Chapter Thirty-Two
Truth and Lies
Jennifer let her last class before lunch go early that next day, hoping to get a few minutes alone away from Severus. She eased herself down into her desk chair and crammed a pillow behind her back, closing her eyes a moment and trying to shut out the pain. She only had to get through today, she thought, for it was Friday. If she could only get through the day, she would have the whole weekend to recuperate. She barely even heard when Dodger flew in, bringing cherries and some fresh spring berries to the lately neglected fruit bat, taking his place on the other side of the perch. It seemed that they had finally become friends, their master's strange behavior pulling the two of them together.
All too soon, there was a knock and Jennifer's eyes reluctantly flicked open, realizing after a moment it hadn't been Severus' knock and waved the door open. She was slightly surprised to see Aurelius standing in the doorway then, looking at her for a moment in open concern before shutting the door behind himself.
"Hello, Aurelius. Is something wrong?" Jennifer asked.
"I wonder if I shouldn't be asking that question," Aurelius admitted, coming over to the desk.
"I'm fine," Jennifer shrugged.
"And Truth Seekers make great liars," Aurelius said wryly, but then bowed his head a bit, lifting the heavy chain off his neck. "Look, I want you to have this for awhile," he said, holding his medallion out. Jennifer stared at it, the blackened head of Medusa seeming to peer into her soul. "I don't know what's going on, but I really think that you need it right now more than me."
"Oh, no, Aurelius!" Jennifer said, cupping her hand over the Aegis. "No, I'd really rather you have this in case... Aurelius, you have this for a reason," Jennifer said carefully. "Regardless of the means by which you got it, you were supposed to have this…you, not me. I would feel much, much safer if you had this to protect yourself and your siblings with. That is so much more important right now than worrying about me, okay?"
"Are you sure, Mum? Because if it can help you in any way…"
"No, no, please. Thank you, Aurelius, for even thinking of offering it," Jennifer said sincerely, "But I would rather know that you have it in case anything would happen."
Just then there was a knock on the door and immediately Severus came in, stopping dead in his tracks when he saw Aurelius and looking between them as Aurelius quickly palmed his medallion.
"Do you mind?" Jennifer snapped. "Short student conference?"
"Sorry," Severus said, but looked searchingly between them. "I'll wait outside."
"Make sure the door is shut too, thank you," Jennifer said coolly.
"Oh, don't worry. I don't have your talent for bending ears," Severus said, closing the door firmly enough that everyone could hear it. Jennifer sighed.
"Sorry, he's been a little testy, since… since he took over Potions."
"We know, Mum. Actually, we all know," Aurelius admitted.
"About what?" Jennifer frowned.
"About why Father is on the warpath," Aurelius said, glancing back at the door before taking a phial out of his pocket. "Here, for you."
Jennifer took the phial and stared at the Ache Be Gone label then back at her son.
"Aurelius, this is not a good idea."
"Look, we know Father thinks you're addicted to pain killers, but frankly, we don't believe it," Aurelius said.
"No, actually Aurelius, I probably am getting a bit addicted to them," Jennifer admitted with a sigh.
"But you wouldn't be if someone wasn't giving you some sort of reason to take them," Aurelius pressed. Jennifer shook her head carefully.
"I can't answer you, Aurelius."
"I know. But don't expect me to sit another class with you when you can barely stand up because of whatever it is that whoever it is is doing to you. Come on, take it this once. I'll cover for you," Aurelius said.
"I shouldn't take it. Especially from you…"
"Skip the role model crap, Mum, it's not the time," Aurelius said sternly. "Take the damn phial."
"I shouldn't let you do this," Jennifer said again, but opened the phial, drinking the entire contents of it. As the numbness of the draught began to edge off the pain little by little Jennifer breathed a little easier.
"Better?" Aurelius asked, watching her face carefully.
"Thank you," Jennifer said, handing him back the phial. "But don't you ever do it again."
"I'll do what I have to," Aurelius said, putting it away. "Just like you've always done. But I've got to go. I have an interview coming up, you know."
"I don't suppose, since I'm not going to be doing any interviews of my own today, that'd you'd give me some hint to what field you've chosen?" Jennifer asked with a weak grin. "After all, we have been waiting the entire year to find out."
Aurelius walked a few steps towards the door and looked back at her thoughtfully.
"All right, but there's no way my house can find out about this," Aurelius warned.
"As if I would ever betray your confidence, although I'm not sure why it would matter," Jennifer said curiously.
"Because I want to be an Auror, Mum," Aurelius said, Jennifer's jaw dropping in surprise and staring at him speechlessly as he walked to the door.
"Oh," she finally got out, although that was hardly what was on her mind to say. He merely smiled and opened the door, exchanging a brief greeting with his father as he left. But in the short time it took Severus to come in and shut the door, Jennifer's eyes had already begun tear up. Severus did a double take, staring at his wife in alarm as she got to her feet.
"Now what?" Severus asked warily as she walked over to him.
"Aurelius," Jennifer said, fighting back the tears.
"Aurelius?" Severus repeated anxiously.
"He wants to be an Auror!" she said, bursting into tears of joy as Severus came over and gently drew her close. How far he had come to get to that…looking back to where he had been, the decision seemed nothing short of a miracle. But at the same time, Jennifer couldn't help but agree that with his particular talents, it was nothing if not the perfect choice for her once questionable son.
"An Auror, eh? I suspected as much," Severus said in such a calm tone that Jennifer hit him.
Although the Ache Be Gone was not truly strong enough to completely cover the pain in her chest and leg, Jennifer found the rest of the day much more tolerable, even though part of her still felt guilty for not only taking the potion from her son but also for doing so behind Severus' back. Severus, however, seemed unaware that it had occurred at all, so she tried not to think of it as they sat down to dinner in their room.
"You may want to get to sleep early tonight," Severus advised. "Hermione is going out of town with her family this weekend, so I wasn't able to get out of escorting the Hogsmeade trip."
"There's a Hogsmeade trip tomorrow?" Jennifer said with a frown, having forgotten all about it. "Well, can't I just stay here? I wanted to relax and I had some assignment work to catch up on…"
"I'm sorry, Jennifer, but it's simply out of the question. I'm not going to allow you to stay here by yourself. Here, why don't you break out the homework and I'll help you go through it."
"No, it's all right, Severus, I'll just do it on Sunday," Jennifer said, picking at her food.
"Very well, but don't forget there's a game on Sunday," Severus said.
"There's a game on Sunday?" Jennifer repeated, having forgotten about that as well.
"Yes, the game of the season? Slytherin vs. Hufflepuff?" Severus reminded her.
"Oh yes, of course," Jennifer said sheepishly.
"Danny has been working with the Slytherin team every day for the last three days," Severus murmured, "To get more acquainted with them, of course, but I won't be surprised to see a definite improvement in their style by the game."
"Well, even still, it'd take a lot more than a few days practice to oust our daughter," Jennifer said, gazing at him. "I suppose it doesn't feel the same, does it? Getting ready for a Slytherin game, I mean."
"I'm sure I won't know until we go," Severus said, sipping his tea. But Jennifer shook her head, having little trouble reading past the blank expression. Slowly she put her hand comfortingly around his arm.
"You did the right thing, Severus," she said gently.
"I acted out of pure anger, Jennifer," Severus said.
"Perhaps, but that doesn't mean it was wrong. It's been nothing but a burden to you for years now, and we both know how much it affected your teaching and everything else you've done within the school since even before I knew you."
"I don't deal well with change, Jennifer," Severus said irritably, pointing her back to her plate in a futile attempt to get her to eat something.
"Nonsense, Severus. It's true that you may not like change, but you have quickly adapted to every single curve ball you've ever been thrown," Jennifer said, unrolling her fiddleheads with no intention of eating them. "From getting married to trying to keep up with five kids, from losing Haven to being chased from Baker Street." Severus gazed at her thoughtfully. "I think all you need is to feel in control again. If you just went and made one conscious change for yourself that you want to make in light of all these changes, I think you'd feel a lot better about it in general."
"Perhaps. But now I'm wondering just how do you feel, about the Baker Street thing?"
"You mean getting run out of another home?" Jennifer said bitterly, but then shrugged. "I promised myself never to get attached to another address after we lost the Broom Closet, Severus. And we're all safe… or at least I assume so, since I've no idea what happened to Dad."
"Nothing was harmed except the front door, so it would seem. They didn't touch any of our things," Severus murmured. "Not one curse was found…well, excluding the ones that were already there." Jennifer snorted at that. "Do you suppose you'll ever feel safe going back?"
"Perhaps," Jennifer said quietly. "If I knew that Lucius Malfoy was dead. Permanently."
"Is there any other way?" Severus said in an almost teasing tone, but then nodded grimly. "To be honest, Jennifer, I don't think I would feel comfortable myself until then either. Maybe we should begin to think about some other alternative for the summer." Jennifer looked up at him startled. "Just as a precaution."
"Something will change before summer, Severus. Something's going to change soon. It… it's just got to," Jennifer said, getting up and heading towards the bathroom to take a shower. He stared after her with a frown for a moment before cleaning up, taking the added precaution of checking her sitting room and the bedroom for any signs of hidden bottles before heading back to his study for a few moments with his violin.
Jennifer tried to drown away her problems in her shower, gladder than ever that Aurelius had come through for her so that she could relax for a few hours. Finally she stepped out and reached for her Invisibility Cream, staring inside her quickly depleting last jar. No doubt about it; she was going to need more and soon. Rubbing it as gently as possible over her wounds, she wondered how hard it would be to pick one up in Hogsmeade. Would Severus say anything? He had, at least, left it there when he took the rest of the bottles. Of course he had, she snorted at herself, it wasn't as if the cream itself was addictive or anything. It was just a mineral compound and water. Staring at the label unsurely for a moment, Jennifer put it away and headed to bed. At least if no one else had it, she was pretty sure Toby's would. She lifted her pillow and took out her journal, making one quick note then smiled as she snapped it shut and put it back, snuggling in despite the early hour and falling quickly asleep.
It was just after midnight when the last of the potion wore off, and Jennifer, who had been having a fairly dreamless sleep to that point found herself plagued with nightmares involving her running from one place to another, although she wasn't sure if she was actually running away from something or searching for something, while all around her she heard voices… the voices of her family and friends calling for help…the voices of her enemies, even some long dead, sneering and jeering at her while they debated with each other how much longer she would last. The pain in her leg caused her to limp through the darkness and she heard the sound of coins changing hands as Death Eaters bet on the exact date and hour of her death. She felt extremely cold and tired all of the sudden, the pain growing too much to allow her to go on. She sat down then on what she thought was the concrete of an abandoned street… and found herself sitting on the floorboards of the rickety old mansion once more.
As realization set in, she knew she hadn't one second to lose. She leapt to her feet, ignoring the intense pain going through her and bolted for the door, faster than she had ran in any of the dreams as she made it to the door and struggled to get it open, dashing outside to find herself running through an overgrown garden. It was then that she saw the driveway and ran towards it, when a round of laughter came up around her.
"Where do you hope to go? You cannot run from a dream!" Ciardoth's voice said. Realizing she was about to be caught, Jennifer whirled around and stared at the mansion just before feeling herself getting pulled in, tossed on the floor in the same exact spot she had been in when she had arrived. In front of her she saw the unmistakable black boots of Lucius Malfoy, and she sighed, sitting up.
"I see that Severus finally found out your dirty little secret with the pain killers. How inconvenient for you," Lucius said, sneering.
"Did you bring me here for a particular reason, Lucius, or am I only here so you can gloat?" Jennifer said tiredly. Lucius paused as if to think about it for a while.
"Well, yes, mostly to gloat," Lucius agreed. "Since I really don't think you have much time left now. Ciardoth, you know, is quite convinced that you end up betraying your family before the end… in fact, she's counting on it," he added with a chuckle. "And if I were you, I'd be quite concerned about your children's activities right now."
"What are you talking about?" Jennifer said warily. "They haven't been doing anything questionable at all lately."
"You think not?" Lucius said with an amused smile then turned towards the dusty mirror behind him. "Show me the children from earlier this evening," he said in a clear voice and the mirror immediately fogged. A moment later it cleared, and Jennifer had to blink as bright light filled the room as it focused in on the kitchens at Hogwarts where Zoë, Zack, Halbert and Andrew had pulled stools up to the prep table, grabbing sandwiches out of a stack from the center plate.
"So she was a lot better after lunch?" Andrew asked.
"She definitely seemed to be," Zoë agreed. "But we still don't know if it's something psychosomatic of if there's really something going on."
"Well, I've got to admit, the weirder things get, the more I'm inclined to think it's not," Andrew said with a sigh. "And yet at the same time, I admit it's strange that she would be willing to turn down the Aegis like that if someone was physically harming her."
"I can hardly believe your brother was willing to give it up in the first place," Halbert admitted.
"The only thing to explain that is if she really is that concerned about your safety, and that makes sense considering what happened that night with the Unicorns with the Skull and those Death Eaters," Zack said. "Especially considering what Baylor's done to her before." Jennifer closed her eyes, not really wanting to hear anymore.
"Yes, and with what Aurelius told us, it means she's taken something on herself to make sure something bad doesn't happen," Zoë said. "But what?"
"Well, whatever it is, I'm sure your father will figure it out soon enough. He's not leaving Craw alone for a second," Halbert said.
"I'm not sure that is a good thing, Halbert," Zack said evenly. "If Rel's right, if Aunt Jennifer has anything to do with him finding out, then something bad's going to happen."
"I hate all this talk about something bad happening and having no idea what!" Zoë said with frustration. "Doesn't anyone have any ideas at all what possibly they've got on her?" Just then the four of them looked up out of the mirror's view, and then a moment later, Aurelius came into focus as he stepped over to them.
"What's going on?" Aurelius demanded.
"Nothing, we're just having a late night snack," Andrew said. "Sandwich?"
"You're talking about something you shouldn't be talking about! I could feel it from…" he paused then, his hand on his neck. "Someone's listening!"
"What? But your Mum's not even around," Halbert said, looking around.
"Shut up, whatever you've been saying… just shut up!" Aurelius said worriedly, pulling them to their feet at the same time. "Search around, quickly!" The mirror faded then, and Jennifer felt a deep pit inside her.
"Amazing, isn't it, how one little hint to one son can develop into such a cascade of questions," Lucius said amusedly. "You do realize that if they figure it out, you will be completely responsible for it and their consequential deaths? And knowing just how industrious those four of yours are and their two troublesome cousins, they will have figured it out in very little time at all. I suppose you could try to curb them. I doubt it will work, but I imagine it would be fun watching you try. And speaking of consequences, would you care to explain just how it was that they knew about Baylor when the rest of the world thinks he is dead?" He said, his voice growing angry so quickly that Jennifer instinctually braced herself.
"Vallid and Dumbledore know," Jennifer said quietly.
"Do they?" Lucius said dangerously. "I suppose Vallid must have begun snooping around after that incident in the morgue. Of course that doesn't explain how Andrew and his friends knew about Baylor, does it?" he snarled, kicking her viciously in the side. Angrily, Jennifer attempted to kick back, but although she knew she was in range the blow never hit. He grabbed her by the hair then, and she found she couldn't struggle despite her fierce will to do so, unsure what was holding her back as a streak of magic added a new slash across her cheek, nose and forehead. "You've been a fool again, Jennifer, and it's time for someone else to pay the price for it!" He snapped. "I trust you'll be in Hogsmeade tomorrow. You won't be the only one."
"You think you're going to get any farther in Hogsmeade then you did the last time?" Jennifer said defiantly.
"Oh, trust me. The fun is just beginning," Lucius said hatefully. "Of course, I'm afraid it now looks as if you won't survive to see the finale. It will not be long until we meet face to face in a place of my choosing, and I have every intention of making you endure more pain then you've ever felt in your life… just before I take it. So I suggest you start saying your goodbyes now... but be oh-so careful how you say it, unless you want company. Not that I don't relish seeing them writhe as well, but, like I said… it's just been so fun to watch you keep them from it!"
He laughed, dropping her head and standing, his laughter still echoing in her head as she came awake, screaming.
Immediately Severus was awake, trying to grab her as Jennifer fell out of bed, scrambling on her knees to get to the bathroom before he inflamed the candles. Lucius' laughter was finally drowned out by Severus shouting her name. Severus leapt out of bed attempting to follow her but was not quite fast enough to beat her to the door, hearing the lock snap closed.
"Jennifer, open this door now, or I will spell my way in!" Severus barked.
"Leave me alone!" Jennifer shouted back.
"I will do no such thing!" Severus snapped. "Last chance to open the door before I get my wand!" He said, beating his head against the door. "I need to know that you are all right!"
There was a long silence and Severus let out a sigh, calling his wand into his hand. But before he could actually cast, he heard the soft click of the door. Anxious he waited as she slowly opened the door, but there was a strange hollowness to her face he hadn't noticed before.
"I'm all right," Jennifer said softly. "It was just a nightmare, that's all."
"Just a nightmare? Nightmares make you open windows, not lock yourself in windowless rooms! Jennifer, you're shaking…" Severus said in alarm, putting an arm on her shoulder. Immediately, she flinched.
"Don't touch me, Severus!" Jennifer said as she recoiled, instantly regretting it as she saw the fear in his face.
"You don't look well. This is more than just a nightmare. I think it's time you went to see Sagittari…"
"Severus, no! Please! It's just… it's just me drying out, leave me alone, please!" Jennifer said. Helplessly he watched as she climbed back into bed still trembling, staring at her openly as he pondered that possibility.
"No, no there's more, much more," Severus said with certainty, shaking his head.
"Severus, please," Jennifer said, her voice shaking as well. "I'm so tired."
"You have done nothing but lie to me for days! If you won't tell me what's going on, at least tell me why! Just give me one, one honest answer, and I'll let you sleep," Severus said, coming to the side of her bed and standing over her.
"I love you, Severus," Jennifer murmured softly. Severus frowned at her as she closed her eyes; for it was evident she wasn't going to say anything more. It was hardly an answer, but at least it was the truth… he hoped. He glanced down at his diamond ring to find it was reflecting love, but the color was icy with fear and laced with anguish. Helplessly he knelt by the bed, watching her until the shaking finally ceased and she finally fell into a restless sleep. But Jennifer's expression never relaxed into the peaceful mask of slumber. Instead it was furrowed in stressed in such an unnatural way that Severus couldn't get it out of his mind. Standing at last, his heart heavy and the dark cloud over him quite smothering now, Severus felt he had no choice but to seek some outside advice.
