anna nodded.
"Splendid, I will alert the Muggle Studies Professor of her new assistant. You will be given a timetable of the lessons you will assist in, I am sure Remus here will be able to help you decipher it."
Remus took the piece of parchment. "Oh! You only have four lessons a week to go to. That's something Sirius would have been willing to kill for when we were at school. But you're not learning anything, per se, you're teaching."
"I'm sure the experience itself will be educational." Dumbledore smiled, "You will find that not many of the troublemakers of the school take Muggle Studies, a very minimal amount of Slytherin students take the subject, you should have no problems with children of Death Eaters."
"Not all death eaters were in Slytherin." Remus spat out, unusually out of character. Peter wasn't Slytherin, he was Gryffindor. I now wonder whether it was possible that the Sorting Hat made a mistake there, or a severe misjudgement on his part. But then again, when you've been around for the best part of a millennia, a few mistakes are pardonable. Not in this case.
"No, but you understand my generalisation, Remus?"
"Yes." No actually.
"I'm looking forward to it, whoever I might have in the classes." Anna said with determination.
"That'll get you far." Dumbledore smiled appreciatively. "yes, I believe a trip to Diagon Alley might be in order, Anna will need the books for her classes if she is to assist them. Why don't you make a day of it?"
"Well, we promised Pytheus that we would look after him, Draezyc did ask us to, if not directly." Remus frowned. I'd rather go to Diagon Alley with Anna, but a promise is a promise.
Dumbledore must have seen the look on Remus' face because he smiled knowingly and said. "I personally will take care of the young Snape, he does look astoundingly like his father don't you think? Except for the nose… he has Draezyc's nose."
"Thank Merlin for that small mercy." Remus rolled his eyes. "Can you imagine another Severus Snape let loose? It's a good job we don't have a mini-Sirius running round at the same time." He groaned. "They'd be at each other's throats"
"Don't speak too soon, Remus my friend." Dumbledore's eyes twinkled merrily.
"Edea? Edea as a mother… oh no." Remus moaned. "A child raised by a certified psychopath and a psychopath in training… I'm going to go live in hibernation for the next few decades."
"How do you know?" Anna asked Dumbledore curiously.
"Because there isn't a single particle of dust that doesn't move in this castle without Albus knowing about it." Remus laughed.
"I believe there is a small cloud of twenty thousand and four dust particles rising up from the history of magic classroom table on the left by the door at this very moment." He frowned for a minute. "Heading westward at an angle of thirty degrees."
"He's joking." Remus added, noticing the awed look on Anna's face. "I think."
"Forgive me, the opportunity was too favourable to pass." Dumbledore nodded to Remus. "You might be able to catch the Hogwarts train if you run."
"I was hoping to catch the floo." Remus raised an eyebrow. "Takes slightly less time."
"True. You may use my fireplace if you wish."
Remus stood up and took a pinch of green powder from a gilt box, he threw it into the flames. "Right, this could be tricky. You basically throw a pinch into the flames, and climb in, its perfectly safe, I promise you. Then you call out clearly where you want to go, in this case, Diagon Alley. And you'd do well to close your eyes, the dust can get itchy. You should arrive in the Leaky Cauldron if everything goes well."
"And if it doesn't?"
"It will." Remus countered. "I'll go first, to show you how its done." He stepped into the green flames, and cleared his throat, before saying "Diagon Alley!" and disappearing from view with a pop.
He stumbled out of the fireplace in the Leaky Cauldron. Five seconds after, Anna came into view, coughing and spluttering.
"That was so much fun!" She coughed, brushing her blue cloak out of the dusty grate. "Lots of swirly stuff."
"Such eloquence" Remus grinned. "You ready to go Diagon Alleying?"
"Such eloquence yourself."
"Touché." Remus laughed, guiding her out into the yard at the back of the pub, he tapped a few bricks with his wand and waited as the bricks swivelled round to give them the entrance to the busy Wizarding street.
"Impressive, no?"
he didn't get an answer, Anna was too busy taking in all the street had to offer.
I'll take that as a yes then…TBC
We have another diversion chapter after this.
Coming…. Tomorrow probably, Ch 18B (oh no! another diversion! I hear you say!)
