Disclaimer: All Harry Potter people, places, things, and ideas (all Harry Potter nouns) belong to J. K. Rowlings. Mordecai and Elisabeth are mine.
Chapter 21: The beginning of truth.
"Woman, the next time you tell me to meet you at a certain time, you had better be on time yourself!" Severus vexed as he stood outside Minerva's door, waiting to escort her to the Yule Ball.
She emerged shortly wearing emerald-green dress robes that were more shapely than her usual attire. "I know that you've only been standing there for five minutes," she remarked with a half-smile. She had chosen to wear her hair down so that it cascaded off her shoulders in dark waves.
The sudden reminder of how beautiful she was had caught the Potions Master off guard. When he found his voice he offered her his arm. "You look… lovely. Shall we go then before we attract too much attention by arriving late?"
"We won't be late," she countered as she accepted his arm and they walked toward the Great Hall.
The hall had been festively decorated, with an elaborate display of snowflake-white garlands and ornaments, complete with an ice-like dance floor. Minerva and Severus entered a few minutes before the students. As they made their way to the faculty refreshment table, she gave him the 'I told you so' expression.
He snorted and grabbed a cup of spice cider. The dance began with the four contestants for the Triwizard Tournament dancing. "Another chance for Potter to show off I suppose," Severus said dryly.
Minerva frowned at him. "If you are only going to criticize Mr. Potter while you are here, than I can spend my evening chatting with Ro about that Quidditch book she keeps bringing to all the staff meetings."
Just as she had expected, he stepped in front of her as she began to walk away. "Now Minerva, I thought you told me to come because you expected me to dance. I really can't picture you dancing with Hooch."
She stood and watched the students for a while, finishing her cider. Then she noticed that every once in a while, one of the dancing couples would kiss, but it was never the same couple. She spied the culprit orbiting near a few Hufflepuffs: floating mistletoe.
"I do believe that our esteemed Headmaster has decided to add to the students' amusement," she remarked as Severus raised an eyebrow. He also noticed the plant when she pointed to it.
"If that blasted sprig wants to continue moving, it had better stay far away from me," he grumbled.
As the students danced to the lively music, Severus kept his eye on Moody and the heads of the other schools. The Headmistress of Beauxbatons was dancing with Hagrid while the Headmaster from Durmstrang was dragged onto the dance floor by Madame Hooch.
"I almost feel sorry for Karkaroff. Hooch is stepping all over his boots. That woman has absolutely no grace on the dance floor," Severus remarked.
The music changed and Minerva smiled. "Why don't you and I give them a good show?"
He sighed. "Oh alright, if we must."
People were staring at them from the moment their feet touched the dance floor. Their movements were as graceful and fluidic as figure skaters as they glided across the floor. Half of the students stopped dancing to ogle in wonder at the heads of their houses. Dumbledore had a smile and a particularly bright twinkle in his eye as he also watched the two.
When the music finally stopped they were in each other's arms and reluctant to move away. If only we could stay like this and everyone else would just disappear, he thought to himself. Then Minerva untangled herself from his embrace and straightened her robes, breaking the spell. "Thank you for a lovely dance," she said only loud enough for him to hear. "I think I shall have some more cider."
He felt cold after she had left and wandered over to a window to stare out at the night. A hand on his shoulder made him jump and he turned to see Dumbledore. "Is something wrong Albus?" he inquired.
The old man shook his head. "No, my boy, I merely wanted to compliment you on your fine dancing skills. When did you ever have time to learn all that?"
Severus smirked and turned to see that Minerva was not looking in his direction before he answered. "Don't tell Minerva, but when the ball was announced, Flourish and Blott's got a supply of fairly good dance manuals," he replied.
The Headmaster chuckled. "I won't tell her, but that does sound quite impressive. I shall have to look into that myself," he said, winking as he walked away.
The Potions Master returned his attention to the crowd, watching as Madame Hooch followed the mistletoe and kissed every male staff member. Someone must be a bit tipsy, he thought to himself. He was walking over to the refreshment table when the flying instructor accosted him.
"Ack! Woman, go away! I will not play such ridiculous games because of some poisonous sprig that seems to be following you!" he exclaimed as he attempted to push her away.
He tried to dash off, but she followed him, as did the mistletoe. "Oh no you don't, Severus. This year someone is going to catch you under the mistletoe," she informed him.
Turning for a moment, Severus managed to hex the floating mistletoe, causing all of the green leaves and berries to fry off. He finally spotted Minerva and ran over to her. She glanced up at him with surprise. "Woman, hide me! Hooch is bound and determined to kiss every male on the faculty!" he pleaded.
She snickered. "Of course, Severus, but you really shouldn't have hexed the mistletoe. Now you have a dead sprig following you."
He jumped behind her while she negotiated with the flying instructor. "Hello Ro. Looking for someone?"
Madame Hooch swayed a bit. "I'm looking for Severus. Do you know where he might be?"
Minerva pretended to think. "Oh, I remember. He said something about heading to the restroom."
"I'm going to get him. See you later, Min," Madame Hooch mentioned as she sauntered out of the Great Hall.
Severus stepped out from behind Minerva. "I owe you a game of chess for that. Thank you."
She smiled. "Ro can be a bit overwhelming at times."
"I think I'll slip out of here before she comes back. Will you join me for a game next week?" he asked.
Minerva nodded. "That sounds fine, goodnight Severus."
"Goodnight Minerva," he added before he left. As she turned her attention back to the dance floor, she thought of her son and wondered what the rest of the school year had in store for him.
As Elisabeth and Mordecai returned at the beginning of the second semester, she began to take more of an interest in the Quidditch teams, who were practicing even though there would be no games until the following school year. After the snow had melted, Mordecai found Elisabeth doing her homework, watching the teams train instead of sitting in the library or the common room.
"I can't see how you get any studying done out here," he told her as he sat down on the damp green grass next to her.
She turned to him and smiled wryly. "I'll have you know that I get plenty of studying done. I only pause to watch the more complex maneuvers."
"Does Roger Davies know that you have become so interested in the game? He is the captain after all," Mordecai pointed out.
She shook her head. "I was planning on doing it eventually, but I wanted to be better on a broom first."
"You haven't asked because you are worried he will say no," Mordecai assessed.
Elisabeth jumped to her feet, leaving her books on the grass. "I most certainly am not."
Mordecai raised an eyebrow and watched as she plodded over to the Ravenclaw captain and spoke with him. He saw heads shaking, nodding, and shaking again. Then Elisabeth was gesturing with her hands in a persuasive manner. At last the captain nodded and she walked back to Mordecai.
"He said that since a few students will be graduating that they would consider me for next year if I came to a few practices toward the end of the year and showed them what I could do," she exclaimed. He could see the excitement in her eyes.
"That sounds fantastic. I hope you make the team," he told her with a grin.
Their classes continued to go well, though both agreed that Moody was more than peculiar. "He knows the material and we've learned a great deal from him, but he seems to think that we need to have eyes in the back of our heads to see strange evils lurking about," Elisabeth remarked one day as they headed to their next class.
"He's been an auror for so long that he is probably just overly paranoid," Mordecai responded.
Severus had been taking note of Mordecai's performance in Potions and had decided to give the boy something more to do. As the class was piling out of the room, the Potions Master stopped him. "Sir, what is it?" Mordecai asked.
"What I say to you, I do not say lightly, nor is it to be repeated. You have shown exceptional skill in this class and it seems that what we are doing at the moment is too simple for you. Am I correct in that assumption?" the man questioned.
"Yes, sir, I seem to be done first most of the time," he replied.
The Potions Master handed him a scroll with a complicated potion for the transformation of a human into an animal of the person's choosing. "If this potion looks challenging enough for you, come in after class tomorrow and work on it."
He smiled, but remained calm in his reaction. "Thank you, sir, I will come."
"Dismissed," Severus ended. Mordecai left and the man returned to his desk.
That evening he met Minerva for a chess game in her quarters. They sat down with cups of raspberry tea before beginning the game. As were their habits, Severus chose black while Minerva chose white.
Severus began conversing as their pieces moved. "I assigned the boy a more advanced potion. He's usually the first student to finish his potion and with the talent that I know he has, I think it would be good for him to do something more challenging. What I should do during the class is have him supervise the others when he finishes his potion."
"I think that's a splendid idea. It will give you a chance to know him better as well," she remarked as she told a pawn to move.
"I don't know if he would want to know me better though. I frighten most of my students, remember?" he mentioned his rook took her pawn.
She analyzed the board and reworked her strategy. "He is not lime most of your students. He has known you from time to time since he was small. The word he calls you, 'sir,' is from his attempt at saying 'Potions Master' if you recall."
"I suppose I should give things a chance. Now onto Moody, have you noticed that he mimics a lizard every once in a while? I wonder where he acquired that," Severus added.
Minerva thought for a moment as told a bishop to take one of his pawns. "I hadn't noticed that, but now that you mention it, he has been doing some odd thing with his tongue when he speaks."
"I think we ought to keep a close eye on him. Something isn't right, but I cannot figure out what it is," the Potions Master stated.
"This whole business with Mr. Potter's name ending up in the cup and even the tournament itself seems a bit out of sorts. I am glad that neither Mordecai nor his little friend are old enough to be in this," the Transfiguration Mistress expressed.
The game ended with Minerva winning and she walked Severus to the door. "Goodnight Severus," she stated.
He hissed her on the cheek and she blushed. Though they continued to fight it, each realized that the electricity between them was mounting. He stepped out, but turned back before leaving. "Goodnight Minerva," he added. As he left, her thoughts returned to her son and how his studies were progressing.
Mordecai had done as Severus had suggested and had enjoyed the challenge of the complex potion. He began to supervise the rest of the class when he finished simpler potions, and he talked to Severus more when he worked on more difficult projects. They began to develop and understanding of each other, which led Mordecai to ask about careers in Potions. Severus decided that one day, when there was finally a permanent peace, then he would tell Mordecai the truth about his parentage.
Sitting on his bed in the afternoon in the middle of May, Mordecai had finally found enough solace to study for his quiz in Charms. Suddenly the door burst open and a familiar blonde flopped down on the end of his bed. He looked up and sighed. "Lisa, I'm trying to study for Charms."
"But I've got good news! Cyrus, Davies said I made the team! They want me as a chaser for next year! I told you I was good on a broom!" she told him enthusiastically.
He grinned. "That's excellent!"
She stopped him before he could return to studying. "I need your help though. I want to practice and I was wondering if you would spot me."
"Of course I will. Now, we should both be studying for Charms, but I recommend that we head to the common room. It wouldn't do for my roommates to find you here," he explained. She agreed and they finished their studying in the common room.
It was two days before the third task of the Triwizard Tournament was to commence and Mordecai watched as Elisabeth executed several complicated maneuvers. So far he had shouted to her so that she did not run into anything and had assisted her with her form while in flight. Then something neither of them could have expected happened.
As Elisabeth was flying near a tree, a wild hippogriff flew in front of her with such speed and force that her broom was thrown off course. She contacted with the tree and fell to the ground. Mordecai rushed over to her and checked for a pulse. Blood ran from a gash on her head and though he watched her blink, she was not moving anything else.
"Lisa, can you hear me?" he implored.
"Yes. Cyrus, everything hurts," she responded groggily.
He levitated her through the castle and to the infirmary. Madame Pomfrey nearly went white with shock at seeing the girl's injuries. "Goodness, what happened?" she asked.
"She ran into a tree," Mordecai told her. "Will she be alright? Can you help her?"
The medwitch heard the worry in his voice as she performed a diagnostic spell. "It will take a few days, and she'll probably miss the last part of the tournament, but she should be fine in a week. Her injuries are not as bad as they look."
"Thank you," he said to the woman. Then he turned his attention back to his friend. "I'll stay with you during the tournament, alright?" She nodded and he left for a while.
He sat with her during the tournament and they played Cribbage. Though Elisabeth felt much better by then, Poppy would not let her leave for a few more days. The tournament had already been going for a while when they heard a great commotion from the people watching.
"I'll see what is happening," Mordecai said as he stood and walked over to the window. "I can't see anything except people moving."
"I guess we'll find out later then," Elisabeth commented.
A few minutes later a form was levitated in and placed on a bed on the other side of the room. The Headmaster and Headmistress entered, followed by a man in deep anguish. "Someone's died," Mordecai whispered to Elisabeth.
They listened to the others talk for a while. "It was Cedric Diggory," she said quietly.
It had taken a while to suppress the commotion that came about as a result of the day's events. After finding out that Moody was actually Barty Crouch Jr. and having a staff meeting to discuss the ramifications of all that had occurred, Minerva wearily returned to her quarters and made herself a cup of tea. However, she did not drink it but stared into the fire, deep in thought.
A knock at the door puller her from her reverie and she quickly stood to answer it. "Come in, Severus. Was there something you needed?"
He waited until she had shut the door. "You looked so forlorn at the meeting. I just wanted to ask you if you were alright. It would not do for your demeanor to become scarier than mine."
She spoke while facing the fire. "Cedric Diggory's dead, You-Know-Who is back, and Moody was actually a deatheater, working for the other side. No Severus, I'm not alright. I feel so blasted foolish that I could not see what was really going on. Tell me, are we as teachers really so oblivious to things?" she wiped her eyes as she spoke.
He placed a hand on her shoulder. "You're not the only one who feels foolish. I should have known about Moody. I should have realized that something was wrong and done something instead of waiting to see what he did. Though what has happened is horrible, we will learn from it and have new ways of protecting the school. If we don't learn from things like this, than the deaths of people are in vain."
She sighed heavily and moved toward the window to look out at the school grounds. "I only hope that we've learned enough."
(My thanks to Isabelle (), Annette-Rose, fan-rei, Motet, excessivelyperky, and Leta McGotor for reviewing :D)