My thanks as always to JessiokaFroka my betareader.
Chapter Twenty-three
LIZ AT HOGWARTS
"Andi. Andi." The voice was a whisper.
"L-Liz?"
Andi's lips were parched, her throat raw, her eyelids felt too heavy to open. It seemed she had to fight with her body in order to wake up.
She felt a straw to her mouth and sipped the water thankfully.
She forced her eyes open and saw the blurry outline of Liz looking at her.
"Liz? Where...?"
"You're home, Hon. You're at Hogwarts." Liz took her hand.
Andi looked around as best she could. There seemed to be screens all around her. "Am I...am I in hospital?"
"Yes, Hon. In the hospital wing at Hogwarts."
Andi tried to think why she might be there, but couldn't. "Is Severus here?"
Liz stroked hair away from Andi's face. "No, sweetheart. He's not here."
"I want him here."
Liz just continued stroking Andi's hair.
"Liz, what happened? Why are you at Hogwarts?"
"The Aurors didn't want me to go with you and when I insisted, they started whispering about doing something to my memory. It was Vincent who made them take me."
Vincent?
A car accident! She remembered a car accident!
"The students - are they OK?"
Liz bit her lip. "Y-es."
"What does that mean? Are they OK or not?"
"All except Draco. He's been in a bad way, but Poppy reckons he can leave in a few days."
Andi threw this information around in her thoughts for a moment. Draco in a bad way?
"Wha... what happened?"
Liz was silent for a while. "You remember bringing the kids to my place to watch Guys and Dolls?"
Andi frowned. Yes, she did remember now. They had eaten pizza...the lights had gone out. She nodded. "There was a car accident..."
"That woman caused it on purpose. She killed those people just to get you out into the street and then she attacked you..." Liz's voice wavered.
"She hit me with a spell," Andi frowned. "I don't remember anymore."
Liz sniffed a wet sniff. "I thought you were dead," she said, thickly. "Oh God, Andi - I thought you were dead. The Aurors came. They took you off to a wizard hospital. They wouldn't have let me in if it hadn't been for Vincent. He was brilliant. That was over two weeks ago. The Healers didn't think you were going to make it. They transferred you back here when you were strong enough."
"Two weeks? I've been unconscious for two weeks?"
"They sedated you."
"And you came with me, to Hogwarts."
"Albus Dumbledore insisted."
"That was good of him. He's a good man."
Andi lay still and quiet for a moment - an icy chill worming its way to her heart. "Liz?" she managed to whisper, her question obvious in her tone.
She was answered by a racked sob. Andi looked at her friend and saw a face awash with tears. She swallowed; the blood pounding in her ears.
Liz put her other hand over Andi's. "The baby's gone, sweetheart."
At night, when Liz had gone to her room, Andi lay awake for long periods of time, just gazing into space, so many thoughts and recriminations going through her mind.
Initially she hadn't wanted to be pregnant, but over the weeks she had come to terms with the idea, even thinking about names and what the baby might look like; dreaming that everything would work out and that
she and Severus would be doting parents. She had begun to look forward to being a mother, had come to love the little being growing inside. How could she not love something that was Severus'? And now she was gone.
Yes, it had been a girl. Poppy told her that at four and a half months they were able to tell. As tiny as she had been, she hadn't been whisked away by the Healers like some embarrassing problem, but returned to Hogwarts and buried in the grounds.
Andi couldn't cry. The tears wouldn't come. All she felt was a gaping hole where her future used to be, and a feeling that life would never be the same again. Emotionally, she just felt numb.
Liz was with her when Albus came to see her.
"To my eternal regret, I should have put my foot down and prevented this trip," he said.
Andi shook her head. "It was me, I persuaded you. I thought it was a good idea and... I thought my wizard protection would... well, protect me. I shouldn't have left the flat; you warned me to stay inside but... those people in the car, Albus, they needed help and I never stopped to think..."
He patted her hand.
She looked at him. "Severus..?"
"We have communicated. I was able to write and inform him of what had happened - not about the baby; I would not presume that to be my place - but I did explain you were out of danger. He decided to postpone his
quest and return to Hogwarts..." Albus hesitated. Andi kept looking at him. "That was twelve days ago. I would have expected him back by now."
Andi's heart pounded. She felt Liz's arm come around her shoulder.
"What...what are you saying? That he's missing?"
"We have the Aurors searching for him. I am so sorry to give you this news in light of what has happened, but I do not believe you would wish me to withhold the information."
"No. Thank you, Albus."
Andi looked away, wondering if life could get any worse. Yes, she thought. There was one more thing. She closed her mind to it.
"Apparently, I almost died."
"Andrea, you have a right to know that, on the advice of the Healers, your memory has been modified. We have taken away all knowledge of what happened whilst you were in St. Mungo's."
Andi looked at the kindly blue eyes looking deep into her own and nodded. She understood what he was saying. The trauma of what must have happened would be too much for her to bear; it was enough she
would carry the blame and the guilt for her baby's death for the rest of her life.
Albus took hold of her hand in both of his. "Andrea," he said gently. "You must not blame yourself for this evil
attack. You were hit by the Avada Kedavra curse. The curse is an Unforgivable. Nothing can stop it but, with an extraordinary combination of charms and lucky chances, it was weakened to a survivable level: your wizard protection; Vincent's counterattack-"
"Vincent attacked?"
"Yes. He sent a very ancient, very powerful spell to meet it. It could not block the curse, but it slowed its passage. Without it, you would certainly have been killed."
Andi digested this; Vincent had saved her life? "And the other things? You said a number of things weakened it."
"Draco Malfoy was standing near to you; and the other... I believe Severus may well have put the protection of Sucellus on you before he left. Sucellus is a God of strength and protection. The charm is a powerful one. Each of these things on their own would not have saved you. Combined, it gave you a breath of life to cling to."
"Draco-?"
"Is well. He went back to his classes today."
"He called her 'Aunt Bella' - the woman who attacked me."
"Bellatrix Lestrange is Draco's aunt. Sister of Narcissa Malfoy. I believe Bellatrix must have hesitated on seeing her nephew beside you and did not speak the curse with the necessary conviction, thus weakening it.
"It is possible Narcissa Malfoy is involved in a campaign to rid pure-blood families of their muggle connections. You are the first of them to survive."
"You mean the person who attacked me was also responsible for Finolla Quinn's murder?"
"Almost certainly. And the murder of Jessica Brook, and Eloisa Lancaster's mother."
"But...they married into pure-blood families. I wasn't married."
"But you were carrying the heir to a pure-blood line. The three other victims were also expectant mothers."
Andi was shocked to the core. Narcissa Malfoy was heading a campaign to murder women and their unborn babies, just to keep the blood-lines pure?
"How... how on earth would she know that? Liz was the only one who knew-"
"Oh my God!"
Liz, who had been more or less silent throughout this meeting, took her arm from Andi's shoulders and stood up, her hands flying to her face.
Andi and Albus both looked at her.
"I... I was... well, I didn't know for sure because nothing was taken but... I just knew..."
"Miss Murrone," said Albus, soothingly. "Please take your time, but tell us what this is about."
"The day you came to see me, when we did the test..." she looked at Andi, "When you left, I went upstairs to my neighbor to see if she had any pregnancy books she could lend me - she's got a six-month old. I suppose I was up there for half an hour or so. When I came back to the flat I got the feeling someone had been in there. Things were in the wrong place and drawers weren't quite shut; but nothing had been taken, everything was tidy. It was just a funny feeling, you know. I even searched the flat in case someone was hiding, but there was nothing. I didn't think to check the bin - they could have found the test."
"You think someone from the wizarding world broke in? How on earth would they know where you lived, let alone that I'd been there?"
"That woman who followed us, remember? When we were shopping before Christmas. You said she was a witch."
Andi did remember. She also remembered telling her mother that she was visiting Liz that weekend, and then her mother had gone off to the Malfoy Mansion for lunch.
"I'm sorry, Andi, I didn't tell you because... well, I figured you had enough on your plate without hearing my ridiculous ideas that probably weren't true anyway."
"It would be relatively easy to watch a muggle floo," said Albus, then after a pause. "I think I need to contact the Ministry. Would you excuse me, my dear."
When he had gone, Liz sat back down on the bed. "I'm so sorry, Andi, it didn't occur to me it was worth mentioning."
"That's OK. Neither would I in the same situation." She began to shake. "I'm so worried about Severus. What the hell's happened to him?"
"You need to try and sleep."
"No," she said, resolutely. "What I need is to get back to work."
A/n - 1) I'm sorry. I realise you all probably hate me for taking the story in this direction, but believe me, I wouldn't do it without good reason. We are in the darkest part of the story now and it continues for another two chapters - but I've tried to give you some light relief with the rehearsals.
2) I may have taken liberties with the Avada Kedavra curse, but on searching, I could not find another 'killing curse' to use. I have judged that Moody telling the class that they could chant it and give him nothing but a nosebleed, and Bellatrix telling Harry that he 'had to mean it' when using the Cruciatus Curse, meant that perhaps the AK curse could actually be weakened by Bellatrix hesitating on seeing Draco. Dumbledore also puts objects in its path when Voldemort fires the curse at Harry - so I thought, why not a spell to slow it down? Anyway, I do not mean to suggest that Andi has any special magic in her, as Harry has. Her survival is merely a combination of different bits of good fortune.
Kerichi - Yes, I think Bellatrix is actually worse than Lucius. I have never read the bio of AR because (apparently) he hates the fact of it, so I am being loyal and avoiding it. I lick my lips at your description of the pic though. You asked me last time how many chapters. It goes to thirty two and an epilogue.
Emma Barrows - Thanks for your review. I try to keep updates toThursdays.
Thouandl - Thank goodness for the Atlantic! Draco stepping in? My dear, I may flatter myself I can believably get a Muggle into Hogwarts, write Snape into bed and possibly in love; but Draco stepping in to save someone? Impossible. Still on the cold chocolate milk, btw.
Mark Darcy - I'm sorry but, yes, this section is the darkest, but it is always darkest before the dawn. All I can say is 'trust me' and hope you'll stick with the story. I won't let you down. Btw - have you seen 'Rasputin'? Oh, Lordy!
Intelligent Witch - SO glad you didn't take the Lord's name in vain! Oh please don't hold me responsible for disrupting your studies.
josie - Got a few more cliffies coming up. You are warned.
Helena Oe - I'm glad my cliffhanger met your approval, even if you didn't like it. Pleased to hear about the contacts. Btw, do you remember quite a while back you expressed a hope that Liz would go to Hogwarts, and I told you to be careful what you wish for..?
May-Luna - No, not captured, but attacked. Thanks for your review as usual. And really? Did you really know something bad was going to happen? Perhaps you have borrowed Kerichi's eratic magic eight ball.
Queen of the Faeries1 - Well, I have been sorted into Slytherin, you know; there are about three more cliffhangers to come. Did the chapter take longer? You mean, to post? I usually post on Thursdays, so exactly a week had gone by.
KristiM - Well you were right, Severus was coming back. Unfortunately he is now missing.
Aries1 - A few more chapters for the full outcome of this attack.
Wytchkat - Wow! Thanx for your review, and welcome. And I am a great believer in mums needing their time too.