Chapter Twenty-Six

Playing the Trump

Andrew and Halbert wolfed down their breakfasts in record time the next morning so they could get to the pens before class. Several of the other students were already there, including Conner, who was busy preening Ginseng.

"Hey 'Drew, where's that no-good brother of yours? Colossus hasn't been fed yet," Conner complained.

"Maybe he thought you might actually take care of your own animal for a change," Halbert suggested.

"I have my own mount to worry about," Conner pointed out. "But I'm not about to see Colossus neglected. You had better go find him and get his arse out here before I am tempted to go drag it out myself."

"I thought we decided we were going to let up on him this year, Conner," Stewart said from where he stood beside his winged mule.

"Only because of Craw and she's back now. And anyhow, that's no excuse for letting Colossus starve. I've half a mind to go report him to Sagittari, and I will if I end up being the one to feed him," Conner swore. "Besides, I shouldn't have to spend my morning practice before our big game with Slytherin having to worry that their pathetic excuse for a Keeper can't keep up with his responsibilities."

"I had better go check on him," Andrew murmured to Halbert. "Last thing we need right now is a row between these two."

"Right. I'll start feeding Babe and Ruby," Halbert offered.

But fortunately, Andrew didn't have to go too far before he found him. He was coming over the grounds with Heph and Alex on either side with the same glum expression that had been on his face for the last couple of days, still brooding over what had happened at the hospital.

"There you are. I've been wondering if you remembered," Andrew said. Aurelius glared at him. "I meant about your mounts."

"Don't worry, I have no intention of forgetting," Alex said. "Mandria will be along in a minute. Rose was helping her study for our Herbology test, but I think I'm ready. If only I had Potions today! I rather miss having Mum in the class room after all."

"I thought you said last year you couldn't stand her teaching. In fact, both of you did," Heph pointed out.

"Well, yes, but you always knew what to expect in her class," Alex said. "Professor Witolf seems happiest when things are exploding and cauldrons are boiling over."

"Yes, it makes you wonder if he hasn't gotten a bit senile," Aurelius said.

"I wouldn't let Rose catch you saying that," Andrew said. "Besides, I sort of like the old chap. And no one ever knows what's going to happen in that class. It keeps things exciting."

"Please don't get yourself sucked into the potion crowd, Andrew," Aurelius said. "Potions are for losers who can't cut it with real magic."

"I wouldn't let Father catch you saying that one, either," Andrew said, Aurelius rolling his eyes in response. "Besides, Corey's not exactly incompetent with magic and he's an Alchemist."

"Can we not bring the perfect son into this conversation? I'm surprised that everyone isn't expecting him to single handedly design a cure for mother while maintaining his little Muggle cheering section he keeps handy in his shop whenever his ego needs a boost," Aurelius said. Heph snickered, but Aurelius' siblings seemed to completely ignore the comment as they climbed the fence.

"It's about time. Get enough beauty rest? Or were you just hoping to grow overnight?" Conner snapped grumpily.

"Do you mind? It's not as if this is all we have to do," Aurelius said back. "Besides, if you were so worried, you could have taken care of your miserable horse instead of waiting for me."

"He's your responsibility right now," Conner said, "I don't normally let anyone ride Colossus, he's my hunting mount, not to mention a pedigree Shire."

"Oooo a pedigree Shire," Aurelius said, having no clue what that meant. "Please. If there is an animal in this barn that isn't rare, it's a humdrum ol' plow horse. And you take this thing hunting? What do you hunt? Elephants?"

"Deer, foxes, minks, hare, whatever's in season," Conner said, petting him.

"What a beastly Muggle habit, hunting," Aurelius said, preparing Colossus' feedbag.

"For once I agree with Aurelius," Andrew admitted. "Why do you do it, anyhow?"

"My uncle breeds hounds," Conner said, helping brush his horse.

"His Muggle uncle," Aurelius amended.

"You know, Muggles aren't the only ones who've hunted for sport over the years," Conner said. "Before the Magical Creatures Protection Act, a lot of wizards hunted dragons, jackalopes, and all sorts of other creatures. In fact, they hunted the Questing Beast right to extinction, which is why the law is there in the first place. Of course, that won't happen with minks or foxes or anything, they're nothing but field pests."

"Well, it's still cruel," Alex said. "And I wouldn't start talking about hunting around school because…" Aurelius suddenly jabbed Alex hard in the side. "Because some people might get offended."

"Like who? A bunch of pure blood Snapes who are too self-righteous for their own good?" Conner said, taking the brush off of his hand. "Don't be late taking care of Colossus again, Aurelius. I didn't have to let you ride him, you know."

"Then why in bloody hell did you volunteer to give him up?" Aurelius scowled.

"I dunno. Kind streak, because I had an idea why you wanted a horse. But don't worry, I'm over it now, so it won't happen again," he promised, grabbing some books off the haystack.

"Oh, don't worry, it won't happen with me either," Aurelius said. Alex and Andrew looked over at him, wondering what he was up to this time. But Aurelius had more important things in mind, heading over for a little chat with Xavier Platt.

Jennifer was both eager and nervous to start work the next day, so after a quick cup of coffee and a hasty set of directions to the dungeons she was off, stopping only once more to get directions again before finally having one of the prefects lead her there.

The lab was almost too immaculate for her liking, pristine and sparkling from top to bottom, cauldrons and phials polished and everything in its place. But the office she met Glen Witolf in was a bit homier; at least it was cluttered with tons of ingredients on shelves and small labs and other things. Her job, it seemed, was to be his legs in the classroom, fetching papers and helping students as she could and bringing out ingredients, so she quickly went to the shelves to get used to where everything was. But each shelf was carefully organized by component type and then alphabetically, and even the types of ingredients were arranged alphabetically on the shelves from left to right.

By the time the students arrived, Jennifer found she was ready, gathering requested ingredients as Glen told them about the project for the day, setting them on the desk in time to grab the homework that was coming up. This was going to be easier than she thought, she grinned, stacking them on the desk. But it was just about that time that the first explosion went off, several of the students chuckling when they saw Ginger Davidson's face, which had turned a deep color of purple. Andrew, looking away from his experiment to try to help Ginger and June MacKay clean up the mess, heard an explosion behind him. Slowly he turned to see that he and Halbert's own cauldron had gone up in smoke, and Halbert was shaking his head at him.

"You see what happens when you try to get mixed up with that sort?" Halbert said, jabbing his thumb at the girls. June leaned forward so she could see around Andrew, sticking her out her tongue at Halbert.

"You are letting your cauldrons get too hot," Jennifer said with exasperation, turning several down on her way over to them. "Keep stirring those, it'll slowly cool down to a better temperature. Here, that stuff isn't going to come up using your robe sleeve, Andrew, and it won't come off the robe, either. Use the Spilled Milk potion in your kit, it's designed to dissolve stuff like this."

"How do you know all that?" Halbert asked, staring at her. "I don't understand how you know all that and yet didn't recognize Andrew."

"It's called functional memory, Halbert."

Jennifer and the two boys looked up to see Witolf watching them from where he leaned on his desk.

"Our brains store knowledge and experience differently, and it's a good thing too, else anytime anyone cast even a simple memory charm we'd find ourselves having to teach them how to walk, talk, teach them language… of course, there are some cases that people do lose some functional memory as well, such as that poor chap Lockhart who used to teach here. Normally, memory curses only affect event memory, which is what happened in this case. And it's very fortunate, else Jennifer wouldn't be standing here now telling you to stir your cauldrons, despite the fact that I would have let you learn that the hard way," Witolf added with a chuckle.

"I'm sorry, sir, did I overstep?" Jennifer asked, alarmed.

"No, no, Madame Craw, feel free to jump in whenever you feel necessary, but do let them learn from their own mistakes now and then, hm? I have a feeling, for example, that Miss Davidson and Miss MacKay won't be gossiping instead of stirring after this," Glen said lightly. Ginger blushed bright red at that, getting in her case for the solvent, while June feigned innocence, busy rescuing their lab work from the sticky mess.

"Andrew," Halbert murmured after Jennifer had moved away to check on someone else. "Do you suppose this assistant thing is just Dumbledore's way of getting her used to the classroom again? I mean, do you think she could actually teach like this?"

"I'm not sure. I would think that experience would have just as much to do with being a good teacher as knowledge would," Andrew whispered back. "Perhaps she'd be able to tell us how to put together a Butterfly Balm, but would she be able to tell us the best time to use it and when not to?"

"Well, Witolf would probably tell us to figure it out for ourselves," Halbert said dryly. "I'd think she could do that much, huh?"

"Haven't you gotten your desk cleaned yet, Mr. Hagrid, Mr. Snape?" The two boys looked up to see Professor Witolf's eyes on them again. "And would you both add a few more inches of text for me today about what went wrong, please, about how being distracted by talking might have impacted how the explosions started today?"

"Yes, Professor," they both said meekly, turning back to their cleaning.

That weekend turned out to be quite cold, and clouds threatened to pour snow upon the last Quidditch game of the fall season. It was, in many people's mind, also the most important game of the season; Slytherin vs. Gryffindor… the defending House Cup champions against the defending Quidditch Cup champs. Everyone knew that without a miracle, the Slytherins were expected to dominate the sparring tournament again this year. Here was the equalizer; for Conner, the Gaffney boys, and of course Rose Bailey, were some of the best Quidditch players that Gryffindor had seen in years. They had been undefeated last year, and may prove to be again, depending, of course, on the outcome of this, their rival game.

Jennifer stepped into the teacher's box excitedly as Severus led them to a couple of empty seats. They had waited until the last minute to come out because of the weather, but it seemed from the rest of the stands that the cold air didn't deter the majority of the student body to be out their braving it. Nobody was going to miss this game.

Within minutes the Slytherin team was out and zooming past them, each one nodding to Severus on their way before diving in a dizzying pattern towards the center of the field.

"Did I ever get on one of those things?" Jennifer grinned, waving to Aurelius when he went by.

"Yes, although to be frank, you ride a broom the way I play the violin," Severus said dryly. Jennifer glanced out at the Pitch as the Gryffindor team flew by.

"Oh, no," Jennifer said with disbelief. "I couldn't have possibly been that bad." Severus scowled at that, and Jennifer immediately turned apologetic.

"See if I ever play to help you sleep again," Severus muttered, and then caught sight of someone on a bench below grinning broadly and focused in on her, squinting a bit. "What, Minerva? Come on, go ahead and say something," Severus said dangerously, a knowing spark in his eyes.

"Now, Severus," Minerva said, her smile never leaving her face. "I was merely thinking about how nice it was to have Jennifer back. We'll have to arrange a Coven Night sometime, maybe after the holidays. You know, a sort of girls' night out?" Jennifer grinned and nodded.

"She's hardly ready for that," Severus snapped.

"Really? From what I'm hearing, I think she's more than ready," Minerva said enigmatically, turning back around with Severus still glaring at her.

Madame Danny Brittle flew in, getting applause of her own as she headed to the trunk, kicking it open and letting the first of the balls loose.

Aurelius watched intently from the rings as the Quaffle went up and Xavier and Conner raced towards it, the two brooms knocking viciously together as Xavier grabbed it and pushed him away, flying straight up to get away from the pack. From that moment on, it was quite evident how brutal the game was going to get. How he wanted to be in the pack right now, watching as Xavier pushed through and put Stew in his place over at the rings! Of course, Stew was hardly the main target, and Aurelius couldn't help but be impatient to see if his plan was going to pay off.

It was as they began running back up the Pitch that Aurelius became alert, for Conner had the ball and was heading towards him at breakneck speed. As if on cue, Xavier crossed in front of Conner, Camille acting as a sight shield for Xavier who had butted up to Conner and punched him in the side. As Xavier took the Quaffle back, there was an immediate round of boos from the crowd that had been in the position to see it. Had Madame Brittle? She seemed quite oblivious to the whole thing even though she was at an angle that she might have at least suspected it, but no call was made as they sped back to the other side of the pitch.

In the teacher's box, Jennifer was still wincing and Minerva was on her feet, waiting for the call that didn't come and muttering something under her breath. Severus smirked slightly, wondering exactly what Platt had going against Donovan this time. No, perhaps it was just a little over enthusiasm. The champions of the Pitch could use a little ego bruising, Severus mused.

But that didn't stop the Slytherin team from seeming to single out Conner with their questionable moves, batting Bludgers at him when he was much too close and jostling him at any given opportunity. In fact, the abuse towards Donovan seemed to be evident to everyone, except, perhaps the referee, who always seemed to be in the wrong spot of the field to see it when it occurred.

Finally, Stewart Gaffney called a time out, pulling his team to the ground. He had seen Conner's growing irritation, and it was quickly reaching the boiling point.

"What the hell is going on out here? Why isn't she calling those bastards out?" Conner growled furiously. "A fine time Brittle picked to turn Slytherin on us."

"This isn't like her, she's normally a very fair referee," Rose said, looking over at the Slytherins who were hanging out in the air chatting and grinning from ear to ear. "Why do they all seem to be breathing down your neck, anyhow?"

"Because I'm the best Chaser you have, of course," Conner said.

"So? You can't win the game," Rose said. "But there hasn't been one Bludger shied in my direction yet."

"Look, we don't have enough time left to get into this. Conner, if you end up with the Quaffle, throw it to Ted. I don't know what's going on, but I'd prefer it if you kept the heat off."

"What, and sit back and watch like an idiot? If I'm playing I'm going to play," Conner said.

"You want thrown out then?" Stew challenged. The whistle blew in warning.

"Please, let's just get back out there. Just be careful," Rose said, taking to her broom again.

"Stay out of the action, Conner," Stew ordered, taking to the air as well.

But Conner wasn't about to hand a Quaffle off to the new kid all the time. Instead, Greg, who was a fair Chaser at best, ended up with the ball quite often. He was fumbling with it so much that it gave Xavier plenty of ripe opportunities to pluck it out of his hands, jeering at Conner on his way back around to the rings. Growling with anger as Slytherin pushed the score to 40-0, Conner glanced over to where Brittle was hovering looking completely disinterested.

Making a split second decision, Conner leaned forward and zoomed straight for the group head-on and straight over to Xavier. Skidding around at the last moment, his broom came to land across Xavier's stomach, pushing him back and making him drop the Quaffle to keep from falling off the broom. Immediately Brittle was there, the whistle ringing in his ear as she turned in front of him.

"Illegal and dangerous contact! Off the Pitch, Donovan!" Brittle snapped angrily, pointing him away from the back.

"What? That's completely laughable after what you've been letting them get away with! How is that fair?" he barked back.

"Why Donovan, I'm surprised at you. Where's your sportsmanship?" she asked in a strange mocking voice that sent a chill through him. "What could be more sporting than a team of riders chasing down a target and wearing it down before the kill? You're not allowed to fight back, you know, that's not part of the game. Now, get off my Pitch or I'll throw you out for the rest of the match!"

Conner quickly went to the box, trying to make some sense to what Brittle was saying. Was she out of her mind? Was she actually intentionally looking the other way? And even more important, did he even want to go back in when time was called?

Above him, Rose was getting more and more irritated with Henry's laughter as they got a free ten points from the encounter and Camille had the ball, giving Xavier a bit of room to recover. The Gryffindor Beaters, furious over what was happening, wasn't about to give their captain any leeway. Bludgers were smacked towards Xavier, forcing him to dodge. Now that their main target was out of the way, the Slytherin Beaters began to concentrate on the Seeker again and Rose had to make a quick dive as one was smacked towards her.

But just as she dove, she saw something flicker above her above the pack with Henry's shadow racing towards it. Cursing herself for getting distracted, Rose pushed the broom full speed ahead. Even as she raced over to try and snag the Snitch from below, she saw it was not meant to be. She spun into a tight curve to avoid Henry as he came thundering through the air above her like a locomotive, his hand clutching the golden Snitch ending the game.

A huge roar rang in her ears as the reigning champs were trounced, their morale beaten as their Chasers had been, and losing at a very disappointing 200-0. Rose looked over at the rest of her teammates apologetically; their faces had all fallen with the exception of Conner. For some strange reason, a look of pure relief swept over his face. As he landed next to the others, it was obvious that he was a bit shaken. The reprimand that Stewart had been planning died on his lips, looking at him curiously.

"Are you all right?" he asked.

"Yeah, it's just… I think they were really out to get me," Conner said with such a serious expression that the rest of his teammates couldn't help but believe him. They all glanced over at where the Slytherins were making their victory flight around the Pitch before landing inside the gate, and Conner's eyes were fixed at the two at the head of the pack; Xavier and Aurelius.

Up in the teacher's box, Minerva and Severus both exchanged worried glances as they got up and went down the stairs, Jennifer close behind. They split up at the bottom, going to their respective teams while keeping an eye out for Danny. Severus was quite certain that something unusual must have happened before the game for Danny to have had shown such open bias. Not that such a thing was unheard of on the Quidditch Pitch, but in all the years that Danny had been referee, she had never done such a thing. Gently motioning for Jennifer to stay back, Severus rounded the corner and into the hallway leading to the Slytherin gate in time to see Xavier shaking hands with Aurelius enthusiastically.

"Nice, play, Aurelius. I knew it wasn't a mistake to put you on the team," Xavier grinned.

"Well, I still would like to know just on what happened out there, but however you did it, it was nice to see Donovan put in his place," Camille agreed.

"Hey! What about me?" Henry protested, and another round of handshakes went to him as Severus picked up his pace and approached them.

"So, another victory for Slytherin, I see," Severus said casually, nodding to Xavier and then to Henry. "Well done on the catch. Aurelius, I see you had it easy, considering that Gryffindor didn't seem to get anywhere near the ring this evening. I hope it doesn't ruin your edge."

"I wouldn't worry about that sir, a Slytherin always has an edge. Especially Aurelius," Xavier assured him.

"Yes, I wonder where he gets that from," Severus said, a questioning look behind his thoughtful gaze. The rest of the team smirked but Aurelius remained expressionless, sensing that his Father knew something was up. "Very well, keep up the good work. Perhaps I'll drop by the rooms later, but right now I have something to take care of," he said, gazing at Aurelius a moment longer before turning and striding back out to the hallway. Jennifer studied his frowning face curiously.

"What is it?" she asked quietly as he turned and went back towards the Pitch.

"Our son has a rather remarkable ability to hide what's on his mind from you and from others," Severus said in a low voice as they walked towards the main storage area. "However, I have noticed that when Aurelius has done something particularly dastardly, there is a subtle change in his expression as his conscience tries to take a battering ram through that cold genius of his. Time to do a bit of investigation, I think, and you can be a great help to me."

"Sure, what do you want me to do?" she asked.

"Just watch, and don't be too obvious," Severus said simply. Jennifer thought about that a moment.

"Isn't that prying? I mean, to do that without being asked?" Jennifer wondered.

"Jennifer, everyone in this school knows you're a Truth Seeker, and even if they didn't, there's nothing wrong with being what you are as long as you don't have a loose tongue, which you do not."

"And I suppose husbands are exempt from this holding my tongue rule?" Jennifer challenged him.

"Of course, it's one of the fringe benefits to marrying you," he said softly before nudging her to stay quiet as he spied Danny putting away gear in a storage cabinet. "Interesting game tonight," he said in a louder voice, Danny looking up with surprise.

"Oh hi, Severus. Yeah, good catch for Henry, wasn't it? I think that's the fastest I have ever seen him fly," Danny said casually, kicking the ball trunk back into place and throwing her broom in before closing it.

"Yes, the team definitely seemed to have quite a lot of momentum out there after that Blind Bowman early in the game." Severus said.

"Blind Bowman?" Danny said with surprise, turning away to lock the cabinet, chuckling a bit. "Severus, are you actually accusing your own team of foul play when I wasn't looking?"

"I never said it was my team that did it," Severus said casually. "Does that mean you actually did see something?" Danny turned and stared at him fixedly then.

"Severus, we were just now speaking of the momentum of your team. I'm sure that if you meant to reference something that Gryffindor had pulled, you would have specifically said so. In fact, I was nice enough to ask you to clarify what exactly you were referring to, but now that we're off on this tangent, would you care to tell me why it is that you're trying to put words in my mouth? Because if you would like to accuse me of something, I would rather you just do so outright," Danny said, folding her arms.

"No need to overreact, Danyelle," Severus said calmly. "I would never try to accuse you of anything without just cause."

"Why not? From what I hear, you do it to my uncle all the time," Danny said bluntly. Severus' expression changed then and he grew strangely quiet. Nodding with satisfaction, Danny turned around and walked towards the castle, not looking back.

"I don't know what that last sentence meant, but it sure look like it burned," Jennifer said the moment Danny turned out of view.

"Never mind that, did you get anything pertinent out of that? Like why she might have missed that call?" Severus asked in a low voice.

"Actually, she wasn't thinking about the game at all," Jennifer shrugged apologetically. "But can I ask a question?"

"You can ask without asking, what is it?" Severus murmured impatiently, still brooding over the problem at hand.

"Why would she be angry about a student having a horse trained for fox hunts in the barn?" Severus' expression changed dramatically then, Jennifer frowning with confusion with what she was reading from it.

"Come on, I need to find Dumbledore," Severus said, very glad that Dumbledore was back so he didn't have to handle this one. "Remind me that I need to have a long talk with our son about attempting to manipulate staff members tomorrow."

"Don't tell me, whatever it is that just happened is going to take a lot of explaining as well," Jennifer said, having to jog to keep up.

"Most definitely," Severus agreed.