VI

The Curse

When they arrived out of the Forest a few hours later, Severus was only slightly surprised to hear a great number of voices coming from Sagittari's hut. It was Sirius who answered the door, but so many people began talking at once that Severus couldn't sort it out. Finally he invited everyone up to the study and refused to respond to any questions until everyone had arrived and had calmed down.

"All right, who here have seen a manifestation of, for lack of a better term, a Death Avatar?" Severus asked at last.

Hermione, Ron, and Sagittari were the only ones not to raise their hands, so Severus gazed at the others. Sirius, Anna, Aurelius, Corey, Harry, and Essie were all there.

"So here are we that cheated Death, eh?" he murmured to himself.

"Actually, I'm not sure whether I count in that or not, Uncle," Essie put in. "I had another vision of these avatars seeking certain targets, but one didn't approach me personally."

"Ginny saw one as well," Harry put in. "She just had to work tonight, so I came."

"Anyone know of anyone else?" Severus asked thoughtfully.

"I don't know anyone in particular," Essie said, "But at the same time, I'm quite sure that there may have been more."

"Yes, I think so as well," Severus said, his eyes darting to Corey. "What happened to you?"

"I was just getting home from work," Corey said. "When I got to the porch, I noticed one of the windows was fogged over and there was writing on it. At first I thought it may have been one of the kids playing, until I read it."

"What did it say?" Severus asked, getting out a dictation quill.

"It read, 'Twice in flight you should have died, Once by Bludger, the other by blade. Like a bird with clipped wings, you will dread the sky, until the day when your life does fade.' Can't say much for the poet, but I know there's no way any of the kids wrote it, and Ambrose was at his mother's."

"No, this is no child's prank, and I definitely see a pattern here," Severus said.

"It sounds to me like a complex vengeance curse, Severus," Jennifer nodded. "It has conditions and consequences, classic despite its scope."

"Yes, I concur. Corey, did you experience anything strange after you read it?" Severus asked.

"Yes, that's when I turned around and saw the Reaper," Corey said. "He seemed to hover there like a Dementor for a moment then faded away."

"Probably the sign of the curse itself. I bet reading the script put in front of us is what's actually triggering the curse," Harry said.

"Perhaps we should put out a warning for people not to read them?" Ron suggested.

"The only problem with that is that most people go out of their way to read things that anyone tells them not to," Hermione said.

"Not to mention how hard it is to avoid it. In Ginny's and my cases, the words pretty much appeared right in front of us. One automatically reads something in their face like that," Harry pointed out.

"What did yours say, Harry?" Severus asked.

"Something about getting hunted," Harry said. "Honestly, until Ginny called out, I thought it was just some message left by a dark wizard recently out of jail or something trying to threaten me. Except there was something odd about it…it had said something like, 'Second youngest to survive a death meant to be, your life has been nothing but a chain of betraying death. You have become one of its worst enemies, and yours will hunt you until your dying breath.' What do you make of that?"

"Well, it won't win any awards, that's for sure," Ron said, folding his arms to keep Hermione from jabbing his side.

"Second youngest?" Sirius frowned. "Who could possibly have cheated death at any younger age than you did, Harry?"

Jennifer and Severus immediately looked at one another.

"Alicia," Jennifer said.

"Perhaps you had better send her an Owl," Severus said. "Where is she? Still in Australia?"

"Art exposition in Hong Kong," Jennifer said.

"Is she even speaking to you yet, Severus?" Sirius asked, and Severus gave him a dirty look.

"No, she isn't," Aurelius said, getting the look turned on him. "There's something else you probably should know as well, Father. This isn't the first time this whole Avatar thing has come up." Severus squinted. "Harry, do you remember when we were in Kirkwall? Madam Stone?"

"You mean that dodgy old prophetess?" Harry said in surprise.

"Don't you remember? She said something about death walking, and those who cheated death were going to pay for it," Aurelius said insistently.

"Did she?" Harry paused, then shrugged. "Come to think of it, she may have. I tend to tune people out the moment they pull that card out of a Tarot deck."

"Perhaps you should have listened," Essie suggested.

"No offense meant, Essie, because I've seen you do some amazing things, but if I paid attention to every person or thing that's predicted my death, I'd have had a nervous breakdown by now," Harry said.

"Understandable, but I hope all of you are taking this curse seriously," Severus said. "Each consequence seems quite personalized, so we're dealing with someone who knows us fairly well. I would like everyone to write down their verses for me, so we can start some sort of analysis. We also need to find anyone else who may have been affected and turned to other sources, or none at all."

"Right, everyone must be accounted for," Jennifer agreed. "This curse was put on all of us at the same time…that means we need to dispel it at the same time."

"And in the same place," Severus nodded.

"I'm sure Alicia is going to love to hear that," Aurelius murmured. Corey nodded at him knowingly.

"We also need to find out who is behind this if we are going to have any hope of stopping the curse before it advances too far," Severus said.

"Wait a moment. Just what exactly is the curse going to do to all of you?" Hermione asked.

"Suffer or die are the choices, that much is clear," Jennifer said. "How that will manifest, only time will tell."

"More than likely, we won't have to wait long to find out," Severus said grimly.

"Pretty place," Andrew commented, his head turning as they walked down the bustling streets of Hong Kong. "Much more sophisticated than I had been expecting, too."

"Can you please keep your mind off girls for just one afternoon?" Aurelius sighed critically, glancing at the paper. "And guard your pockets. I'm sure we stick out like lost tourists."

"Well, aren't we?" Andrew asked, amused.

"Not at all. The gallery should be right down this next street," Aurelius said.

"Cab would have been more fun…"

"We are not here to see the sights!" Aurelius cut him off with exasperation.

"Of course not, Aurelius," Andrew said somberly. "But I hate seeing you worked up like this. May I ask what your curse is?"

"I will be consumed by my burning conscience, whatever that is supposed to mean," Aurelius said, but shook his head. "To be perfectly honest, I'm more worried about everyone else at this point."

"Yeah, I know," Andrew said with a nod, "But I'm not going anywhere…" he paused when he saw something colorful. It was sign made of fabric streamers in front of a building filled with windows. "Well, what do you know? For once, we actually weren't lost."

"Now we just have to find our section of the gallery," Aurelius said in a low voice as they waited to get in.

"Simple enough, we'll just ask," Andrew said, striding in and going straight over to a small, beautiful woman in a prim skirt suit. "Excuse me, but I'm looking for a particular artist. Do you have any works by Alicia Snape?" The woman's expression instantly changed, and she bowed stiffly.

"I am sorry, but we have no artist by that name here. We are an exclusive gallery, and we have very few visiting artists, only the most famous," she said.

"She is one of the most famous," Andrew said with a shrug.

"What sort of paintings are you interested in?" she asked. "I'm sure there's something you would like."

"We're not, really, we're looking for the artist," Andrew said. Aurelius pulled on his sleeve impatiently.

"Well, there's no such person here, sorry…"

"Who might I speak with, you know, to find out for certain?"

"I am quite certain. You are the third person to ask today, and there is no such artist here. I have not even heard of her."

"You must have heard of her, if we were the third person to ask today," Andrew pointed out.

"Andrew, over here?" Aurelius sighed. Andrew looked over to see a man standing right beside the door wearing an elaborate silk owl tie. He seemed to be watching them intently.

"Never mind, thank you…I'll come back for a tour later," Andrew winked as Aurelius dragged him back over to the front door.

"Is there something I can do for you?" the man asked, glancing between them and then settling on Andrew. "I don't know you, but you seem strangely familiar."

"Professor Andrew Snape," Andrew said, and the man's face lit up. "We're looking for my sister's art exhibit?"

"Yes, of course! Right this way. I'm so terribly sorry I didn't catch you on the way in. My name is Boll, sirs, I work for Mr. Tsang, who's in charge of our side of the gallery, if you follow me."
"We do follow you and we are following you," Andrew agreed, as they stepped behind a thin paper screen with a small sign that read; "Reserved for unfinished exhibit" in both English and Cantonese.

Just beyond was an amazing gallery with high ceilings and mazelike corridors. Paintings curiously peered over at them as they came in, eager to see the ones who might just be their new owners.

"Just ahead, her works are in our main gallery, of course," Boll said with a polite smile. Within a few steps the room opened up into a hexagonal space of white walls, where dozens of Alicia's paintings suddenly broke out in greeting and some even applauded when they walked in. Alicia and Alexandria, who had been sitting in a lunch room nearby, came out when they heard the commotion.

"Rel? Andrew? What are you doing here?" Alicia asked, hugging Aurelius warmly and then Andrew.

"We just thought we'd come and check on you, that's all," Aurelius said. "How has it been going?"

"Lovely, why?" Alicia asked defensively.

"Lovely? I'm bored to tears," Alex sighed.

"What are you doing here, anyhow?" Aurelius asked.

"I thought I'd go along and help out…but nearly everyone here speaks English, and she hasn't sold a painting yet!" Alex said grumpily.

"It only takes one," Alicia shrugged.

"Is that tag for real? How many Galleons?" Andrew asked, nearly choking when he saw the price on the painting of a baby sitting in a bird bath wearing nothing but a diaper and her mother's wide-brimmed hat. Apparently the baby was playing peek-a-boo with the hat, and every now and then disappeared completely. "That's more than I make in a month!"

"That's why it only takes one," Alicia said again.

"In actuality, the price is quite low for someone of her caliber. Mr. Tsang has been trying to convince her to raise them," Boll put in.

"I have a bunch of paintings she did when she was three. Think it's worth anything?" Andrew asked him speculatively.

"Andrew!" Alicia frowned at him.

"In the right market, probably," Boll nodded. "But I must go attend the door in case you have a paying customer, Miss Snape. Pardon me." Alicia smiled and waited until he was out of view before looking at her brothers again.

"So why are you both really here? The two of you don't go anywhere together unless you have no other choice," Alicia asked.

"Trouble at home. Some members of the family and several others we know have been victims of a curse," Aurelius explained.

"A curse? What sort of curse?" Alex asked with alarm.

"A vengeance curse, according to Mum, and a rather nasty one from the sound of it, not that anything's happened yet," Andrew said.

"If it does, I'll let you know," Aurelius said dryly.

"You?" Alex asked in a low voice, glancing around at several people who had wandered into the area to view paintings.

"It strikes people who have had close brushes with death," Aurelius explained. "It starts with a vision or a dream of the Grim Reaper, and a poem. Have either of you witnessed anything like that?"

"No," Alexandria said with a frown. "Although I think I've had some close calls…"

"I doubt they were close enough," Aurelius said. "We're not talking about dodging a spell or getting pulled away from a fall or anything like that. More like incidents where you should have died and didn't. Like what Alicia went through when she was born," he added, gazing over at Alicia, who seemed more interested in a wizard couple gazing at her paintings. "Has anything strange happened to you in the last day or so, Alicia?"

"No, not at all," Alicia said. "Perhaps we're too far away."

"Father and Mum were in New York when it happened, and they were both cursed," Aurelius said, gazing at her intently.

"Well, that's hardly surprising, is it? They were probably the main targets! And frankly, it serves them right," Alicia snapped.

"Does it serve me right, too, Alicia?" Aurelius said with such anger in his voice that Andrew put an arm on his shoulder. "What about Harry and the others? Does it serve them right?"

"Remember where we are," Andrew said calmly, but Alicia ignored him.

"It would hardly be the first time you stuck up for our parents. Why do all of you put yourselves through that? Whoever is behind it, it is assuredly one of Father's enemies, so let him handle it for a change instead of dragging the rest of you in. And if you're here to bring us back, you are wasting your time. I don't care if the entire world is in jeopardy because some random dark wizard or creature has another vendetta against him. I would sooner stay here and be blown into space than ever set my eyes on Father again," Alicia said firmly. "So take your curse somewhere else. I'm not going anywhere until I sell a painting." Boll cleared his throat, and Alicia looked up to see that someone was interested in her 'Owl on a Hot Tin Roof' piece. "Very well, make that two paintings," she muttered, walking over. Alexandria sighed and stepped closer to the others.

"I'm not about to stay here when things aren't right at home, but I should at least stay a couple of days…she's due in New Guinea to do some illustrations for a wizard botanist there," Alexandria explained.

"Well, try and change her mind if you can, and let me know if anything strange happens," Aurelius said in a low voice. Alex nodded solemnly and hugged them both, while Alicia merely gave them a cold side-glance before turning back to her work.

"You said that almost as if you are expecting something strange to happen," Andrew commented as they left.

"I do," Aurelius admitted. "Alicia was lying about the curse. Something did happen to her. I think she only said that because she realized we'd want her to come back with us if she admitted it."

"Well, if she is cursed, we can't really just leave her here, can we? You know what Father said. We can't break the curse unless everyone's together."

"We also can't do it until we find out who's behind it," Aurelius pointed out. "I think it's best we leave it for now, especially since Alex is here to watch her. Once we know for sure, then we'll have to try and take her back by force."

"I was afraid you'd say something like that," Andrew sighed, following him out of the gallery.