Chapter Twelve

The Calm Before and After

When the news came at breakfast, Alex wasn't a bit surprised but couldn't help be disappointed all the same.

"It has been decided by the staff that all Quidditch games will be postponed until further notice so that we can address security concerns," Hermione announced. The students groaned or complained in protest. "Well, look on the bright side! You'll have a lot more time to study!" She cleared her throat then when she saw the murderous glares, smiling apologetically before heading back to the staff room.

"There goes my first year of Quidditch right down the drain," Mandria said glumly, propping her head in her hand. "There's not going to be anything they can do to secure it against Ciardoth. Remember our first year here?"

"How can I forget? I'm the one she kidnapped, remember?" Alex sighed. "It doesn't matter. The four of us were already under house arrest. In fact, I'm not even sure if we're going to be allowed to go to Hogsmeade or not. They're still thinking about it."

"Why's that, Alex? Did you get in trouble again?" Carey asked concernedly.

"Someone broke in Snape's office last night and stole a watch made to show the locations of family members," Alex explained with a sigh. "So they want us to stay in the castle at all times unless we're in class. I suppose Snape thinks someone will try to use it against us."

"Do you think Ciardoth has it?" Mandria asked nervously. Alex shook her head.

"No, she wouldn't need it, would she? I mean, she knows where we're going to be before we do. Besides, I think she would have killed Rasputin outright, and she would have taken more than that. Rasputin was turned to stone; he's at Dr. Sagittari's at the moment. I'm thinking about going over and talking to him later and seeing if I can't find out anything."

"I thought you just said that your parents told you not to leave the castle," Mandria reminded her.

"Well, we can volunteer to go help Andrew with the animals," Alex suggested. Mandria gave her a look completely lacking of all enthusiasm.

Andrew was more than happy to have them tagging along. So was Halbert, who constantly had to be reminded to speak English after he started a long conversation with Alex.

"It's so hard to remember! When she speaks to me, I only hear Français."

"That's the difficulty of being an Omnivox, it's all English to me," Alex laughed. "It sure has come in handy on outings. Remember when we went to see the Great Wall through a painting we found?"

"And you wanted to walk the length of it," Andrew chuckled.

"Then you had to go and get hungry," Alicia said, rolling her eyes. "You wouldn't believe how many adventures got cut short because he was hungry."

"Why didn't you pack something then?" Mandria asked.

"I did. But I ate it," Andrew protested, walking up to Sagittari's door and knocking. The centaur opened the door, looking at them thoughtfully.

"Are you allowed to be here?" he asked.

"I cleared it with Father last night. Today's our day to clean the barn, remember?" Andrew replied.

"Yes, and we're going to help," Alex said quickly. Sagittari gazed at her with a skeptical smile.

"That is very generous of you, although I can't remember the last time you volunteered for extra work, Miss Snape, or you either, Miss Shea," he added, his voice even and polite.

"Well, we were hoping to check on Rasputin too while we were at it," Alex admitted. "How is he?"

"Would you like to come in and see?" Sagittari asked, stepping out of the doorway. He gestured over to the fireplace where the lizard lay with his head upon his favorite box, still looking a bit grey. "The potion I gave him last night has nearly cured him. He merely needs a bit of rest to finish recovering. He should be back to his lazy old self in a day or two," Sagittari assured them with a smile.

"Rasputin!" Alex said, kneeling beside him and scratching behind his head.

"Might I have a mouse?" Rasputin inquired, his heavily lidded glass eye seemingly focusing in on Alex.

"He says he's hungry," Alex chuckled.

"He's been fed and overfed," Sagittari said sternly. "In fact, I've just had to warn his owner again about overfeeding him. That's why he's gotten so lethargic. You children need to stop pampering him as well."

"But he sounds so sincere," Alex protested. "Rasputin, what happened last night? Who did this to you?"

"I was sleeping under the desk. I heard the door open and came out to see something shiny, and my eye patch came off. I am very handsome." Rasputin decided.

"Yes, that's very informative," Alex said sarcastically.

"What did he say?" Mandria asked anxiously.

"Didn't you see anyone at all?" Alex coaxed.

"I saw a handsome basilisk," Rasputin said. "Can I have a mouse now?"

"Well, that was hardly helpful," Alex sighed, glancing at the others.

"I could have told you had you asked," Doctor Sagittari said with a smile. "Your father was in here all night last night. He said that Rasputin only saw his reflection."

"Well I am glad he's all right," Andrew said. "It just wouldn't be the same without this old lizard lumbering about, even if he is mostly harmless."

"Tell that to Morfinn," Halbert chuckled.

"So someone used a mirror or something on him. What about the door, was it broken into?" Alex asked.

"Miss Snape, I do believe you're now getting into the realm of something which isn't really your concern. I have no qualms with you coming and visiting a family familiar, but I suggest for the safety of all my patients including you that perhaps you should concern yourselves with you own affairs," Doctor Sagittari said.

"Yes, Alex, perhaps we should go clean the barn. Pepper will be glad to see you," Andrew suggested.

"Doctor, are we still going to have Bridle Club this year?" Mandria asked. In spite of her reluctance, she had been looking forward to getting a flying mount this year. Sagittari looked thoughtful.

"Well, we'll see," he said. "I will speak to Professor Dumbledore and consult the stars. I will let you know in a few days if that will be possible or not."

Halbert and Andrew gazed at each other worriedly as Alex thanked him and the four headed out to the pens.

"No Quidditch, no Bridle Club… this is going to be a very boring year at this school," Halbert said glumly.

"Well at least we can count on Sparring Club. It's inside," Alex said.

"You are going to join this year, aren't you, Andrew?" Halbert asked hopefully.

"Absolutely not," said Andrew.

Alicia, however, had no reservations about joining sparring when it began two days later. Her frustrations at not playing Quidditch didn't seem to get in her way in the ring, sending Juliet sprawling to the mat before she could move a muscle.

"Match Snape Hufflepuff," Severus called out in an even tone, helping Juliet out of the ring. But as he turned back to his seat, Alicia caught a quick smile flicked over at Jennifer, who had glanced away from her own match with an enigmatic smile. Noticing Alicia was watching, Jennifer winked at her before turning her attention back to her match.

"That's how to take a match like a Snape," Alex grinned and hugged her little sister.

"Well, she hasn't faced one of us yet," Zacchius pointed out. "Hey, it looks like you're up, Zoë," he nudged, nodding to Jennifer who was calling her over. "Oh no, you're up against Mr.-needs-Morphine Bliant," he snickered.

Alicia looked over in surprise. She had been sitting with Phoebe and hadn't seen him come in. Admittedly she hadn't even looked, for he would have been the last person she would expected to be interested. He did appear to be a bit nervous, his wand arm shaking a bit as he took his position and offered his hand out to Zoë. Reluctantly Zoë shook his pinky, wiping her hand off on her robe afterwards as they bowed and turned around.

"Watch, this is how a Black does things," Zack said with a grin. As Jennifer finished the count, Zoë spun about with speed and confidence.

"Expelliarmus!" she intoned with a blast that might have tossed him out of the ring… if he suddenly hadn't sneezed, the spell flying over his head as he did so. Zoë rolled her eyes as he began to cast his, taking a defensive stance as he cast the same spell. But just as he began to cast it he began to wheeze, sneezing in the middle of trying to pronounce the disarm spell. As the spell went off, Morfinn succeeded only in flipping himself into the air and landing flat on his back, his wand rolling on the ground. The crowd laughed softly.

"Miss Black Gryffindor," Jennifer said in a sympathetic voice as Morfinn crawled to his feet. "Maybe you should try a less dangerous pastime. Why don't you adopt a ghost?"

"I think it'd be afraid that I'd sneeze them away or something," Morfinn sniffled as he came out of the ring.

"Aw, that was no good. He defeated himself," Zack said, his sister shrugging when she came over.

"I think that the only thing I got out of that match was a cold," Zoë decided. "Hey, where did Alicia go?" Zack looked behind him.

"I don't know. She was here a moment ago," he said. "You know, we could have known, if we had, you know..."

"Don't get into that again!" Zoë said. "Don't you think he would have noticed?"

"What are you two talking about?" Alex said curiously.

"Nothing," they both said.

They looked over again as they heard the name Snape called, but then Alex relaxed when she realized it was Aurelius that Severus wanted. They glanced around, waiting for him to appear, but Alex realized he wasn't sitting with Slytherin.

"Odd. I could have sworn he was here earlier," Alex frowned.

"First Alicia, now Aurelius," Zack said. Severus, standing there impatiently, had his hand in his pocket and a strange look on his face as he frowned, searching the room. Reluctantly he called the odd number who had been assigned to sit out to take his place.

"After my match, let's go find out what they're up to," Zack suggested.

"I just hope they went to their rooms," Alex said worriedly, glancing at the chart. "I'd better get ready for my match," she said, heading to the wand rack.

"Sure you won't change you mind?" Zack asked his sister again. "About the thing we saw in the drawer?"

"Would you stop already? Do you want to get us expelled?" Zoë hissed, then paused thoughtfully. "Not that that would necessarily be a bad thing. They'd have to send us back to school in America then."

"Do you really hate it that much? I actually sort of like it here," Zack murmured.

"All right, then let me do it," Zoë said with a sigh. "No point in us both getting into trouble."

"You're a martyr, sis, you really are. This is just the edge we need," Zack said.

"You'd better get your wand. You're up after Alex, you know," Zoë said. "Then we'll go look for Alicia."

"Right," Zack agreed. But as he was walking over to the wand rack, he caught sight of Madame Brittle entering with Professor Weasley right on her heels, both with a worried expression on their face. Holding their matches, Craw and Snape talked to them a moment. Craw, Snape, and Brittle unexpectedly hurried out of the room, leaving Professor Weasley there, smiling at the curious students.

"Now where are they going?" Zack asked.

"I'm sorry, Professors Craw and Snape had a small emergency to attend to. Those with matches that were already in progress, I'll be continuing over in Snape's ring," Professor Weasley informed them. "After that, we're going to call it a night."

"That settles it," Zack said, sighing with frustration that his match was canceled. "There is way too much happening in this castle that we don't know about."
"You're right," Zoë decided. "And if you-know-what was good enough for Dad, it's good enough for us."

"That's the spirit," Zack grinned, the two of them walking to the Gryffindor common room to plan their next move.

It wasn't until breakfast the next morning that any of the Snapes found out what had happened. Alex whistled them over, managing to clear a spot for everyone at the end of the Ravenclaw table. Zoë and Zack invited themselves over, sitting next to Rose and Andrew.

"All right, we're here, what is it?" Aurelius asked with a sigh.

"I thought you'd like to know where Craw and Snape went last night," Alex said, putting the paper down so everyone could see the headline: Sleeping Muggles Spell Nightmare for Haven's Bluff. "Apparently a storm spooked Essie's Slumber Sheep and they went on a rampage. They broke the fence and got loose all over the countryside, even out of town. Muggles all over the area became mesmerized and started counting them and well, you can imagine what happened," she sighed.

"Oh, no! Outside of town too?" Alicia said, staring at the photo of Muggles, falling over fast asleep as a group of sheep passed by them. "But this is horrible!"

"It's worse than horrible! The council votes on what's going to happen to Haven's Bluff next week!" Alex said. "I heard Craw say that Dumbledore's been going out nearly every night after dinner trying to win back votes after what happened at Corey's, and now all of the campaigning in the world may not be enough. If things keep going the way they are, we may not have a home to go back to."

"I don't believe it! They wouldn't take it out on us just because those two can't control their little Muggle hybrid projects," Aurelius said.

"Rel, haven't you been paying attention to the papers at all? The Council is not just voting on what to do about Corey's shop. The vote is whether or not to move us all out." Alex explained.

"This is all Corey's fault!" Aurelius said angrily, standing up. "It was him and his stupid weed shop that started all this! If we do lose the house, it'll be because of him opening that shop in a Muggle town in the first place! I knew we would all have to pay because Mum and Father took him in. Maybe now the rest of you will wise up and see just how much we've had to sacrifice because of it," he snapped, storming back to his table.

"You don't really think we'll lose the house, do you?" Alicia asked worriedly.

"Don't give up yet," Andrew reassured her. "Like Alex said, Dumbledore isn't about to give up before that last vote is cast, and I'm sure our parents won't either. Besides, as long as we have each other, that's what matters, isn't it?" he said, putting an arm around her.

But as Alicia gazed up at Aurelius table where he sat with his friends, Alicia felt even more depressed. So much so that she could barely bring herself to paint during her art lesson that evening, despite the presence of her favorite person in all the world.

For Francis Pyther was hardly a normal individual, nor even a normal artist. Over six hundred years had passed since the painter, then in his early twenties, had stumbled into the darkest and last moment of his natural life. Now Pyther was a vampire; but one who managed to somehow retain his soul and his nature… over the years, that had caused quite a bit of problems. It was rather difficult for a vampire to survive long as a pacifist. But with the help of a great many friends he had survived, spending his extra time among the living perfecting the art he had come to be so famous for. Now it was his turn to pass it onto others, and although he had taught art classes from time to time in both Hogwarts and at his studio, no student was dearer to him than Alicia.

He smiled and nodded at Andrew's sculpture of Hogwarts as he passed it; the boy always did have an honest eye when it came to his modeling projects. Alex, who had no real talent in the field, still liked to paint and her choice of colors were original. Several other students had joined them with different skills and talents, from the very basic to those who seemed inclined to a particular medium, like Morfinn with watercolor.

Phoebe often seemed to have trouble picking what to paint, often copying what others were doing. But neither of the Black twins were there yet, and they were the ones that stood right in front of her. Instead Phoebe peeked over to see what Alicia was working on, only to see a sheet of canvas with nothing but a random stencil mark or two upon it.

"Having an off night, Alicia?" Pyther asked her gently with a sympathetic smile.

"It's been a rough week," Alicia admitted, putting down her stencil with a sigh.

"Come then, settle down a moment. Get a drink and a pastry and relax," he advised. "What sort of project were you thinking of starting?"

"Something happy to cheer me up," Alicia sighed, going to side table to get something.

"Oh, well that would explain it, wouldn't it?" Pyther said. "I find it's much more productive when I'm in a rotten mood to get it out of my system by painting it."

"But won't the mood ruin my work?" Alicia asked.

"Well, not if it is the work, no," Pyther said. "It's true that you shouldn't let your emotions get in the way of your subject, but of course, if the subject of the painting is you're in a rotten mood, you can't ruin it, can you?" Alicia nibbled on the pastry thoughtfully before standing up again, gazing at the canvas. "I think you'll find yourself much more at peace with your emotions if you explore them. And what better way does an artist have than using their talent?" He turned back to his own painting then, watching her from the distance a moment before picking up his brush. But just then he was distracted by the sound of running feet and the sight of Zoë and Zacchius, hurrying in the door.

"Sorry we're late!" Zoë said, putting Dusty down on the counter in front of her and resuming her painting of him.

"Yes, we got held up," Zack agreed. "Can you pose for me again, Mr. Pyther?"

"Oh very well, but I will be glad when you're done with the painting, Mr. Black. It is rather hard to see the paintings this way," Pyther said, his features suddenly changing and growing smaller until he resumed the form of a bat. Flying up to the rafter, Pyther took a position above and behind Alicia so he could keep a good view of them all, Zack whirling around his easel to get a better view. As everyone finally settled down, Alicia began to sketch the Broom Closet with dark rain clouds above, wondering to herself whether or not she would ever see it again.