Disclaimer: Everything recognizable from the Harry Potter universe belongs to J K Rowling, no infringement is intended to any copyright holder

Beloved on this Earth

-0-

Lois froze, but it was the unexpectedness of the sight that met her that caused her hesitation, rather than any fear of the wand that was still aimed directly at her. She blinked and took an unthinking step forward. 'Hugo? What's going on?'

Hugo grimaced and his outstretched arm drooped fractionally. 'Lois,' he said, raising the wand back up and jiggling it in front of her wide-eyed gaze. 'I'm pointing a wand right at you. Show a bit of common sense!'

But despite the seriousness of his tone, Lois was having difficulty focussing on his words. The mad panic that had been clawing at her since finding Elena collapsed in the hall was battling with breathlessness from the dash through the castle, leaving her feeling vaguely light-headed and very confused. She turned her attention away from the rattled-looking figure of Hugo to take in her surroundings.

As she had guessed, the staircase had led to one of the rooftop towers, but it was obviously an abandoned one. The ramshackle turret was too small and in too poor a condition to be used for Astronomy lessons. It probably wasn't even pleasant enough to attract resourceful students to it for out-of-hours assignations.

Hugo was standing beside the remains of a tumbled flagpole, the flag itself long gone. A pile of rubble from a crumbling section of the open tower lay at his feet. Several other, larger, stone blocks were scattered around the edges of circular floor, obviously belonging to the low wall encasing it. But it was the unnaturally still figure to her left that caused the blood to freeze in her veins. Harry was standing staring straight ahead of him, his arms lying relaxed at his sides, the beginnings of an ugly bruise forming around a graze high on his pale cheekbone.

'Accio wand!'

Before the instinctive move to raise her wand and do God knows what was even fully made, the option was taken from Lois. She let out a gasp of outrage and spun to face Hugo once more. 'You?' she demanded. 'You're the one who kidnapped Harry?

Hugo placed her wand securely in his robe pocket before answering. 'Not kidnap, exactly. I don't expect there will be a ransom,' he continued when she looked at him blankly.

Lois shook her head in an attempt to clear it, and caught sight of Harry's bruised face as she did. 'Did you hit him?' she asked, her tone dangerous. 'Have you put a spell on him?' Lois took a few stumbling steps towards Harry, but held just short of actually touching him for fear of causing more damage. 'Why isn't he moving?

'I didn't lay a finger on him! The scratches on his face are from when he… fell.' Hugo shifted uncomfortably as Lois's scathing glare bit into him. 'He is under a spell, but you can touch him if you want; it won't hurt him. Or you,' he added unnecessarily – Lois was already raising assessing hands towards Harry's still figure, her movements tender and fleeting.

'I need my wand,' she said, taking a step back and fixing Hugo with a commanding stare. 'I need to find out what's wrong with him.'

Hugo's hand shifted towards the pocket she had seen him put her wand in and then he pulled it almost immediately back with an incredulous look on his face. 'Ah, I don't think so, actually,' he said with a small, self-mocking smile.

Lois felt her foolish hopes come toppling down. This wasn't some terrible misunderstanding. Hugo wasn't going to suddenly launch into a stumbling explanation of how this was all just a very badly misjudged joke, or how he'd overcome Elena's attacker and rescued Harry and was at this very minute waiting for Dumbledore and the Aurors to arrive.

Not knowing what else to do, she turned her attention back to Harry. Bending her head towards his, she peered into his tranquil face and was startled when she saw a bright gleam of recognition in his unfocussed green gaze. Lois's hurried words of relief remained unspoken at the almost indecipherable tensing of Harry's body and another emotion – of warning – flashing briefly across his face. She realised then why she was so easily able to read the emotion in his eyes – for once, they were bare of the glasses that normally shielded them, leaving him looking incredibly young and vulnerable.

'He's not harmed,' Hugo's voice came. 'Well, apart from the little bump on his head. I had to use a Leg-Locker Curse to slow him down – he's nearly as fast on foot as he is on a broom – but the only reason he isn't moving is because I've told him not to. It's really nothing to worry about – just a temporary measure.' Lois schooled her expression into blankness before she spun on her heel to face him once more.

'What's temporary?'

Hugo sighed heavily. In the distance, the wind carried the sound of cheers from the unseen Quidditch match to their ears. 'He's under the Imperius Curse.'

'The Imper –? But that's one of the Unforgivables!" Now she understood Harry's docility and why warning had overshadowed the welcome in his eyes; Harry wasn't under Imperio, but as defenceless as he was without his glasses, he might as well be.

'It is,' Hugo agreed, his voice forcing her attention back to him, 'but I doubt anyone's going to be particularly pleased about the whole abduction side of things, either.'

Lois stiffened angrily. 'Don't try and be funny. This isn't the time for jokes.'

'I wasn't joking – I was just pointing out the absurdity of a world that seems oblivious to the damage that can be inflicted without a wand.'

'This isn't the time for a lecture either, Professor Quade.'

'Niall.'

'What?'

'The name is Niall. Or Uncle Niall, if you'd prefer,' he said with a wry smile.

'What? I've only got one uncle and he's dead,' Lois said impatiently, in no mood for whatever game he was playing. 'He died with my mother years ago.'

'No, actually, I'm very much alive.'

'God! Would you just stop it? Do you think I'm an idiot? Quite apart from the fact that he most definitely is dead, I've seen photographs of him, and he didn't look anything like you!

'Good grief, you saw those?' Hugo looked momentarily appalled. 'That's a bit embarrassing; I was such a puny little weakling back then!'

Lois shook her head and backed cautiously away, attempting to manoeuvre herself into a position somewhere between Harry and the door. Hugo's continuing calm and almost friendly manner seemed suddenly more frightening than any horror she had imagined she would find at the top of the staircase. He was behaving as though there was nothing unusual in the situation at all. Had he completely flipped, and, more importantly, was there any way she could talk them out of this if he had?

'I am your uncle, Lois,' Hugo insisted, as she stood eyeing him warily.

'Okay,' she said. Despite her best efforts, her voice quavered over the word and she lifted a hand to push nervously at her hair.

Hugo followed her movements, his eyes rolling with exasperation. 'I'm telling you the truth!' He let out a huge sigh when Lois winced at the loudness of his voice. 'Look,' he said more quietly, 'I've wanted to tell you since I met you, but that was out of the question, of course, and, after this happened,' he jerked his head towards Harry's frozen figure, 'I realised that it wasn't ever going to be possible, and that that was probably for the best. But suddenly you're here, and… well, it just seems right that you know. I feel like I owe you that much, at least.'

'I see.' Lois nodded quickly. She attempted an encouraging smile that cracked the moment it began. 'Maybe… maybe we could all go back into the castle to discuss it? I-it's so cold out here and… and Harry–'

Hugo threw his hands up in the air. 'Enough!' There came an indignant screech from a nearby pair of birds who had been sitting sleepily perched in the arrow loops of the far turret wall. Hugo ignored their cries, but Lois saw Harry start slightly in surprise. Suddenly aware of how hard it must be for him to maintain the pretence of a trancelike state for so long, she edged around Hugo, who thankfully mirrored her movements, leaving Harry behind him and out of his sight. 'Your full name is Achelois Rebecca Bell – Rebecca because that was book your father read to your mother while she was in labour with you and Achelois because that was your great grandmother's name.'

Lois opened her mouth to protest, but Hugo didn't give her chance. 'Your father was obsessed with some Muggle football team.' His eyes glazed over as he searched for a memory, a pleased huff escaping him as he captured it. 'Arsenal!' He gave a small shrug. 'Never really understood what he saw in it myself, but he dragged me along to a few of their games after he realised I'd never been to one. It was fun,' he admitted quietly.

'Anyone could know that!' Lois protested, a panicky feeling beginning to swirl in her stomach. She didn't know anything about a grandmother with her name, although she supposed it was possible given all the other things she'd discovered since her arrival at Hogwarts, but her father had told her the story attached to her middle name before. His love of his favourite football team was something else she couldn't deny. 'Anyone!' she said again.

Hugo's softly reminiscent expression vanished. He straightened, nodding his acceptance of her words. 'And could anyone know his little rituals before the games? Could anyone know about that great long scarf he used to wrap twice, anticlockwise, around his neck for luck that he wouldn't take off until half time, no matter how hot it was or how in the way it got?' A broad grin lit his face. 'At one of the first matches he took me to, he got it caught on a turnstile on the way in, fell backwards into a wall and knocked himself out! He would have spent the entire game sitting in the St John's Ambulance hut if I hadn't managed to cast a quick Ennervate spell when no one was looking.'

Lois tried to swallow over the huge lump forming in her throat. This wasn't the first time she'd heard that particular story, although the ending had been significantly different in her father's version.

'Your mother used to tease him mercilessly after that,' Hugo continued, seemingly oblivious to her distress, 'but it never stopped him wearing it. Amazing, really, that Muggles have such difficulty in accepting witches and wizards when they put so much faith into their silly superstitions. What are they expecting to achieve with them if not magic?'

His focus returned to Lois and he frowned heavily at her sudden paleness. 'Lois, I'm sorry. Am I upsetting you talking about your father like this? He was a good man, and I know you must miss–'

'You don't know what sort of a man he was!' Lois shouted.

'I did know him; your mum and I were twins – we were close, closer than most brothers and sisters. We spent a lot of time together so I spent a lot of time with your dad – before and after he married your mum.' Lois made a strangled noise of protest and Hugo grimaced. 'Okay, he had brown hair and his eyes were… damn! I don't remember… but he– he worked for some… accountancy firm, I think, that he hated and was planning to leave. What else, what else…' He lifted a hand to run distracted fingers through his hair and then pulled them away with a triumphant air.

'He had a dog, Tucker! Big brute he was, not sure what type, but Will said he'd never have another one after he died because no other dog could replace him. Er, he whistled, all the time – incredibly annoying – and he had this horrible hat he wore whenever your mother made him go outside and do the gardening.' He smiled then, the memory obviously tickling him. 'Oh, and he drove this really great little sports car. A green… frog something… Frog-Eyed something?' He paused, frustration etched into every line of his face. 'I can't recall the name now, but I know he would never teach me to drive it. Said it was too pretty–'

'To get its wheels dirty for anyone but him,' Lois finished quietly.

'Yes,' Hugo agreed, a wary expression on his face.

Lois blinked away weak tears. 'You're really–?'

'Yes,' Hugo said again, and took a step towards her.

His movement snapped Lois from her frozen immobility. 'But you – you can't be! You don't even look like him.' It was a wail of protest

'Well, maybe not precisely like the old me, but the family resemblance is still there, isn't it?' A strand of her hair blew towards him in an icy gust of wind, and he reached out to snatch it from the air, as lightening fast as any Seeker with a fluttering Snitch. With almost ceremonial slowness, he held the trapped strands up against the gleam of his own hair, the colour an exact match.

'No,' Lois breathed. She pulled free from his hold and stared dazedly up into eyes the same shade of blue as her own.

'I was worried when I first came to Hogwarts that you'd look just like your mother,' Hugo continued, 'which would have made lying to you almost impossible, or that the similarity of our colouring would be obvious to you. But instead my resemblance to your husband blinded you to anything else after that initial first impression.'

Lois felt a small clutch of pain at the idea of her emotions being so cruelly manipulated. 'Did you plan it that way?'

'No, no, how could I? I had no idea that you had a husband, let alone what he looked like. Besides, you said yourself it was only a surface likeness. I imagine that the guilt you felt over your attraction to Snape played a bigger part in seeing your husband in me than our vague similarity ever did.' He raised his eyebrows quizzically, but Lois refused to answer the unasked question.

'But why don't you look like the pictures I saw?' She raised an accusing finger towards him. 'And why are you taller!'

Hugo's lips quirked. 'I'm a mediwizard, Lois, so it wasn't that hard. It's amazing what a few drops of Skele-Extend and Muscle Maker can do for the old physique and, with my skills, a little bit of magical plastic surgery was a breeze.'

Lois suddenly remembered his advice on treating Horsefly bites, and the handkerchief headache remedy he'd given her that Remus had never heard of. His dislike of Snape and somewhat odd protectiveness also made a little more sense now, too.

But accepting the truth of his story only left her more confused and Lois hesitated, her emotions so tangled right then she didn't know what she felt. Cautious excitement seemed to be dominant; the dragging emptiness she had been feeling since her break-up with Severus easing slightly. She wasn't alone anymore. The cold wind tugged at her hair again and she twisted her head to dislodge it from her eyes. The movement caused her to catch sight of Harry standing frozen and defenceless beside her. Icy shudders ran up and down her spine that nothing to do with the worsening weather.

With difficulty, she turned her attention back to the silent man in front of her. His expression was watchful, and she knew he was waiting for her to question him further. Lois shook her head in unconscious response, refusing to ask the one question that was battering at her through all the fevered emotions – why? Because she knew, just knew, that she didn't want to hear the answer.

'Hugo – Niall,' she amended when she saw him stiffen in protest. 'This is all wonderful, unbelievable, but wonderful and just too much to take in at once. I need time a-and you have to take the spell off Harry. I know I can convince him not to say anything about this–'

And as suddenly as an Invisibility Cloak being whipped away to reveal the stranger hidden beneath, Hugo's warm blue eyes froze into diamond hardness, his face becoming stiff and mask-like as a terrible sense of purpose radiated from him. Despite that, his voice still held a distant note of regret.

'I'm afraid that isn't going to be possible.'

The bubbling joy that had begun only moments before evaporated. She realised then that he really was two people and that up until that moment she had met only one of them – Niall. This coldly controlled stranger facing her now was Hugo – the man Niall had for some reason been forced to become.

'Please don't hurt him.' Lois heard her voice crack and swallowed with difficulty. 'He's just a boy.'

'I won't!' He paused and took a controlling breath. 'I don't want to. Taking Harry was never my plan, but time's running out for me, Lois. I'm truly sorry, but this is the only way.'

'But why is time running out?' she pleaded. 'You just said you never intended to take Harry. You obviously had a-another plan. Can't you… can't you –'

'Hagrid is due back any day now,' Niall cut across her stammering, 'meaning my job will be gone when he does. And with so little time remaining, I knew that the chances of my original plan panning out were almost nonexistent. I was coming to see you when I saw Harry wandering about up on the Infirmary corridor, alone, for once, and I realised it was now or never.'

Out of the corner of her eye, Lois saw Harry shiver. She sent up a frantic plea that Elena was making headway on her promise to fetch help. 'If you didn't come here for Harry, why did you come?'

Niall reached into a pocket of his robes to pull out a tightly folded square of paper. He handed it to her and Lois opened it to reveal the newspaper article Harry had shown her the day of their picnic at the lake.

Lois raised confused eyes to his. 'I've already seen this – I know what happened… what I thought happened to you and my mother that day.'

'Thought is right,' Niall said with a bitter smile.

'How did you escape?' Lois licked nervously at her suddenly dry lips. 'The report said nobody survived the attack. Weren't you really there that day, or were you one of the…' She hesitated to voice her suspicions, but Niall immediately supplied the answer for her.

'Death Eaters?' His bark of laugher at her hesitant nod sent her stepping hurriedly back from him. 'Don't be daft,' he said, reaching out a restraining hand. 'You've seen the old pictures of me – hardly Death Eater material.'

'So–?'

'I was there that day the Death Eaters struck, but I wasn't killed. God, I was such a coward then it sickens me to even think about it.'

'Do you mean you were scared? There's no shame in that –'

'No, I mean I hid. I was tending to a dying man when I saw the Death Eaters Apparate in. I was further away than most of the other mediwizards so I wasn't noticed immediately and before they did see me, I abandoned my patient and hid under one of the dead bodies.' Lois sucked in a sharp breath of horror, but Niall was so lost to the past, he didn't even seem to notice. She pushed a hand to her mouth in an effort to still any further sound and stood frozen as he continued.

'The screaming went on for so long I didn't think it would ever end. Eventually it did, of course, and when I finally plucked up the courage to risk looking, there was no one left alive.' His voice began to roughen and he paused to clear his throat. 'I swapped my clothes with one of the victims who resembled me closely enough, but had so much damage to the face no one would have been able to tell it wasn't me, and just walked until I passed the anti-Apparation point the Death Eaters had set up. It must have taken me an hour,' he murmured, sounding almost surprised that he remembered.

'But what about my mother?' Lois asked in a lost voice.

Niall's face darkened. 'Yes, Niahm.' He let out a deep sigh, looking suddenly closer to his true age. 'I looked for her first, naturally, but she was dead. There was nothing I could do. Believe me, I loved my sister. I didn't want that, but it was too late.'

Lois blinked away hot tears. There was a certain amount of relief in hearing the details of her mother's death that somehow overshadowed the pain. More important though than the truth, was that while Niall was talking, Harry was safe. 'But why did you go, why did you let everyone think you were dead? No one would blame you for what happened; even if you had tried to fight you would have just died too.'

'It's unsettling how like your mother you are sometimes,' Niall said. 'So protective, so loyal, but, in this case, so very wrong. They would have blamed me, or at least my father would have. He already despised what he considered my weakness, my lack of backbone, as he called it. If he'd found out I how I managed to survive, he would have disowned me.'

'But you were his son!'

'Yes, but never what he wanted in a son. I went to my own funeral, you know,' he said conversationally. 'And saw my father, my strong, proud father, crying like a baby. But not for me, never for me, only for his precious Niahm.'

Lois felt icy shivers dancing up her spine. 'I'm sure you're wrong.'

'Are you? Well then, let me tell you the rest of this little story. As it happens I was so pathetic I only lasted six months into my brave new life as an outcast. By then I had no money, was half starved and was about ready to turn my wand on myself. In fact, I was desperate enough, or weak enough, to risk going home.'

The bitterness in Niall's tone was almost a living thing. Lois held her breath; not daring to interrupt him, but certain she didn't want to hear more.

'Unfortunately my timing was as abysmal as my luck – I arrived to find my father cornered by a group of Death Eaters. But for once, I wasn't afraid; it was like fate was giving me another chance and this time I was determined I wasn't going to get it wrong. So instead of cowering or Apparating away, I leapt boldly into the fray. My father was an exceptionally strong wizard and once I joined the fight it wasn't long before we had the upper hand.' He paused then, a remembered look of satisfaction on his face. 'In my whole life, Lois, that was probably my finest moment. I was filled with such a burning righteous, rage for what they had done to Niahm, to me, that I quite impressed myself. There were six Death Eaters and I managed to kill two of them almost right off. My father killed another one and when they realised they were losing, the other three Disapparated. But do you know what happened then?' Lois shook her head shakily no. 'Instead of being deliriously happy to find his only son alive and eternally grateful for my bravery in battle, he was actually slightly less than pleased to see me.'

'I'm sure it was just the shock,' Lois said warily, aware from his tone of voice that the story did not have a happy ending.

Niall laughed derisively at that. 'Well, whatever it was, he was certainly rather voluble in his disappointment. When I tried to explain what had happened he called me a coward, said I was a disgrace to the Eadon name and that Niahm's death was on my hands as surely if I had uttered the killing curse myself.'

'No,' Lois whispered, horrified.

'Oh, yes, soft-hearted Lois, and that wasn't all. He had become quite deranged by that point and was beating me almost senseless. I'm absolutely convinced he would have killed me with his bare hands; I don't think he would have got the same satisfaction using his wand.'

'What… what did you do?'

Niall pursed his lips in silent rebuke. 'I had no choice, Lois; I had to kill him.'

Lois gulped audibly and tried to move away. He stopped her with a gentle hand on her shoulder.

'You may as well hear the rest of it.' He glanced quickly at his watch. 'I think we just about have time and you know what they say about confession being good for the soul.' He laughed, but it was terrible sound, empty and dead. 'Anyway, I had a pretty watertight alibi, obviously, being dead, and luckily there were still the bodies lying around so they wouldn't have to look too hard for the murder suspect. I removed all trace of having been there, destroyed one of the Death Eater's wands so they wouldn't know that it hadn't been used to kill my father, and escaped with all the gold I could find in the house.'

'You... you didn't have to do that,' Lois said cautiously. 'You could have gone to the Ministry, told them you interrupted a Death Eater raid and that you were too late to save him. Why would you turn yourself into a fugitive when you didn't have to?'

'Clever girl!' Niall said with an inappropriate gleam of pride. 'If that father of yours had let you attend Hogwarts when you should have done, you'd have been another Ravenclaw like Niahm and me. Actually, I did think of that, but although no one else would have been quite so disgusted with my actions as my father was, everyone would have known what I'd done at Monkswood and I certainly wouldn't have looked good. In any event, even if I was prepared to put up with the whispering and the mockery that would have resulted, I'd just killed two Death Eaters on a mission for the Dark Lord. If I'd come back out into the open and claimed my place as an Eadon, I would have been dead within a week.'

'There must have been another way – Muggle governments arrange for people in situations like that to go into hiding. If you'd just gone to the Ministry –'

'We aren't living in the Muggle world, Lois, and they were risky times. Back then anyone who had a hint of Dark Magic on them was hauled into the Ministry of Magic for questioning. Now if all they did was question, I probably could have got away with it. As you said, I had a believable alibi, but all it would have taken was a sip of Veritaserum and the truth would have been out and then where would I have been? No, I couldn't take the risk.'

Silence fell as Lois struggled to take in all she had learnt. Niall seemed equally drained. Each left to their own thoughts, the tension eased and with its passing came the stinging sensation of cramped muscles held taut for too long. Gingerly moving her stiff limbs, Lois realised how uncomfortable Harry must be by now and wondered how much longer he could keep up the charade.

'Where did you go?' she finally asked, morbidly curious in spite of herself.

It took Niall a moment to answer. When he did, his tone was weary. 'Europe. The gold didn't last long, but with my new face and body I soon learnt there was plenty of work for a mediwizard who doesn't ask questions, even after You-Know-Who's downfall.'

'And now?' Lois pressed. 'Why have you come back now?'

'Couldn't I just want to look up my long-lost niece?'

'You could have done that at any time; I was raised as a Muggle – I wouldn't have known that you were supposed to be dead.'

'No,' Niall agreed, 'but your father did, and in any event, I haven't been much in the mood for company for the last, oh, twenty-five years or so. But you're right, that's not why I'm here; there have been mutterings amongst the type of people I associate with that the Dark Lord is back.'

Lois fought down the mad urge to run for the door. 'What does that have to do with me?' she asked shakily.

'Absolutely nothing. Actually, if it wasn't for this,' he said, reaching over to pluck the forgotten newspaper clipping from her clenched fist, 'the two of us would have probably lived the rest our lives without ever meeting again.'

'I still don't understand.' Lois frowned, struggling to remember what the article had said.

'Most of it was rubbish,' Niall said, scrunching the newspaper into a ball and tossing it over the tower's ledge, 'but what did interest me was that Dumbledore was going public about You-Know-Who's return and that he'd taken time out of his preparations for war with him to search you out. Made me wonder what he knew about you that I didn't.'

'But it wasn't true, none of it!' Lois protested. 'Harry found me by accident – Dumbledore just let me stay!'

'You don't have to convince me,' he said fondly. 'When I first met you you were practically a Muggle! I knew straight away something didn't add up.'

'Well then why did you stay and…' Lois ground to a halt, a horrible thought taking over her. 'How… how did you come to be here – where's the real Hugo Quade?'

'I have no idea,' Hugo said, looking puzzled by the question. 'Probably still deep in the Congo searching for Tebos.'

'You didn't kill him?' she asked, relief coursing through her.

Niall's eyes shot wide with shock. 'I'm not a monster, Lois,' he said sharply. 'I don't go around killing people willy-nilly! I'm here because after I read about you, I decided it might be worth looking you up to see if you really did know anything. By a stroke of luck there was an advertisement for a temporary teacher in the same paper, so all I needed was a new name and qualifications to back me up.'

'So the real Professor Quade didn't apply for the job?'

'No,' Niall said impatiently. 'I looked up the records of past Ministry grants and Quade fitted the bill – not well known, didn't attend Hogwarts and had a suitable background to teach Care of Magical Creatures. He was perfect. I sent off a letter of application and had a reply by return offering me the job. I didn't even have to attend an interview!'

'Oh.' Lois rubbed her arms against a sudden chill. 'So if you haven't been Hugo Quade since you disappeared, who have you been?'

Hugo shrugged. 'Does it matter?'

'I suppose not.' Lois nodded a little dazedly, her thinking muddied by shock. 'So if you knew right off that I was no use to anyone as a witch, why did you stay?'

'Because it occurred to me that maybe Dumbledore was interested in something you had, rather than what you could do.'

'I don't have anything,' Lois said quickly.

'That's what I was beginning to believe, but then you went and pulled that amazing feat of magic in the staff room. I've been hoping that I could get you to confide in me about it, and when that didn't work I even tried to find it, but since I didn't know what it was I was after it was rather like looking for a needle in a haystack. I'm sorry about your room by the way,' he said, looking suddenly discomfited. 'I didn't intend to leave it in that state, but when that bloody cat appeared while I searching it, I knew Filch wouldn't be far behind.'

'It was you,' Lois murmured without any real surprise. 'Severus was wrong about the children.'

'Snape?' Niall frowned. 'I should have known he was involved. It was too complex for you to have done yourself and too sneaky for most decent wizards. Didn't you know?' he asked when he saw her blank look. 'That sly sod booby-trapped your door. When I tried to sneak back into your room I got a face full of boils for my efforts! Clever really,' he admitted begrudgingly. 'Anyone other than a mediwizard would have been forced to get help to clear them up, which I'm sure was part of his plan. It wasn't a problem for me, of course, although it bloody well stung at the time. And then after that, every time I went anywhere near your chambers Poppy would spring out like a demented doorman – Snape's doing too, I have no doubt.'

'I didn't know,' Lois said quickly, feeling a momentary – but only a momentary – twinge of guilt over Snape's actions. 'But you're wrong about me having anything of value–'

Hugo raised his hands to halt her denial. 'When the Death Eaters attacked my father's home it wasn't a random strike. I heard what they wanted when I first Apparated in. My father had apparently been working on a device that they were very interested in obtaining. I prevented them from getting it back then, but I think if I could find it now, it just might be enough to buy me a high ranking position at Voldemort's side.'

'What? Why would you want that after everything he's done!'

Niall looked at her pityingly. 'Trust me, Lois, if the Dark Lord really is back, this time I don't intend to be fighting on the wrong side.'

Lois sucked in a shocked breath. 'The wrong side? My God, what would my mother think if she could hear you now?'

His face crumpled and for a second she could see a trace of the man he'd been, the man she'd seen in the photographs. Then he straightened and it was gone.

'She wouldn't think anything – Niahm's dead and I'm not. But don't worry, Lois, now that I've found you again, I won't turn my back on you, I promise. I'll put in a good word for you with You-Know-Who.'

'I don't want you to put in a good word for me! Voldemort murdered my mother, your sister, and countless others beside! Hugo – Niall – this hasn't gone too far yet. If you explain what happened, that it was self-defence with my grandfather maybe–'

'Perhaps I wasn't entirely to blame for my father's death, but I still cast the killing curse and I'm certainly to blame for the things I've done since. No, there's no way I can ever go back to being Niall Eadon and frankly, if it means living through another war like the last one, I don't want to.'

Lois felt the muscles in her throat lock as she tried to swallow down her revulsion. 'My grandfather was right – you are a coward!' She cringed back as Hugo took a step towards her.

'It's very easy to be brave when you've never been frightened,' he said in a surprisingly even tone.

'I've been frightened!'

'Not like we were then,' Niall said, his gaze suddenly blank and inward looking. He blinked his distraction away and focussed on her once more. 'Not like then,' he repeated.

Lois looked away, unable to hold his stare. 'I'm sorry,' she said stiffly, 'I shouldn't have called you that. I have no idea what you all went through.'

'No matter,' Niall said, suddenly brisk, 'you'll experience it for yourself soon enough.' He grimaced when she blanched. 'And now I'm sorry,' he said heavily. Look, Lois, this is pointless. It's too late now to change anything. I don't want to do it, but Potter is my only chance now of buying favour with You-Know-Who–'

'NO! It's a ring, that's what causes the wandless magic, that's what my grandfather invented!'

'Lois–'

'I didn't know I had it,' she said frantically, her hands grasping at his forearms, her short nails scoring his skin even through his heavy robes. 'I found it in my mother's jewellery and when I wore it, I didn't need a wand! I can get it for you! You don't need Harry if you have it, do you? I'll get it and you can let Harry go! Please… please–'

'Do you have it?'

'YES!'

Niall bent to peer into her eyes. 'Are you telling me the truth?'

Lois nodded frantically. 'I am. I swear I am.' Her hair swung loose around her face and she pushed it quickly away, not daring to even blink.

But something must have given her away, because Niall sighed heavily and turned away. 'I'm sorry, I don't believe you. And,' he added loudly when she went to protest, 'it wouldn't matter if I did. If I let you go back into the castle you'd raise the alarm–'

'I wouldn't! I promise…' Lois said on a sob, 'I promise I won't tell anyone and I'll get it… I will, I'll get it...'

'Ah, Lois, don't. Don't cry, acushla,' Niall said gently. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a handkerchief that he lifted tenderly to mop at her wet cheeks. 'I shouldn't have told you any of this; it wasn't fair. You should be back in the Muggle world with a husband and children, not here taking problems onto your shoulders that aren't even your own.'

'I love it here,' Lois said huskily. 'I'll never regret finding out I'm a witch, finding out who I am.'

'You don't even know who you are.' He shook his head impatiently. 'And you definitely shouldn't be getting involved with someone like Snape. I should Obliviate you,' he muttered abruptly. 'Get you away from here before it's too late.'

Lois let out a horrified yelp. Memories lost to Obliviate were not easily regained, if it all.

'Should have known I suppose,' Niall said in a resigned tone. He pulled his wand and pointed it at her, muttering a spell she couldn't make out over the roaring in her ears.

'No!' she screamed, not wanting to forget any of this. But she needn't have panicked; whatever he had done, her memories remained intact. Lois tried to move forward and realised immediately what the spell had been for – she was completely paralysed from the neck down. 'What have you done?' she questioned in a trembling voice.

'Just an immobilising spell, Lois,' he soothed. 'Nothing to worry about.'

'But I am worried – why have you frozen me?' she asked, not reassured in the slightest by his words.

'Because I have a very strong feeling that you're not going to hold still for what I'm about to do,' he said, taking a step towards her but stopping a few inches away from actually touching.

Lois closed her eyes and let out a petrified moan, her heart racing madly, beads of sweat appearing on her upper lip.

She felt a puff of air against her face as Niall let out an exasperated breath. 'Don't look so bloody tragic, girl!' Lois's eyes shot open as he raised his left hand, curling it around the nape of her neck, his fingers splayed and digging into her scalp. The right hand he placed palm down high on her chest over her wildly beating heart.

'What are you doing?' Lois moaned, truly terrified now.

'A gift before I go. If you're so determined to stick around for this war, I want you ready for it; I'm going to show you what you already know, but are too damn stubborn to admit. Now, if it works,' he cautioned, 'you won't actually be able to use it to help yourself, but it will mean you won't have to spend so much time on your mediwizard studies. That time that can be spent working on your Defence Against the Dark Arts skills, and that's what I want you to do, okay? And anyway,' he added, his previous stern expression relaxing briefly, 'if you're going to be the last Eadon, you might as well do it properly.'

'What do you mean?' she asked, staring frantically into his eyes.

'Your gift, Lois, the empathic ability you seem so determined to ignore.'

'I haven't been ignoring it,' Lois insisted. 'I've tried – there's nothing there.'

'Let's see shall we?' he said, an amused smile appearing fleetingly before he inhaled deeply, closing his eyes on the release of breath.

Lois felt as if she'd suddenly been plunged underwater. The world around her became muffled and distant and the only clear sound was the pounding whoosh of her own heartbeat in her ears. Terrified, Lois struggled in vain against her unseen bonds. She heard Niall's voice, low and soothing in her head, but couldn't make out the words. Panic filled her and she struggled to draw breath, feeling as if she was drowning now. She gasped frantically for air and felt her heart stutter in her chest. Was she having a heart attack?

The hand at her neck tightened and she heard another silent command: Stop fighting! Lois redoubled her efforts. But it was useless. Her heart continued to race out of her control; first so fast she could feel her pulses pounding through her body, then slowing to a frighteningly irregular beat, sluggish and heavy and making her breathless. A coughing fit overtook her and when it passed she was left panting and dizzy.

Slowly she felt the urge to fight drain from her. The moment she began to relax, her heart gave out two heavy thumps and then settled into a shared rhythm. The sensation of another presence filled her, and she relaxed further, almost enjoying the warm tingle that was running through her. She was being explored.

Delicate tendrils probed at her mind, and slithered down through muscles and bone, spreading and searching, pausing occasionally and then moving on. Disjointed images ran through her head, none her own. Most of them were silent, but she heard whispered words and conversations that grew stronger with every passing moment. What was clearest, though, were the emotions. Pain and loneliness uppermost, but so many others they were almost impossible to separate.

She had just begun to wonder whether she should try to untangle them, or do some exploring of her own, when the connection was abruptly severed. Niall took a clumsy backwards step, speaking the words to release her from the effects of the immobilising spell as he did. 'It's so much easier when the patient is unconscious,' he said jerkily, 'and when I'm only looking for illness or injury. You're the picture of health, by the way,' he added with a crooked smile.

Too rattled to immediately reply she gazed unblinkingly back at him. When Niall didn't seem inclined to elaborate further, Lois shook her head in an attempt to clear it and asked, 'Am I psychic?'

'No, you little fool.' he disparaged with a sharp bark of laughter.

'I felt what you were feeling just then,' she insisted, but felt more uncertain by the minute. Had the lack of oxygen caused her to imagine it all?

'Yes.' Niall appeared momentarily uncertain. 'You're more like your mother than I realised,' he finally said quietly. 'Niahm and I always had the ability to sense each other's thoughts. We could block it off, and as we grew older we rarely connected, but in moments of extreme stress or pain we would often get a flash of what the other was feeling.' Some intense emotion slid across his features, but he shrugged it away. 'I never knew if it was because of us being twins or some mutation of our ability. I suppose you just got a glimpse of that, but don't worry, you're not telepathic; it will only work with me and as it seems we are about to endure a rather lengthy separation, I don't think it's going to cause a huge problem.'

Lois felt shock shoot through her. If someone didn't arrive soon, Harry would be gone. 'So did you find it?' she asked quickly. 'My ability – was it there?'

Niall shook his head regretfully. 'It's there, but buried so deep I'm not surprised you haven't been able to access it. Something must have happened when you were young to make you repress it this strongly. Perhaps you frightened your father somehow with this part of your magic and held it in check for him?' He raised his eyebrows and Lois shrugged her shoulders helplessly. 'Well, whatever the reason, without time and help from me, neither of which are possible, I'm not sure you'll ever be able to reach it…' he trailed off, and looked unhappily into the distance.

Lois took a step towards him. His eyes returned to hers and gave her an empty smile. 'One more thing I'm sorry for.' He looked over at Harry's still figure. 'And now we really must go.'

'Wait!'

He carried on walking and didn't look back.

'Niall! Let me… let me at least tell him goodbye.'

'He won't know you, Lois.' But he paused and turned to face her.

'He'll remember later though, won't he?' she asked brokenly. 'He'll know then, when you…. When Voldemort…' she stopped, unable to continue.

Niall swallowed hard and looked away. 'Fine. Tell him goodbye if you must, but be quick.'

Lois sped to Harry's side and wrapped him in a hug. She sniffed back her tears as she realised how much he'd grown over the course of the year; he was now a full head taller than her. She had to reach up on tiptoe to press her lips to his cheek. Turning her head away from Niall's watchful gaze, she kissed Harry's other cheek, her lips against his ear. 'Harry, have you got your wand?' she whispered. She grabbed his hand in hers and hugged him again. 'Squeeze my hand once for yes, twice for no.' Lois could have wept with relief when she felt one squeeze.

'Lois, there's no more time,' Niall called and she let out a sob as she retraced her steps.

'Please, Niall, his glasses,' Lois begged as she reach his side. 'Don't let him go to Voldemort not even able to see.'

'It won't make any differenceLois. He has no idea–'

'Do you have them?' she asked. Her heart was in her mouth. 'Did you leave them in the castle?'

'No, they're here – they slipped off when he fell, but I have them safe.' He reached into his pocket and drew out Harry's familiar black-framed glasses.

'Thank you,' Lois said, not giving him chance to refuse she snatched them from his hand and ran back to Harry's side. She slid the glasses onto his face and moved away, doing her best to shield Harry from Niall's view as she moved towards him. She knew he would be stiff from holding himself still for so long and wanted to give him any advantage she could. It was all she could do for him now; out of the two of them, Harry was his own best hope.

Lois had barely taken a step when she felt a rush of movement behind her. She tried to duck out of the way, and instead moved too far to her right and overbalanced as she stepped on one of the loose bricks surrounding the turret wall. She staggered backwards, just managing to save herself as Harry's furious cry rang out.

'Expelliarmus!'

But Niall had already leapt away, the spell sailing harmlessly over his head. He had drawn his wand as he moved and it was now pointing steadily at Harry even as he dropped into a crouch. 'Stupefy!' he bellowed.

Harry jerked back, hissing in pain as he cracked his head against solid stone. Barely pausing to catch his breath he aimed his wand again. The cramped space in the tower meant that neither opponent had much room to move, and absolutely nowhere to hide. 'Impedimenta,' Harry shouted. He didn't stop to see if the jinx had found its mark, but instead ran around the edge of the curved wall away from Lois and towards the tower door.

Niall followed him, the two of them circling the turret floor. For an insane second, they reminded Lois of two hamsters dashing fruitlessly round an exercise wheel. In an attempt to dispel her rising hysteria, Lois scampered out of the line of fire, and clambered closer to the wall of the tower in the poorest state of repair. She bent quickly to pick her way through the loose bricks and rubble scattered there. It was a struggle to find one she could lift, but when she had it, she straightened again, hoping for an opportunity to use it to slow Niall down.

She looked up to discover the two of them skidding to a halt, Niall barely two feet in front of her. Lois hefted the stone above her head and took a quick step forward. At that instant, the tower door flew open to reveal Snape. He was breathing heavily and his hair was in wild disarray. The wind snatched at his cloak and scarf sending it billowing around him and leaving him silhouetted against the darkened stairway like an avenging angel.

Shock held Niall still for a second too long as twin shouts rang out. 'Stupefy!'

Only one of the spells caught him a glancing blow, but it was enough. With a squeak of shock, Lois felt herself toppling helplessly backwards as Niall's frozen form collapsed onto her. The stone in her hand crashed to the ground, missing her feet by inches. She squeezed her eyes tightly shut and braced herself for impact. But the expected pain from slamming into the wall never came. Instead there was tearing agony as the fallen flagpole pierced her tender flesh. Niall's downward momentum sent him veering slightly off course, but his dead weight ensured it didn't stop the progression of the twisted metal. As he finally slid sideways and off her, Lois looked dazedly down at the gruesome sight of the spiked and rusted pole protruding from her stomach.

Snape's hurried, 'LOIS, DON'T!' came a second too late. Acting on instinct that overrode all of her training, Lois wrenched herself free from the burning pain, worsening the injury as the jagged point dragged back and out through the already ruptured organs and flesh.

Lois looked over at Harry and Snape standing side-by-side, matching horrified expressions on their faces. The three of them stood frozen for what seemed like an eternity. Then, on a sudden burst of movement, Snape was running towards her, Harry hard at his heels. She felt her knees buckle and with a soft sound of surprise, gave in to gravity's siren song.

-
Harry watched, fear sweeping through him, as Lois began to crumple. Snape arrived at her side a bare millisecond before him and reached out to slow her fall, guiding her gently to the floor and dropping swiftly to his knees beside her.

'Potter, get Madam Pomfrey. Now!' he shouted, not looking up. Harry stared blankly as Snape conjured a pillow and placed it carefully beneath her head.

The blood was everywhere. Harry had no idea the human body could hold so much. He watched in frozen fascination as it pooled out from the gaping hole in her stomach, more pumping inexorably with every beat of her heart.

Lois's eyes fluttered open vague and unfocussed. They lit with a brief flash of recognition as she saw Snape bending over her.

'Severus?' she questioned, a hitching breath overtaking her from the simple task of speaking.

'Don't talk,' he ordered in a desperately hushed tone. 'Damn it, Potter, will you get Poppy!' he shouted roughly behind him.

'Professor, I don't think she…' Harry began, his voice equally shaky. His vision began to blur until all he could see were indistinct blocks of colour – the black of Snape's robe, the white of Lois's hair, the awful, growing patch of red. He closed his eyes quickly to block out the sight. There was no way Lois would still be alive before he could get to Madam Pomfrey and back, and, even if he could, he doubted there was anything she could do – there was just so much blood. Even Snape's robes were stained with it, the vivid red somehow managing to gleam faintly against the dense black.

Professor Quade! Harry spun in a circle. His wand was still in his hand and the spell to revive the newly discovered mediwizard trembled on his lips. But it remained unspoken. Quade had vanished. Harry turned full circle again, his eyes darting wildly around him. Where could Quade have gone – the tower had no hiding places and he would have seen if the other man had attempted to make his way back into the castle.

With a cry of black fury, Harry raised his eyes skyward.

He could just make out Quade's figure in the distance, the broom he was riding carrying him swiftly out of their reach and Lois's aid. Now he knew what Quade had been in the process of resizing when Lois had arrived. He also knew how he had planned to make their escape. Quade might have assured Lois he hadn't planned this, but the idea must have been at least in the back of his mind if he'd been in the habit of carrying a shrunken broom around with him. Harry swore again. Why hadn't he made sure the treacherous git was properly out for the count before he'd taken his eyes off him? Why had he allowed himself to be kidnapped in the first place? If Lois should die now…

'Get Poppy, boy, or God help me I will throw you off this tower myself!' Snape snarled in a terrible voice, and Harry lurched to obey, the hatred in Snape's tone freeing him finally from his stunned torpor. He sent one last haunted look at Lois, bit down hard on his lip and sped from the tower, his heart pounding as frantically as if he had just completed his dash through the castle rather than just begun it.

-
Snape breathed a sigh of relief as he heard the tower door slamming back on its hinges. The sound of Potter's footfalls faded rapidly away. He only hoped the useless wretch wouldn't break his neck on the narrow staircase at the speed he was going. He was no use to him dead right now.

All thoughts of Potter were wiped from Snape's mind as his attention returned to Lois's poor mangled body. His knowledge of magical medicine was limited and he didn't dare risk attempting even the most basic of the spells he did know. A wrong incantation on injuries this severe could be fatal. Stopping the bleeding, or at least reducing its flow, seemed like the most important task. He attempted to rip the sleeve from his robes as a makeshift bandage, and hissed with fury when the material stubbornly resisted. He cast a swift severing spell and almost dropped his wand in shock when Lois's voice came from beside him.

'Don't… shout… at him,' she scolded, each word more difficult to form than the last.

'Lois, oh God, Lois,' Snape chanted. He folded the sleeve in half and then half again before pressing it gently down over the gaping wound. Lois let out a whispery scream, her eyes shooting open. With a jolt of horror, Snape lifted the cloth immediately back up when it only seemed to make the blood spurt quicker. He unfolded the sleeve once and replaced the slightly larger square of material back over her stomach, not daring to apply any further pressure. 'I'm sorry,' he said unevenly. He reached out a soothing hand to brush away the hair that was plastered damply to her forehead and then lent briefly forward to place a kiss where his hand had been. 'There's too much damage…I don't know…. I can't heal this, Achelois,' he whispered desperately as her eyes fluttered shut again.

Her lips tilted briefly upwards in what Snape assumed was an attempt at a smile. 'Found… something… you can't do?'

Snape made a choked noise of protest that was abruptly curtailed as Lois twisted violently in a rictus of pain. He watched, terrified, as her breathing worsened and became harsh and laboured in what seemed like the space of a second. A trickle of blood oozed from the corner of her mouth and he wiped it quickly away. But when she opened her mouth in an attempt to drawn oxygen into her starved lungs, he saw that that was stained a terrible red too.

'Hold still,' Snape said, bending closer. 'Help's on the way.' Taking him by surprise, Lois suddenly arched herself off the ground in another desperate effort to escape the clutching pain. Snape swore viciously under his breath, but the hands that reached out to carefully still her jerking movements were gentle.

'No,' he said, his voice more commanding now, but still with panic creeping along the edges. 'You mustn't move – Poppy's on the way, but until she gets here you need to keep as still as possible.'

'Tell Harry… not his fault…'

Snape reared furiously back. 'I'm not telling that good for nothing whelp anything. You can tell him yourself–'

Lois shook her head painfully, large fat tears seeping unnoticed from her eyes. 'No–' the word gurgled wetly in her throat and Snape swore savagely again.

'Be quiet!' he snarled, his lips barely moving. 'I don't want to hear it! Now, open your eyes, woman, and damn well listen to me!' Although she obeyed his command, for a guilty instant he wished she hadn't; her normally bright eyes were unfocussed and dulled by pain. He wasn't sure she even recognised him. When her lids drifted closed again, he didn't repeat his request. With rising dread, he noted that her already pale skin was slowly becoming tinged with blue, her lips the most obviously affected. He carefully lifted her nearest hand towards him. His stomach clenched at its cold clamminess; the same blueness edging her nail beds as he had seen on her lips. With a muttered imprecation, he conjured a blanket, which he wrapped tenderly around her, feeling the heat from the warming charm he'd placed upon it rising up towards him immediately.

She let out another low moan, the otherworldly sound of an animal in pain and Snape fought down the wild urge to snatch the blanket away. Was the heat making her pain worse? He thought longingly of some of the potions he had brewed under the Dark Lord's service. There were several of those he would sell his soul for right at that moment.

He lifted the blanket away from her body with a spell so that it was no longer resting on her. The moaning stopped, but his relief was short-lived when it was almost immediately replaced by a shallow panting. This new sound scared Snape more than all the others and he twisted to look frantically around, willing Poppy Pomfrey to be standing behind him.

'Severus–' His name was barely a whisper on a rasping exhalation of breath, but it was as loud to him as a gunshot. He turned instantly away from the empty door. The wind blew his hair across his eyes and for a moment he welcomed the darkness. Then he pushed it roughly aside and bent his head back to hers so she wouldn't have to strain to see him in the encroaching gloom, even though it didn't matter because her eyes were still closed. He sucked in a deep breath in an attempt to dispel the burning ache in his chest.

'Achelois, it isn't supposed to be like this,' he insisted brokenly, refusing to let her finish because he was deathly afraid of what she was trying to say. 'You can't leave me now.' He tried to wipe the bubbling blood from her mouth with the edge of his shirtsleeve, but his hand was trembling so badly he had to stop and placed it tenderly against her cheek instead. 'That's why I let you go, you idiot, so you'd be safe, so you could have a chance at the life you deserve. But if you're going to idiotically risk it for the sake of every halfwit who crosses your path, then you can bloody well stay alive and spend it with me!' His face crumpled briefly and he swiped a quick, uncaring hand across his damp eyes. 'I'm the one who's supposed to die first, not you,' he whispered against her ear. 'Please, Lois, don't do this. I need you here. I love you.'

A brief look of bittersweet sorrow flickered across her pain-ravaged features. 'For the rest…. of my life?'

Severus felt an icy twist of pain spear his insides. He lowered his face to hers, the fierceness she couldn't see in his gaze echoed plainly in his tone. 'No. For the rest of mine.'

Her lips curved in real smile then, as sweet as any he had ever seen on her face. 'Thank you…' she murmured, but he wasn't sure if he'd heard the whispered words over the growing fierceness of the wind, or just read them on her lips. 'Love you… too.' And then her eyes opened to lock with his, burning brightly with such unwavering, abiding love, he thought for a glorious instant that despite the terrible injury, she might be able to fight this, to win.

But even as the searing hope was racing through him, she let out a huge sigh, her eyelids dropping slowly closed as her face relaxed from the pain that had held it taut, and she fell utterly still.

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A/N Thank you so much to everyone who has reviewed and, as always, I'm really sorry this chapter wasn't up quicker. I'll try to do better with the next one – it's actually already almost done. Enormous thanks are also owed to Axelle - beta-reader par excellence. (All remaining mistakes are definitely mine!) Belated thanks are also owed to Arundel whose eagle eye got me searching. The line "No, for the rest of mine", last chapter probably came from a similar one in Phenomenon, but I also found a few mentions of it in an anonymous quote and song lyrics. :)

Finally, in case anyone wondered, Acushla is an Irish form of endearment from "A cuisle." Literally it means "Oh pulse/pulse of my heart" but is used metaphorically to mean, "My dear."
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