Chapter Twenty-Seven

Triple Play

Alicia waited until the majority of students were heading to their rooms before she slipped down a deserted side hall and woke up a painting that was there.

"Pardon me, but is Mr. Pyther working in the castle tonight?" Alicia asked

"Ah yes," said the painting of a ghostly ship captain. "I believe he's up near the corridor on the thirteenth floor, cleaning the painting of the grey mare. After all, that old grey mare, she ain't what she used to be," said the captain and then burst out in a guffaw at his own joke.

"Yes, very clever, thank you," Alicia said with a pained smile as she head further up the staircase.

It was not hard to find the vampire after she had gotten to the correct floor, for he had set up his painting just off the landing, chatting companionably to many of the paintings in the area who all seemed to be vying his attentions, hoping for cleaning and touch ups. The horse he was working on raised his head away from a tuft of lush looking late spring grass, pricking up his ears as it curiously looked at the girl approaching.

"There you are," Alicia said, nearly making the nervous painter drop his brush, catching the painting and righting the easel before it went tumbling to the ground. Alicia did her best to curb a chuckle. "I see you're still here."

"Oh, yes! Welcome back!" Francis Pyther said with a smile. "With all the flooding, it's been hard to get anyone to show me underground housing, actually. But never mind that, I'm terribly glad to see you."

"Really?" Alicia said.

"Oh, yes, well, I wanted to thank you, especially, for your present…your offer to do my portrait. I've never had such a flattering offer. Although…well, it is a noble offer, since you know my position, although I'm not sure how appropriate it would be," Pyther explained.

"So what you're saying is that I'm not ready to do portraits yet?" Alicia frowned.

"Oh, no, don't be silly. You're a brilliant artist, Alicia. Actually, I've always thought so," Pyther said. "But there are certain things one must consider when choosing a subject. Proprieties one must learn and all of that…when you're attempting to get an accurate picture of someone you don't know that well…"

"But I've known you for years," Alicia chuckled, shaking his head at him.

"Well, yes, but maybe I'm not telling this properly," Pyther decided. "Your painting techniques are quite defined, but we have yet to really work on learning to get the most out of your subject…learning to, say…ask the right questions…inspire the right memories, and yet always with complete respect for the subject's sensitivities, approaching it without personal judgment of their individual choices, and of course, with confidentiality. It really is more complicated than you might think."

"Then perhaps it's about time I learned all that, isn't it?" Alicia said softly. "Teach me."

"Teach you?" Pyther repeated, and then shook his head. "That would not be easy to do if I myself were the subject."

"Are you so afraid of having your own painting done as all of that?" Alicia sighed at him.

"No, no, it's not that exactly, it's just that I think perhaps you ought to start with an easier subject. Perhaps someone you don't know at all so can look at the project with a true clean stretch of canvas and with an artistic eye, and hopefully not one with six hundred years of baggage," Pyther said quietly.

"Yes, well, you do realize that the longer you wait to have it done, the more of that baggage you're going to accumulate," Alicia said. "Besides, after all those years of creating paintings and caring for paintings, don't you think there shouldn't be some image of the man responsible for them all? And when was the last time you were actually able to see yourself as you really are?" Pyther chewed on his lip, glancing at the mare and other paintings in the hall. "Please, Mr. Pyther, you've taught me so much. Let me give this one thing back."

"Well, I can't say it's not tempting," Pyther admitted. "Fine, but let's do a trade. I'll do your portrait as well, so you can learn some of the subtleties involved before we attempt such a thing, and also so it'll be a fair exchange. I wouldn't feel right about accepting such an offer without something in return."

"Very well, Mr. Pyther," Alicia said with an enigmatic smile before she glanced at the painting. "She's looking much better, isn't she? I heard the old grey mare wasn't what she used to be."

Pyther paused at that and chuckled at her, while the horse snorted as if offended.

"That's very clever, isn't it?" Pyther said, and Alicia simply grinned and shook her head at him.

Halbert stood over Andrew's shoulder anxiously as Andrew finished penning the letter then waited for it to dry before casting the spell to change it to Halbert's writing.

"There you are, Halbert, one more letter for Ginger from you," Andrew sighed, handing it to him. "You know, you really need to start learning how to write these on your own. I can't keep doing this forever."

"But I can never seem to write anywhere as well as you do. Perhaps I could in Français, but she doesn't know Français! And I can't write poetry at all," Halbert protested, sitting down to read it. "Besides, ever since you began doing this, she has actually started to notice me! She wrote me three times over the holiday. And I think we might start a Herbology project together."

"Good, perhaps that'll give you enough nerve to start doing this on your own," Andrew said. "I have a complicated enough love life without adding yours to the mix, Halbert. Shelly was quite cross when I went to the ball with June after I had to turn down her invitation to her Yule party."

"But I thought Shelly just saw you as a friend?" Halbert said curiously.

"Well, apparently that 'just friends' thing was more complicated than I originally thought," Andrew said. "It seems that some girls, even if they say they completely understand that you're just friends, still tend to get attached."

"Why? I mean, she already has a boyfriend, why would she care?"

"If you ever find out the answer to that question, let me know," Andrew said before getting up to get ready for bed.

Alex gasped when she heard the door open and stood paralyzed by Severus' potion shelf in his office with several bottles of Oat's Bane in hand. Sighing loudly, Severus glanced up at the ceiling as she quickly put away what she was after, apologizing profusely before making her way out of his office, her cheeks bright red despite the fact she otherwise looked completely composed.

The moment she was out of the door she hurried her pace dramatically, taking the steps by two until she reached the Ravenclaw common room and took a moment to catch her breath before heading up to her room.

"I am going to be so glad to get out of school!" Alexandria declared. Mandria, who was still unpacking, grinned at her.

"So will I. But why this time?" Mandria asked, knowing her friend well enough to know that she has a different reason for the way she felt every moment of the day.

"For one thing, there is no privacy in this school whatsoever…especially having two parents working here," Alex said, pulling out the chain around her neck. Dangling beside the heart locket Ben had given her over the summer was a simple ring, which she stared at wistfully.

"Quaint," Mandria said carefully when she glanced at the ring. "Very, um…dainty."

"Oh, I know it's not much," Alex said, nodding knowingly. "But it is a lot to Ben. Right now he's struggling to make ends meet, so I'm awfully surprised he managed it at all. Of course, it's my fault he's even in that position, what with his family and all."

"Muggle snobs," Mandria agreed.

"His mother thinks I will prevent him from 'keeping his feet on the ground,' whatever that means," Alex said with a sigh, putting her necklace back out of sight. "Perhaps she is right in a way…he ended up coming along with us when we went to try and save Lindsay. I hope she's going to be all right."

"Where's she at now?"

"Still at the hospital, but I imagine she'll be going to stay with Aunt Anna. She doesn't have any relatives, and Anna was her legal godmother," Alexandria explained, lying down on her bed. "But I'm sure none of them expected Uncle Sirius to be in such a strange position right now."

"Understandable, though, isn't it?"

"Yes, everyone keeps saying that," Alex admitted, leaning on her side a moment to look at her. "All the same, it doesn't make it easier…especially on Zoë and Zack. They spent most of their holiday at our house or at Harry's or somewhere else…" she sighed, and laid back again. "The world is so messed up on so many levels, Mandria. It's like we're all truly in this huge nightmare that we can't wake up from. Maybe that's it, maybe we're all trapped…more than just in a certain season…more than just in this castle…but trapped by our destinies to meet a bad end whether we fight it or not."

"One day back, and already you're trying to get philosophical," Mandria sighed, rolling her eyes at her. "Besides, I thought you always believed in free will."

"Maybe I did once," Alex said thoughtfully. "But after everything that's happened over the holiday, now I'm not so sure."

Alex woke up to find it still dark, but no one was in the room with her. Curiously she sat up, wondering where Mandria and her other roommates were, their absence so odd that she found herself getting out of bed and pulling on her night robe. But even when she walked out into the common room, no one was there. Feeling extremely disoriented, Alex found herself walking out, hurrying towards the Great Hall, wondering if she had missed some sort of emergency alarm or something.

"Alex!" Alex stopped on the stair, her heart thumping as Alicia looked at her from the landing underneath. "Isn't this odd? Where is everyone?"

"I don't know, but I'm glad you're here," Alex said, stepping down the stairs. "This is very strange. What do you suppose could be wrong?"

"Why aren't any of the paintings moving?" Alicia wanted to know. Alex paused and looked at the walls, staring as Alicia was at the paintings completely frozen in place.

"Come on, let's try the Great Hall," Alex suggested in a low voice, and the two of them continued on. But when they arrived at the Great Hall, they found themselves standing in the doorway, for the lights were dark and no one was there.

"What? Hullo!" said Andrew's voice, and suddenly he appeared at the other end of the hall coming towards them. "Are you real?"

"What sort of question is that? Of course we're real," Alexandria said in exasperation. "Have you happened to see anyone? No one was in our dorms."

"Same here," Andrew said with surprise. "I came downstairs to see if Halbert was in the kitchen, but to be honest, when I saw he wasn't there and nobody else was about I was beginning to think I was dreaming."

"Dreaming?" Alex echoed looking at Alicia unsurely, but Alicia had the same look on her face. "You don't think we really are?"

"If we are, it's awful convincing," Alicia said in a low voice.

"Convincing, perhaps," Andrew said, pulling out his wand. "But not quite convincing enough. This is my old wand, not my new birch one. We are dreaming. Or at least, I am."

"I think I'm dreaming too," Alex murmured.

"That would explain the paintings," Alicia agreed, getting out her wand as well. "Should we try to wake ourselves up before anything happens?"

"Wait, what if Aurelius is in here too?" Andrew said. "We'd better go make sure he's not in trouble."

"It is very weird not knowing if the two of you are just part of the dream or are really here," Alicia said.

"Considering we all seem to be thinking that, I'd say we all somehow are apart of the same dream…who knows who's head it started in," Alex said. "We'd better stick together."

"Agreed," Andrew said. "Come on, let's try the Slytherin rooms," he suggested. Leaving their wands out, the three of them crept through the eerily empty castle. But not only did they find the painting of the Grinning Grackle open for anyone to enter, it was also quite empty.

"Everything in there is very bizarre isn't it?" Alicia said as they stood in the doorway. "Like toy furniture."

"Yes, you're right! It looks rather like a larger version of the model we made!" Andrew said.

"What do you suppose that means? I mean, all of the other rooms looked normal to me," Alex said.

"I suppose it's because none of us have actually been in there," Andrew said.

"Perhaps that also means that Rel didn't get stuck in the dream," Alicia suggested.

"Perhaps," Andrew said. "Although I would hate to assume he got out just from that."

"Well, if I were Aurelius, on my own, and not knowing what's going on, I'd probably go to Father's office," Alex reasoned.

"Right," Andrew agreed with a nod. "Let's check there."

The secret passages, they knew, would be the quickest way there, and Andrew had happened to have occasion to follow Aurelius in the one near the Slytherin rooms. It took very little time to get there, but in many ways it felt to them to take forever, for they knew that other forces were at work in the dream. That fact became even clearer as they stepped into the Defense classroom to see the lights lit in the office. Inside the office sat Severus Snape, staring at the contents of the folder Thurspire had sent him. Several of the pages were spread out in front of them, and he was gazing at them with a critical eye.

"Father!" Andrew said with surprise when they came in. "Are you in the dream too?"

But Severus didn't answer. He didn't even seem to see them at all as he stared at one in particular, murmuring off names on a crumpled paper.

"Western Isle, New Grange, Anglesey, Stonehenge," he said as if to himself, then paused, digging through them again until he pulled out a small note card with three others written, all with question marks written beside them. "Snape, Old Romney, and Worcester?" he said, shaking his head. "What the devil would they have anything to do with anything?" he asked himself, opening up another piece of paper filled with strange lines, and English words written underneath. "The battle of Time shall commence within the dragon's maw," he murmured, double-checking the runes and the translation with a puzzled look on his face. Putting it down and shaking his head, Severus went over to his bookshelf to grab an atlas but then paused, gazing around with a strange expression on his face. His hand went to his neck thoughtfully, but his chain hadn't changed in temperature.

"Rasputin, do you smell anything odd?" Severus hissed.

"I smell you. I smell mice. Can I have a mouse?" Rasputin hissed back. But Severus ignored him, glancing around one more time before turning back to his bookshelf. Alicia and Andrew looked at Alex questioningly.

"I don't know…he doesn't see us, and yet it's like he senses something's there in some way," Alex said. "It's weird, but in some ways I think he's more real than we are."

"I don't think Aurelius is in this," Andrew said after they watching him flipping through books, slipping on his spectacles. "That being said, I think it's time we got out of this dream before something bad happens."

"All right…just not from here," Alex said, gazing at her father warily as if half afraid they would suddenly appear in his office if they were to awaken.

"Right," Andrew said. "Come on, let's step out."

"What do you suppose all of that he was saying to himself was about?" Alex said. Alicia sighed to herself. "It was all place names, wasn't it?"

"Later, Alex, later," Andrew said, stepping out into the hall. "We can talk about it once we wake up."

"Hang on a moment," Alicia said, staring out the window. "Look! There's someone outside! It looks like Rel!"

"What would Rel be doing out in that sort of weather?" Alex asked, but then they all looked at one another knowingly.

"Pali," they all said together.

"Come on, let's go get him," Andrew said, and they raced down the corridor and down to the main entrance, running down the stairs and calling his name as they tried to catch up with him. But either Aurelius wasn't listening or he didn't hear them, for he kept on going, past Sagittari's hut and the pens, scanning the sand wall that barricaded the flooded forest from the school and walked up the stairs. "Hullo! Don't you see us?" Andrew said when they got to the bottom, but Aurelius merely stood at the top, looking over the wall with a solemn look on his face.

"He's not here either, just like Father," Alicia said. "What do you suppose he's doing?"

She didn't have to wait long to find out the answer; for Aurelius had reached in his pocket and pulled out something shiny… the Coin of Indecision, they quickly realized as it went into the air.

"Should I go find Pali?" Aurelius asked it, catching it on the way down and staring into it. Nodding at what he saw, he put it away. Taking a quick look back and sighing, Aurelius continued down the other side.

"He is going to be so toast if Father finds out," Alex said.

"It's just a dream, isn't it?" Alicia said, but Alex looked a bit unsure.

"Isn't it quaint?" said a woman's amused voice from behind them, and the three instantly turned around, all three wands pointed at Ciardoth's giant figure. "How even in the dream the three of you go out of your way to stick your noses into things, just like your busy little father attempting even now to thwart the inevitable."

"If whatever you're doing is inevitable, why kill the Thurspires?" Andrew asked.

"Because I wanted to, silly child," she giggled strangely. "Because he was of no use to me, and really it doesn't matter, does it? Nor does your attempt to save the girl, for the end is near...yes, I am certain of it," she said almost wistfully, gazing up at the cloudy sky before turning back to them with a sinister smile. "And one of you will become instrumental in helping me destroy this school beforehand."

"Not bloody likely," Alicia snorted. But Ciardoth merely laughed.

"You shall, whether you even know it or not. Care to see a bit of what the end of this universe is going to look like?" she said, raising her arms.

"Look out!" Alex warned as the clouds suddenly parted and the constellations in the sky began to come alive, spinning strangely faster and faster until the sky itself seemed to close in on the three of them as if caught in a funnel, the stars making a strange army that began to charge them.

"Grab hands! Don't forget this is a dream!" Andrew shouted. "She can't control it completely! Wake up! Wake up everyone!"

Just then, one of the fiery constellations broke off and they three of them found themselves looking in the jaws of a dragon a hundred times larger than Ciardoth herself, its mouth opening. But instead of fire, out came a darkness so complete that nothing seemed to escape it. Just then, a single word spell burst out of Andrew's mouth.

Andrew woke with a jolt and looked around to see Halbert in the bed next to him, snoring away. On the other side of him, Phil Rich had kicked off his blankets as he always did; half of him dangling off the bed. Andrew's heart beat very heavy in his chest as he threw back his covers, taking only a second to grab his slippers and his robe before running out of his rooms to the main stairwell, looking up and down it. A moment later, Alex appeared near another rail and then Alicia appeared below looking up at them, each letting out a sigh of relief as they worked their way to the same level.

"So you were really both in it too," Alicia said. "Are you all right?"

"Yeah, thanks to Andrew. Good thinking casting that waking spell."

"To be perfectly honest I wasn't sure it was going to work, being that we were in the dream," Andrew said.

"What was that whole last bit all about? With all that black? And the stars and everything?" Alicia asked, shivering. "It was almost literally like the sky was falling."

"Or getting sucked in by something," Alex said, then glanced at Andrew, who looked thoughtful. "Well, we need to go tell Father what happened."

"Hang on a moment…what about Aurelius?" Andrew said. "Going into the forest, I mean."

"Well, that was just apart of the dream, right?" Alex said.

"I'm not so sure," Andrew said. "I'd hate to get him into trouble…"

"All that same, Father would want to know right away about something like this," Alex said.

"Hang on," Alicia said, turning and looking at the paintings before choosing one. "Would you be willing to check with the Grackle to see if Aurelius is in his room?"

"Certainly, m'lady," the kindly-looking wizard with the purple beard said, disappearing from his frame. It wasn't very long at all before he was stepping back into it again. "It appears, m'lady, that Master Snape of Slytherin House is not in his rooms at the moment, nor in the castle proper as far as I can tell."

Alicia turned to the other two questioningly, but both of them had the same baffled expressions on their faces that she knew she herself had.