VII
Obstacles
Sirius Black strode into the Headmaster's Study to find Severus huddled over his desk, eyes intent on the papers in front of him as he scanned them through dark-rimmed glasses.
"Nose to the grindstone again, eh, Severus?" Sirius said, pushing some of the stuff on the desk away so he could sit on the edge of it. It was moving the candy dish that finally got Severus' attention, a slight flash in his black eyes when he looked up.
"Get off my desk, Sirius, before I remove you from it."
"You know, Severus, you haven't changed as much as you would like everyone to think," Sirius taunted as he stood, leaning on the desk instead. "No amount of fancy enchanted contraptions or a fancy office or even your disturbingly aloof manners will make me forget how much of a wretched pain in the ass you were in school."
"Did you come in here for any particular reason, other than attempting to give me a reason to flatten you?" Severus asked expressionlessly. Sirius simply grinned back at him.
"The Research Library is ready to be tested again…if you ever step foot out of this room, that is."
"I've been working on gathering up all the information we have so far, although I've run into a snag or two," Severus said.
"Yes, I heard from Andrew what happened in Hong Kong. Alicia certainly knows how to hold a grudge, doesn't she? Like father like…"
"I'll be down after lunch to test the door myself," Severus interrupted. "Before we try it on a student or a future student again, I intend to completely inspect it first. Now, if that is all…" Severus turned as if to make a motion to Descartes, but Sirius stopped him.
"There is one other thing, Severus," he said, turning quite serious. "I want to know what sort of suffering this curse plans for you."
"Yes, well, we don't always get what we want. You'll just have to trust that I am quite prepared to handle it…"
"No, I don't," Sirius said, then sighed at the glaring look in Severus' eyes. "Look, I'm quite sure you think you are prepared for anything, but I don't like the fact that you have taken upon yourself to organize this search for the curser and the curse's subsequent removals when you are infected with it just like we are. Perhaps you should leave this one to the Ministry."
"Thomas and Draco are already aware of it, Sirius, but I'm hardly going to sit by and do nothing when more than half of my family and friends have been hit with this thing. Oh. And you."
"Thanks," Sirius said dryly. "That doesn't change the fact that someone ought to know what yours does."
"Jennifer knows, that will be sufficient. Now, if you don't mind? I'd like to settle a few things before I come downstairs. I need to formalize some paperwork for some new elective classes for this week's board meeting since Hermione needs to start on scheduling by the end of the week."
"Long as you have your priorities straight, Severus," Sirius said, bowing mockingly and walking out of the room. Severus sat back then with a sigh, taking off his glasses and kneading the intense headache that had swept over him.
When Corey and Ambrose arrived at the back of the library, Sirius, Jennifer and Severus were all standing beside the door, talking quietly. They stopped short when they came closer, and Jennifer smiled warmly at them.
"Here we are," Corey said.
"Just in time, too," Sirius said with a grin. "Boulderdash has been just aching to start setting this place up, but Severus insists he wants it completely tested before he begins."
"Sure it's going to work this time?" Corey grinned.
"No, but I admit I had trouble getting past the security myself…although I did get in, eventually…"
"By cheating," Sirius glared at Severus.
"Well, I didn't get past it," Jennifer interrupted. "Care to try yourself, Corey?" Corey thought about it a moment and then smiled. Jennifer smiled back enigmatically when she saw what he was going to try.
"All right," Corey said, taking out his potion wallet and walked up to the door, standing with his toes touching it as he fished the phial out he wanted and drank it down.
Ambrose watched in amazement as Corey became incorporeal and tried to jump through…but as he jumped, he smacked up against another force that propelled him back through the bookshelves behind him. Hurriedly, he pulled his legs out of the wooden shelf just seconds before the potion returned him to normal. Icarus Ravenclaw, who was peering through the wall Corey had failed to go into, fell backwards and into a rare and disturbing round of laughter.
"When Sirius finished rigging the walls to keep both us and Fae from Apparating in, I asked Sirius to make certain that ghosts on staff could still enter…but any ethereal beings not interned in the castle could not," Severus said calmly.
"Okay, I'm convinced," Corey chuckled. "You thought of everything."
"That still remains to be seen," Severus said, looking over at Ambrose. "Very well, Ambrose, what will it be this time? A new training broom, perhaps?"
"No," Ambrose said. "I want to learn how to use my wand."
"Now, how did I know that was coming?" Sirius asked in amusement.
"Ambrose, have I or have I not told you that you can not learn to use a wand until you start at Hogwarts?" Severus said with a frown.
"Well, then perhaps you should let me just go to Hogwarts early then," Ambrose said with a grin.
"Impossible," Severus snapped.
"No, it isn't. I asked Hermione if anybody had been let into Hogwarts early before, and she said yes, but it was over two hundred years ago and it was a special case. Well, from what my teacher's say, I am a special case," Ambrose said.
"Remind me to have a few words with Hermione, Jennifer," Severus said wearily. Jennifer had a hard time keeping a straight face. "And remind me also to have a few words with Ambrose's teacher about playing to his ego. You need to learn a bit of humility, Ambrose Bailey."
"You know, though, Severus," Sirius began, and Severus already knew he wasn't going to like what he was about to hear. "It would really motivate him to get in… a truly honest attempt. I think you ought to let him go for it. I mean, if he finds a way to do something that the reportedly most powerful wizard on the planet can't do without cheating…"
"There's no cheating, only in or out. I got in," Severus said.
"All right, all right, but Jennifer didn't, nor did Corey, nor did I and I made the thing. If that child can manage to do what wizards of our caliber couldn't do, then he deserves to enter Hogwarts early," Sirius finished.
"I wouldn't put too much stock in your caliber if I were you…"
"Are you questioning mine, then, Severus?" Jennifer challenged him. Severus had such a sheepish look on his face that Ambrose giggled. Corey pinched his arm.
"Fine! If he gets in, and his mother approves, I will petition his case to be examined by the board and put to an entry test. But whether he passes that or not is up to him, fair enough?" Severus said, daring anyone to push their luck any further.
"Yes, Godfather!" Ambrose said brightly. "Can I try now?" Severus suddenly put an arm out and backed Jennifer further away from the door, ignoring the dirty look she gave him in return. Sirius, remembering what happened the last time they did this, took a healthy step backward himself, as did Corey, taking their cue from the others.
But as Ambrose concentrated on the door and called up a blast of energy, nothing happened. He stared at it in surprise for a moment and raised his hands again, conjuring spheres, cubes and cones of energy and pelting them at the door, Sirius' eyes growing wide at the techniques the youngster was using. When those didn't work, Ambrose pulled up his sleeves in frustration, letting one more trick go as he took out a giant hole and threw it against the door. But the hole merely smacked against it and slid down its face and made a hole on the floor instead.
"Wait a minute, that's my hole!" Corey said, putting his hands on his hips. "I was looking for that last week when I wanted to fix the plumbing."
"You all told me to use all available resources, Godfather," Ambrose said glumly. "I just thought if nothing else worked, that would."
"It was a good try, Ambrose," Jennifer assured him, gazing at Sirius and Severus who were inspecting the door. "Don't worry, four years isn't as long as it may seem to you right now."
"Four years is more than half my life! Of course it's long!" Ambrose said. Corey carefully picked his hole up by the edge and then folded it and put it in his pocket.
"Well, Severus? Satisfied?" Sirius asked.
"It'll do," Severus said expressionlessly.
"I'm completely overjoyed by your energetic enthusiasm," Sirius said sarcastically.
"Do I at least get some sort of consolation prize?" Ambrose asked glumly.
"Come on, little brother, I'll get you something at Honeydukes," Corey said, patting his shoulder.
"One moment, Corey," Severus said, pulling him to the side. Ambrose watched them curiously, but as much as he strained, he couldn't tell what they were saying.
"Ambrose?" Jennifer called out a second time.
"Hm, what?" Ambrose said, looking around. Sirius chuckled and shook his head, grabbing a stack of books and taking them into the back room.
"I asked you if you had a nice summer," Jennifer repeated. "I haven't seen you for a month and you've grown like a weed. I suppose you've been spending it with your nieces and nephew?"
"Uh huh," Ambrose said distractedly. "Can I ask you something, though?"
"Well, you can ask, although I don't know if I can answer," Jennifer said.
"How come Godfather went to bring you back here? Are you going to die too?" Ambrose asked. Jennifer put down the book in her hand and stared at him.
"Who told you anyone was going to die?"
"Well, no one. I just saw it in that mirror thing in there, last time I was here…" he said, pointing inside the door.
"Come here, Ambrose…over to the table, let's sit down," Jennifer said, glancing at Severus who was still in a discussion with Corey. "The device in there is a rather…well, it's a sort of experimental magical item that Severus has been tinkering with lately. It's made from a certain crystal that forms in only one place in this entire universe. In fact, the mineral it's made of really isn't of this universe at all but of the Otherworld, Tir Na Nog. It seeped into this world through the tiniest gap of an old gateway that had been cracked ajar over a thousand years. Because of those properties, it doesn't always reflect the world in the same way that we see it, since it comes from a world where thought is more powerful than matter. See what I mean?" Ambrose nodded his head.
"Not really," he said.
"Hm, well I suppose the concept is a bit much for someone your age, even with your intelligence," Jennifer said. "The crystal wasn't showing you actual images so much as it was showing you ideas and metaphors…symbols and pictures to relay a message or state of being."
"So what was it trying to say?"
"It was a warning about a curse, a rather nasty one that's affected quite a number of people right now. But that is nothing for you to worry about. Your godfather is working on it, and I'm sure it'll be cleared up and no one is going to die. It'd take more than a curse to take anyone in this family down. Trust me, I speak from experience," Jennifer said dryly. Ambrose began to chuckle but then grew somber.
"So you're cursed right now? You don't look cursed. Who else is cursed? Am I cursed?"
"No, you are not cursed," Jennifer said, standing back up. "And you don't have to worry about Severus, or Corey or myself or anyone else, because Severus will find out who caused it and fix it."
"Well as long as he's going to fix it, I guess it'll be all right," Ambrose reasoned, getting up and walking over with her to Corey and Severus. "I'm ready for my candy now," he announced, then paused. "Wait…are curses contagious?" he asked Jennifer. Jennifer immediately felt Severus and Corey's eyes on her and she cleared her throat.
"Not this kind, Ambrose," Jennifer said, knowing in just a single glance at Severus that she was going to hear about this later.
"Good, then I really am ready," Ambrose said.
"I'll uh…try to sort it out on the way back. Thanks, Mom," Corey said sarcastically. "Don't let her off the hook, Dad."
"Certainly not," Severus said. "See you this weekend." Jennifer watched Corey and Ambrose leave, refusing to look at Severus despite the fact his eyes were boring into her. "And just what did he say, might I ask, that compelled you to tell him about that?"
"Well…Severus, he asked if we were going to die…"
"A simple 'no' would have been sufficient…"
"A simple 'no' isn't always sufficient, Severus," Jennifer suddenly snapped. "It's not sufficient when dealing with a family crisis, and it's not sufficient when dealing with a young girl's future either," she said, then stomped out of the library. Severus stared after her for a long time and then caught Sirius' sleeve on his way past.
"Do they all do that?" Severus asked.
"Does all who do what?" Sirius asked.
"Every time I attempt to comment on something Jennifer does, no matter how much it deserves comment, I somehow end up becoming the criminal before the end of the conversation!"
"Well, you are a criminal, Severus," Sirius grinned. "But yep, they all do that," he added, picking up another stack of books and heading in. Frowning with annoyance, Severus followed behind him.
