For all your days prepare, and meet them ever alike. When you are the anvil, bear – when you are the hammer, strike. –Edwin Markham
"I think a pot of tea is in order. That will get my melancholy mind off today and fix it towards something brighter." I rub at my stomach as I stand up, nearly dropping the cat as he decides he wants to stay in the chair. "No, no. You're coming with me. If I let you down, you'll just go and sleep some more. No more sleeping or you'll keep the household up with all your little games."
The small owl hoots from the perch in the corner.
"I've forgotten about you. I'm sorry. Come into the kitchen with me and I'll find a few treats for you before you have to go back to the smelly owlery."
The kitchen is still being remodeled but I don't mind since I very seldom step foot over the threshold to get something other than a snack or to feed the animals. He was bringing in a bigger sink, he had said, so that the dishes wouldn't pile up quite so quickly. I think he may have been directing the comment to me but I just pulled the latest Witch Weekly magazine up higher and started to hum. I told him, going into this, that we'd eventually need a maid. I'm just not cut out for housework.
I'm good at Concealment, though. Always have been.
The yeti's white fur was a little hard to work with, being different shades and hues of white, gray or ivory, but I made it work for my purposes.
"To the left, Griffle. Don't want to get over there too quickly, now. Must give the nice man some time to get into position."
He was still moaning on about feeling completely drained and how dare she break into his private thoughts. Private thoughts, my eye. The man could hide any thought as easily as snapping his fingers. It was truly amazing that she didn't see that but she always was a little wrapped up in herself.
"Don't bother hiding behind that beast. I don't mind taking out the nasty thing to get to you. Oh, do shut up, little man. Both of you! I'm not going to hurt the yeti and I promise not to look into your dirty little secrets again. Get a room next time, though. I don't know if my niece could handle being found on the table by the entire brute squad you call an army. The little innocent seems to be a little slutty."
Don't blush. You'll blow your cover. What was he thinking? I found myself actually wanting to know what she saw in his mind. It had her flustered, searching for a new plan.
I waited until we were in the middle of the glen before speaking again. "Didn't mean to ruin your plans, my dearest aunt. Will it work just as well to besmirch my name now by being found with the man whom I have professed to love on several occasions? Oh, wait. Do you know what love is?"
Her beautiful face clouded over and I saw her mouth pull into a ugly scowl.
"Careful, aunty. Don't mark your beautiful face with all those awful lines. The Dark Lord won't like your face all marked up like an old hag. I've heard he prefers young women. How will you ever compete with wrinkles?"
She fairly spit as she replied, "I don't have wrinkles, my dear. Never did. Your mother, the goddess bless her a thousand times over, is the one with all the wrinkles."
"And she looks radiant, don't you know. I saw her just last week after she and Papa came back from a trip to France. They're talking about getting a house off the southern coast. She does have an awful lot of wrinkles, though. You're right on that account. And she's the youngest, isn't she?"
Her anger was palpable. After I whispered the last command to the animal, I jumped from his arms, landing in his previous tracks. The snow still shielded me from casual glances but it wouldn't last for long.
I swept the area for any other beings and came to the conclusion that the stupid woman had only brought this animal and his trainer with her – to take on two trained Aurors. How little did she think of us that she didn't have any backup?
It was frightfully easy to dispense with the Tibetan trainer and I killed him without even blinking an eye. He wasn't pure evil, as my aunt was, but he had let his animal be used for evil purposes, which was almost worse. Good riddance.
When my mental clock ticked off the last second of four minutes, I took off the concealment charm. She blinked to see me standing directly in front of her, my wand leveled at her.
"You're an evil woman, Bellatrix. There's a special place in hell for you." I thought I had caught her off guard but the only show of her surprise was a slight widening of her eyes.
"We have the same blood, poppet. Remember that. Why don't we just kill this man and go have a chat where it's nice and warm?" Her dark eyes were cold and calculating. Even though she still had the face of a young woman, the eyes were old.
"A chat? Don't make me laugh. You've already told me you want to kill me. We may have the same genetic background but we don't have the same blood." I let myself glance quickly to my right where he had been a moment ago. "And I would never let you kill him."
She didn't notice my glance as she was too caught up in trying to get her face into a sneer without wrinkling it. "Because you lust after his body? Such a naughty girl."
"No, because I love him."
The streak of green light came from over my shoulder and hit her in the chest. Her eyes widened slightly more and she faltered slightly but stayed on her feet.
"Children, please. Quit playing around so I can kill you."
How did that not kill her? I didn't dare turn to look at him, my eyes riveted on her wand as it slowly rose in the air. Her laughter was hysterical now.
"Tonks, get down," he ordered directly behind me. I didn't want to, though. I wanted to stay in front of him so her curse would hit me. I didn't want to watch him die but I couldn't think of anything to stop her. Time had slowed down and I could see her intent. Take out the man and slowly torture the girl. Being the first one dead would be the easy part.
"I'm not leaving you."
"Do as I say or I will write you up."
I turned to look at him, knowing that she wouldn't aim for my back. "I do love you, you know."
"And I want those dreams to come true so get out of the way."
There is no way to truly explain how I was able to force the curse away from him since I wasn't watching her. I heard her shriek and felt the curse streak past me once again but my wand came up as soon as it hit him and I yelled words I had never heard before. A yellow light shot out and engulfed the curse and shoved it aside.
"Griffle! Now!"
The yeti, silent and forgotten, ran up behind her as he had been instructed and lifted her high into the air. The animal's roar and the mad woman's shriek mingled together into a horrible sound and then silence. A human body, even one fortified by magic, can still be broken easily enough if shaken hard enough.
I turned to his fallen form, aware that he could still be dead after the hasty deflection. The steady snow had begun to form on his cold face. "Kingsley?" I ripped open the armour, searching frantically for a heartbeat. It was there, very slow but steady.
"I seem to have failed this training, K. I'm sorry that I didn't have your back."
His eyes opened and I smiled at him until they closed again, his head falling to the side.