by Lauren Snape
Chapter 13: Rifts and Repairs
Author's Note: I sent this to my editor a week or so ago and I haven't heard back from her. I decided to post it anyway because I've kept you all waiting long enough I believe.
A heavy snow fell from the sky on the evening that all the students returned from Winter Holidays. Lucius and Narcissa had white flakes clinging to their hair when they strolled into the Slytherin common room.
They found Lauralie and Severus in much the same spot they were in the last time we saw them, sitting near the fire playing a game of chess. Neither of them showed any notice when Lucius and Narcissa took their normal seats in the armchairs on either side of the fire, looking down on the game.
The game proceeded for one more turn before Lauralie spoke.
"How was your Holiday?" she asked, grinning slightly as she looked up at her friends.
Narcissa promptly launched into a detailed account of her vacation to Russia where she visited with her Aunt, Uncle, and three cousins.
"But all three of my cousins go to Durmstrang and they were telling me about their house system and its just colors. Black is like Slytherin. Well, they are all like Slytherin really. It sounds like it's a whole school full of Slytherins just sub-divided into houses."
"A school who has the right idea about things," Lucius said.
"One must wonder what school the Muggle borns go to," Lauralie said.
"Oh, there are mudbloods at Durmstrang," Narcissa said. "They just don't talk about it."
The common room was slowly filling around them. Students were talking loudly about the gifts they'd received and the events they'd attended over the break.
Ludo Bagman appeared behind Lucius' chair.
"Have a good Holiday?" he asked, thumping Lucius on the back.
There was a general mumble of "yes".
"Good," he proclaimed. "Quidditch Practice this Saturday at three. Don't be late." He clapped Lucius on the back before turning and leaving.
"Oh yes," Severus said, sitting up. "We must prepare or our challenging match against Hufflepuff."
It was the first time he had spoken since the others had arrived. He directed his rook as he adjusted his position on the hearth.
Narcissa looked from him to Lauralie.
"Did we miss anything while we were gone?"
"Not really," Lauralie answered. "A whole lot of the same, just less people."
"Did you get anything cool for Christmas?" Lucius asked.
"Nope," she answered.
"So no new gifts from…"
"No, nothing like that," Severus interjected.
Narcissa looked mildly disappointed, but seemed convinced by Severus' response.
"Well, that isn't all that entertaining, so I'm going to go to bed," she said. "Coming, Lauralie?"
Lauralie looked down and watched Severus re-setting the chess pieces, his long black hair falling over his face as he gazed down at the board.
"After this game," she answered. She wasn't sure, but she could almost make out a smile behind Severus' curtain of hair.
"Suit yourself," Narcissa said. "Night boys."
Lucius stayed and watched the first half of the chess game, occasionally throwing out pieces of casual conversation. Once he finally got tired, he excused himself, mumbling something like "couldn't rest on the bloody train" before departing for bed.
Lauralie shifted so she was sitting cross-legged in front of the board and watched Severus. He was staring at the board, contemplating his next move. His cool black eyes darted from one piece to another.
"Thank you," she said.
He looked up, brushing his hair out of his face.
"I would like to think that you would cover for me if I was in a similar position," he said.
"I would."
He nodded. It wasn't really an apology, but it was a declaration that no matter what had happened over the Holiday, they were still on the same side.
The first meal of any term tended to be loud and eventful, and breakfast the next morning was no exception. The conversation at the Gryffindor table alone had already reached a dull roar, and they had only just sat down.
Sirius was the loudest. He was thumping the table and making loud speculations as to whether or not they might catch Slytherin up in points for the Quidditch cup. Because if they at least tied Slytherin, then it would merit a rematch.
James was sitting next to him, nodding enthusiastically at the right moments. His hair was a disaster area, sticking up in every direction. His robes were draped over the back of his chair and his Gryffindor tie hung, un-fastened, around his neck.
The McConaugha twins and Bridget Corrigan listened to the banter. No one was paying much attention to the end of the table where Remus, Lily, and Magdalene were sitting. Remus glanced over his shoulder at the Slytherin table and when he turned back Lily was watching him.
She had changed slowly since they had met. She was once a shy shell of what she had now become. Her wavy, shoulder length red hair fell around her pale, freckle dusted, face. And when she smiled, her green eyes sparkled.
"So, how was your Holiday?" Lily asked, smiling at Remus as she sipped her orange juice.
"Quiet," he answered, buttering a piece of toast and ripping off a chunk with his teeth.
"Peaceful quiet or boring quiet?" she asked. She ran her finger along her hairline, tucking the loose strands behind her left ear. She was wearing dangling snowflake earrings.
Remus chewed for a moment before swallowing with a gulp. "A mixture of both. Never much to do at home compared to here."
She lowered her voice so that only he and Magdalene could hear the next question. "Did you buy Lauralie a present like you had planned?"
"Actually, I did," he answered. "I bought her one of those new InstaMagic cameras. You know, the one where you take the picture and you can watch it develop automatically. Seemed really cool."
"Wow, that is kinda cool," she said. "Have you talked to her since?"
"She sent me an owl after she got it, but I haven't talked to her yet. Actually, that reminds me." He stood, shouldering his bag. "I'll catch up with you guys in History of Magic."
Magdalene watched him walk away in the direction of the Slytherin table.
"He's got more guts than I do," she said.
"I must agree, if ever I had the need to talk to Lauralie, I'd try to corner her when she wasn't surrounded by the rest of the Slytherins," Lily said.
Magdalene nodded, turning to look down the table at Sirius. He didn't look up but after a moment Mags realized that Lily and herself weren't the only ones who noticed Remus walking towards the Snake den, Lindsay McConaugha was watching him as well.
Despite the near apology from the night before, Severus was still being unusually quiet during breakfast. In fact, he didn't say anything until just after the mail arrived, when he looked over Lauralie's shoulder and snarled: "What do you want?"
Lauralie turned to see that Remus was standing there, and he fixed Severus with a cool look. He seemed completely un-phased by the hostility that was seething off of the Slytherins around her.
In the moments before he finally spoke, Lauralie took Remus in. She had not really looked at him since their encounter at the top of the Astronomy Tower. His hair had grown out; the straw colored waves were now long enough to be tucked behind his ears if necessary. His eyes that had seemed so dark that night were now a very pale gray.
He grinned slightly as their eyes met.
"Lauralie, could I trouble you for a few minutes before morning classes start?" he asked.
He didn't look at Severus or Lucius, which was probably a good thing because they were both looking at him as if they were going to give him a quick beating.
"Um, okay." She stood, carefully catching Severus' eye before she spoke again. "I'll see you all later."
A few heads turned as the miss-matched pair strolled down the isle between the Slytherin and Ravenclaw tables, but they both ignored it. Lauralie walked with her head held high, ignoring her surroundings. Neither of them spoke until the doors to the Great Hall closed behind them.
"Okay, so what's going on?" Remus asked.
"Not here," she hissed. She seized his arm and pulled him up the marble staircase.
It was a complete reversal of how she had been acting before. Suddenly the confidence she had exuded at breakfast was no longer there. He was getting a glimpse of how she really was: tired and scared. The hand that still grasped his arm was paler than he would have expected.
But the true picture wouldn't be entirely clear for him until she turned around and faced him.
She had led him down a fairly unused corridor off the fourth floor.
"Sorry, but there are ears all over this castle," she said.
Lauralie looked a wreck. There were bags under her eyes. And something seemed to be haunting those eyes he loved so much. She looked so exhausted.
"What's wrong?" he asked. "Have you not been sleeping?"
"There is a lot to tell, it could take a while," she said.
He reached forward and before she could react his hand was on her cheek. He ran his thumb gently across her skin there.
"Calm down," he said. "Skip dinner and meet me in the library. I'll grab some food from the kitchens and we should end up having the whole place to ourselves."
She closed her eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. "That's perfect."
"Okay, I'll see you then," he said, turning and walking down the corridor and back to the main fourth floor hall.
Lauralie waited until he had been out of sight for a few moments before following. She turned at the end of the corridor to head in the direction of the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. She hardly made it a step before running headlong into Magdalene.
Lauralie's bag split and Magdalene lost control of the supplies she had been carrying, resulting in books, quills, ink and parchment flying everywhere.
Magdalene didn't even look up to see whom she had collided with. She let out an exasperated moan and sank to her knees to clean up the mess.
"And my day just keeps getting better," she mumbled.
"I'm sorry," Lauralie said, kneeling to help in the clean up. "Reparo!" The split seam in her bag fixed itself and she began piling her stuff back into it.
Magdalene's head popped up, causing her hair full of curls to bounce. "Oh, don't worry about it, Lauralie. I'm just having one of those weeks," she said. "My Holiday wasn't all that grand, and my father almost made me miss the train yesterday. Sirius is being really weird, even though he sent me a Christmas present. Then I forgot my History of Magic book in the dorm and on my way back to get it this happens. And I'm sure that was way more than you ever wanted to know, wasn't it?"
Lauralie paused, staring into her bag for a moment. "My brother got you a Christmas present?"
"Yeah!" She reached a hand into her sweater and pulled out a pendant. It was a teardrop shaped black stone, set in silver. "It's a mood stone. Kind of like the Muggle mood rings, except it reads your actual mood instead of just your body temperature."
Lauralie considered asking what mood black would represent, but she was pretty sure she knew already.
"And define weird. I mean, Sirius isn't the most well-balanced person," she said, grinning.
"He's just so hard to read. We spent a great day in Diagon Alley together over break. He sends me a piece of jewelry for Christmas, but when we got on the train he hardly said two words to me. He spent the whole time talking Quidditch with James and Bridget Corrigan."
"She'll take any opportunity, won't she?"
Magdalene grumbled. "Yes. And she kept batting her eyes at him or touching his arm when she talked to him. But he kept talking to her."
"Maybe he was just in Quidditch mode. Maybe he thought if he humored her for a while she'd chill out. Maybe he's a boy and boys are stupid. Want me to throw a rock at him?"
Magdalene laughed and reached for the last book that was left on the floor: Salvatore Slytherin's diary.
Lauralie's gut instinct was to snatch the diary out of the Gryffindor girl's hand, but she restrained herself. And when she held out her hand, Magdalene handed the small book back with out any argument.
Magdalene rose to her feet, straightening her pile of books and said: "So, you and Remus are on speaking terms again?"
"Yeah, I figured that it was about time to leave well enough alone. Water under the bridge, and all of that."
Magdalene nodded thoughtfully, causing her curls to bounce again. "I'm sure he's relieved." She paused. "I know I am."
Lauralie let out a sharp laugh. "I'm sure there are others who will be relieved."
"Well, we were all worried about him. He's been acting weird for a while," Magdalene said. "He hardly talks sometimes. He always seems so tired. Then he'll vanish for a couple of days with some weird excuse. I think Sirius, James, and Peter know where he goes, but they always back up whatever story he's already told us."
There was a moment of awkward silence during which she started to think that perhaps she had just said too much.
"And then he returns looking almost sickly," Lauralie finished the thought for her.
Magdalene just looked at Lauralie for a while, her brown eyes unreadable. "You know, for a Slytherin you certainly are very observant of the comings and goings of us Gryffindors," she said.
Lauralie couldn't really think of a response to this, but before she even had time to try the warning bell sounded through the hallway.
"Thanks for listening. I guess I'll see you around," Magdalene said.
"Yeah, around," Lauralie replied, watching the older girl walk away.
"You are late, Miss Black," Professor Lestrange called as Lauralie slipped into the Potions lab.
"Sorry, Professor," she said, taking her usual seat at a cauldron near the back with Narcissa.
Eyes flickered in her direction from all around the room. Everyone had seen, or heard from someone who saw, her leave breakfast with Remus. Lindsay McConaugha was trying to peer discretely over the cauldron she shared with her twin brother, Duncan. For a moment, Lauralie thought the Gryffindor was trying to catch her eye, but when she looked over Lindsay's eyes darted in another direction.
Professor Lestrange waved her wand and the directions for brewing Shrinking Solution appeared on the board.
"Begin."
The classroom slowly whirred into motion and Lauralie began chopping dandelion roots.
"What is going on with you?" Narcissa whispered.
"What do you mean?" Lauralie's face had shifted to a perfectly puzzled look as she scraped the bits of root off of her cutting board and into the cauldron.
"You know what I mean," Narcissa hissed, tossing her white-blond hair in annoyance. "You and Severus are fighting about something. He's not talking about it, but Lucius and I can both tell that something is wrong."
"It is between Severus and myself," Lauralie answered, stirring the cauldron.
"That's the same thing he said. Why the big secret?"
"You simply do not need to get involved," Lauralie said, a hint of warning in her voice. There was an uncomfortable pause before Narcissa forged on.
"And what about Lupin? I thought you weren't talking to him anymore."
Lauralie set down the spoon she had been stirring the cauldron with and moved on to measuring out the witch hazel. "Remus and I have decided to set our differences aside."
"So, let me get this straight, you are on the outs with your best friend but instead of trying to fix things you are making them worse by befriending one of the core members of the Gryffindor Golden Gang?"
"This has nothing to do with Remus. And if Severus' isn't telling I will do him the favor of not speaking of it. It doesn't concern you."
They brewed their potion in silence for a few minutes.
"He really messed up this time, didn't he?" Narcissa asked.
Lauralie didn't answer, but Narcissa was already sure that it was true.
The other tables had fallen oddly quiet. Lauralie had not realized how loud they had been talking before. Both the McConaugha twins were watching her now, but she ignored them and continued with her work.
Duncan leaned over to his sister and whispered: "looks like there is trouble in paradise."
"It's absolutely perfect," James declared.
Sirius tossed a tuft of brown hair from in front of his face and looked skeptically from Lindsay to James. He wagged his finger at her.
"You mean to tell me that Snake has actually managed to do something that pissed off Lauralie?" he asked.
"So it seems," she answered.
"Do you buy this, Remus?"
Remus was sitting at a table with Magdalene, working on their Potions homework. He let out a sigh and dropped his quill in the crack of his book. He had hoped to avoid involvement in the scheming and plotting that was to be launched in the Gryffindor common room.
"It would explain some things," he answered.
"Like what?" Sirius asked.
"Have you taken a good look at your sister today? She looks very tired, and very stressed."
Sirius looked almost stricken. "Really?"
James waved his hand as if dismissing the relevancy. "That's not the point. The point is that this is the perfect time," he said. "We've been waiting for an opportune moment to pull a good prank on the Slytherins. And with the inner-circle set to split, we've got to do it now."
"Do you really think that Snake's group is the Slytherin inner-circle?" Bridget asked. "It used to be Bagman and his crew."
"True, in our first year Bagman was king, but it has shifted. Bagman is still known, he's the Quidditch Captain after all, but who do all the Slytherins watch constantly, even the older kids?" James paused dramatically. "Lauralie! Ever since she strolled into the Great Hall in that cloak she has been in the Slytherin spotlight. And because of that she's dragged her little group into popularity."
There was a silence in which everyone stared at James.
"You've put a lot of thought into this," Sirius said, crossing his arms.
"I did, because it has to come off perfectly. One prank. We don't get caught and we do serious damage to the collective Slytherin ego by proving that they aren't as untouchable as they all think they are."
"Yeah, but what do we do?" Bridget asked.
"I don't know, we'll brainstorm," James said. "Everyone think of an idea and then we'll pick the best one."
Remus sank back down into his chair. He stared at the book he had been reading, but didn't pick it up. Magdalene was scribbling in what Remus could only assume was her journal. He had seen her writing in it a couple of times previous to this.
"They are playing with fire here," he told her, fishing his quill out from between the pages of his book.
"Oh, I know," she replied, she snapped the journal closed and turned to him. "And you know that. But, I also know, that if they come up with something and need your help that you will help them."
"That depends on the circumstances," he said.
"You mean it depends on how much a prank on the Slytherins could hurt your new alliance with Lauralie."
Remus looked up from his book and met eyes with her. She had a smug grin on her face. She was right, of course. He had been on bad terms with Lauralie long enough and wasn't in any kind of hurry to go back to the way things had been before break.
"Mags, do me a favor," he said. She raised an eyebrow at him. "Get out of my head."
She laughed.
"Are you guys ready for dinner?" Lily asked. She and Audrina had just arrived at the foot of the stairs down from the girls' dormitory.
There was a shuffle as people started to pack up their things. Magdalene stood, glancing only once at Remus, who had not started to move, before rising from her chair. Sirius, James, Lindsay, and Bridget were still huddled together discussing prank possibilities. Peter was the first to notice that Remus wasn't making an attempt to join them.
"Aren't you coming, Remus?" he asked, turning his watery eyes to him.
"Actually, I'm not going to dinner," Remus answered. He slowly began to pack up his things. "I'm going to the library instead."
There was a moment of silence. Even James and Lindsay had stopped plotting to digest this bit of information.
"You're going to the library?" James asked. "But it's only the first day of a new term."
Remus shrugged, starting to slip his supplies back into his bag.
"Okay, well, yeah…" Lily began in an attempt to bridge the silence that had fallen among her friends. "Then, I guess, we'll catch up with you later."
She turned and pushed the portrait of the fat lady open. She stepped out into the hallway and slowly the others followed.
As they entered the Great Hall, Sirius' eyes were drawn automatically to the Slytherin table. After what Remus had said earlier and the information Lindsay had reported, Sirius was curious as to what might be going on. Severus, Lucius and Narcissa were all seated but Lauralie wasn't at the table at all. And they didn't seem to be expecting her, because they had not saved her a seat.
Before he even had a chance to get angry or upset, Magdalene was at his side.
"She probably just needs to talk, about whatever is going on, with someone outside of her house," she said.
"He could have just told me he was meeting her," Sirius growled. "Why hide it?"
"Perhaps because the last time Remus got too close to your sister you threw him into a bookcase?" She smiled, bumping her shoulder into his.
"You know, you have quite the point there," he said, flashing her his winning smile. He looked down the table. Bridget had saved him a seat and was waving for him to join her, James and Lindsay. "Sit with me?"
"Sure," she said, following him down the table.
When Remus arrived at the library he found Lauralie sitting at a table all the way in the back. The tabletop was completely clear with the exception of a small leather-bound book that was set directly in front of her.
Remus rounded the table, pulling the chair next to hers out and sitting. He fished through the paper bag he was carrying and pulled out a sandwich wrapped in wax paper. He extended it to her.
"Thanks," she said. He set aside the bag after taking out a sandwich for himself. For a minute the only sound in the library was the crinkling of paper as they unwrapped their food. "Okay, before I tell you anything you have to promise me something."
Remus was chewing his food, but he raised an eyebrow to indicate she should go on.
"You have to promise that this won't get told to anyone. What we talk about has to stay here. You can't tell James, or Lily, or Mags. You especially can not tell my brother."
He swallowed his food. "You have my word," he said.
"Okay, well to be technical this all really started when I was sorted into Slytherin. A lot of people thought the hat had made a mistake, but I don't think it did. If it said I have Slytherin blood, then I do. But I never stopped to ponder how that could be, after the sorting. Things got very hectic, very fast. I fell into my group of friends, and thought very little of the Sorting Hat's words until Christmas rolled around and I received the Cloak of Destiny."
"Who sent it to you? I've always wondered," he asked.
"I still don't know for sure, the note gave no name. Though it did state that their identity had been hidden from me so far. Which was the second hint that Wesley Black, the man who has raises me so far, is not my real father," she explained. "The third came at the very end of last year, when I received another note. This one was only one sentence: you are the Heir of Slytherin."
Remus couldn't seem to think of a response to this.
"Things over the summer were quiet. Nothing more arrived from the anonymous person. Life progressed normally until the day after my birthday. That's when the dragons started to migrate and things started getting weird."
She took a bite out of her sandwich. She chewed and swallowed before proceeding.
"That's when I returned to school and the dreams started."
"Dreams?"
"Nightmares, really. About dragons, always about dragons. It got so bad that I was taking Dreamless Sleep potion every night, that is until Severus caught me and made me dump the lot of it down the drain," she said.
"Why'd he do that?"
"He was afraid I'd become dependant on it. Sev is determined that there is another way to fix it. So we did research. We hit a lot of dead ends, but we did find out that the Dragons of Yorkshire don't migrate. They've only done it once before now, back when the Hogwarts founders were still alive," she explained. "We know that Salvatore Slytherin did a study on the phenomenon, but we couldn't find any of his literature."
"Salvatore Slytherin?"
"One of Salazar Slytherin's sons. But we dead ended again and the dreams started to invade reality," she said. "I encountered a dragon on the edge of the forest. It tried to attack me and I fell, hit my head, and passed out. When I woke up, the dragon had vanished."
"Now, when you say 'vanished' do you think it flew away?" Remus asked. He pulled two bottles of pumpkin juice out of the bag, he handed her one.
"Thanks," she said. "And no, I mean the dragon was never there. It was some sort of waking dream."
"Well, that could be a symptom of the insomnia," he said.
"True, but all I knew for sure is that we had hit a massive road block," she said. "That is until this arrived at Christmas."
She pushed the diary in front of him, and he flipped it open.
"So one year you receive Salazar Slytherin's cloak, then the next his son's diary," he said. "So you really might be the great great great great great great great great great grand-daughter of Slytherin."
"It seems so," she said. "But, what if there's a connection between this and the dreams. And the dragons."
"Well, what does the diary say?"
"Not much so far. His father is ill and his brother's a nutter," she said. "But I think there's something else here. You can almost feel the magic when you touch the diary. And sure it could just be a load of protective spells, but what if Salvatore Slytherin captured memories in this book as more than just words?"
Remus flipped idly through the pages of the diary. He had read of penseives and how they were used to store and recall memories, but what if someone had modified that concept and disguised it as a book.
"You know what," he said. "I reckon it is worth a try."
"So, you'll help me?"
"Of course I will, but I'm curious, why me?"
"Because Severus' strong subject is Potions, not Charms. And we are kind of on the outs right now. It's… complicated. But I did know that whatever I find out in that Diary I may not want the rest of my house mates to know about."
"Because if you found out damaging information about your house's founder, things could get messy," he said.
"Exactly."
Severus was setting up the chessboard when Lauralie returned from the library. The common room was still fairly full of students, but neither Lucius nor Narcissa were among them.
She sank down on the opposite side of the board as Severus.
"Where are Cissa and Lucius?"
Severus looked up and made a sour face. "They spent maybe an hour trying to drag the reason we'd been fighting out of me before they gave up and went to bed."
"I told Narcissa that if you weren't telling, neither was I," she said.
"Thanks."
"You would have done it for me."
He smiled. "Yeah, I would."