Chapter 38
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Song of the update: Soilwork – "The bringer" --- "Bring it back, bring it home. Enough's enough, I'm alone"
You know, JKR killing Sirius has really mucked up my story hasn't it? Well. I suppose this story is a bit AU now, isn't it, its not exactly canon. Damn. Well anyway… on with the show. It's a short chapter. But oh well…
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"Where is she?" Edea limped down the dark corridor towards the Slytherin Common Rooms and Snape's Office. "SNAPE! I want a word with you!"
"Edea, do you really think this is a good idea, you're not supposed to be around and about, you know. Madam Pomfrey said…" Remus was jogging to keep up with Edea's powerful strides, even if she WAS limping, she was still fast.
"Stuff Pomfrey! That harlot assaulted an Auror of the Ministry!" Edea fumed, knocking harshly upon the heavy oak door of Severus Snape's office. "She will pay for this!"
Remus grabbed hold of Edea's arm, and tried to hold her still, with little effect. Edea wrenched herself free of Remus' grip and battered the door with more relentless knocking. "Snape! Open up!"
"Perhaps he isn't in." Remus ventured, hoping that this was the case, for Edea's mood would probably calm over time, but to meet with the Snapes could only make it worse.
"Beware what you intend to say." The door opened and a stone-faced Severus Snape stood in the doorway. "If it is Justice you wish upon my wife, perhaps you should use a vocabulary more suited to the semantics of Justice. Harlot, I believe is not in that particular catergory."
"She assaulted a member of the Auror department…"
"Perhaps, so according to you is it to be assumed that this entire couple of days worth of foul play is to be due to the actions of my wife?" Snape raised a questioning stare, as if daring Edea to start an argument.
"Which would of course be little more than an assumption." A side door swung open upon its hinges and Draezyc in her most radiant mood, strode into the hallway, joining Severus in what Remus could only describe as a calculated bantering attack on Edea, clearly rehearsed to timed perfection.
"Which to be proven valid as the truth would need evidentiary support." Snape added, in a voice he usually reserved for classroom admonitions.
"Evidentiary support which means you need clear evidence, I believe you do not possess said evidentiary support." Draezyc interjected, smirking in a very similar manner to Draco Malfoy.
"Which leaves your assumption… well… simply what it is." Snape took his wife's hand to his lips, "As an assumption. Not the proven truth."
Remus glanced across at Edea who, still in a significant amount of pain from previous events, had a slack jaw and was gawping at the Snapes with a thoroughly confused expression on her face.
"I therefore think," Draezyc finalised "That concludes our little discussion upon the matter." She turned to Severus, completely blanking Edea, who was blinking rapidly. "Bien sur! We have a table at the Seven Sisters Brasserie waiting for us, shall we depart?"
Severus raised a challenging eyebrow at the formality. "Thine eyes have but to request, for I shall follow thy lead fair daemon."
"Shakespeare?" Draezyc questioned.
"Nay, but a creation of mine own."
"Clever." Draezyc smiled indulgently "A secret poet, my love?"
"Now you shall never utter it; thy curiosity hath undone thee." Snape offered Draezyc her cloak, pointedly ignoring the lingering presence of Remus and Edea.
"That," Draezyc turned round "Was Webster. The Duchess of Malfi. Spoken by the Cardinal."
"Correct." Snape conceded "Not an assumption…" His black eyes glittered mischievously.
"ENOUGH!" Edea finally found her voice, "My assumption shall ring true! As an Auror of the Ministry I arrest you both for hiding the truth and attempted murder." She whipped her wand our from her cloak, Snape retaliating with his own wand just as fast.
"STAND DOWN DUCRUET!" Snape barked, "Or you shall make a return trip to your at present unoccupied bunk under the care of Madam Pomfrey."
"Death has whispered his lullaby to you once already." Draezyc commented slyly to Edea "Shall he be tempted to change his tune to a funerary requiem this time?"
Snape snorted, "Nice rhetoric, very eloquent. Bellatrix?"
"She said something similar I believe." Draezyc nodded, "I improved upon it."
"As you always do."
"WHAT is going on here?" Dumbledore stepped regally down the spiral steps into the centre of the hallway. "Severus, Edea, put your wands away."
"I am arresting…" Edea started
"You are arresting nobody here today." Dumbledore shook his head gravely, "This is neither the time nor the place for such activities. As we speak, our fellow Order members are in a state of frozen life, back within the chamber you all witnessed earlier. Harry Potter will need help to reverse the spell placed upon them and I believe I have already requested your help upon this matter, Remus?"
Remus nodded mutely "I had to follow Edea, she wasn't in a right frame of mind in the hospital wing, and then coming here…"
Dumbledore nodded sagely "I feel sure that you would prefer to be of some significant help rather than a mere spectator in an argument of rhetorical skill?"
Remus frowned mutely, relieved to be given leave from the strange partnered bantering of the Snapes. Wondering bfiefly if Anna knew the dangers she had let herself in for, by joining the Wizarding community, he left the hall and proceeded to a small group of remaining order members and Harry Potter standing in the Great Hall's magnificent oak doorway.
TBC
