A/N: Many, many thanks goes to Snapeswidow for assisting me with this chapter. There is a very valuable lesson that will be learned in this chapter. :) As with the previous chapter, if something seems awkward or just plain doesn't make sense, I apologize as I missed it during the editing portion of this chapter. Once again, enjoy. :)
Out of the Frying Pan
When Severus awoke much later, it was to the sounds of birds chirping nearby. He groaned quietly and turned his head, slowly waking up. He grimaced when he saw the bright sunlight outside the window. It had to be nearly noon by how much sun was in Harrison's rooms in Ashmore Manor.
Soft giggles then caught his attention. He turned towards the giggling little boy who was nuzzled against him.
"Hi, Dada." Harrison's brilliant green eyes glistened in the sunlight.
"Brat," Severus simply replied, raising an eyebrow at the mischievous boy. There was only one reason the boy would be smiling that widely and giggling like that. "What did you do?"
"Potty," Harrison said, still grinning like the Cheshire cat.
Severus's eyes widened before he sat up suddenly. What did the boy mean by 'Potty?' His eyes darted about the room, looking for signs of said 'Potty'. Finding none, though, he looked down at Harrison. The boy wasn't squirming, so he didn't have to go. Which meant his fear was likely a sound one, and somewhere the boy had gone without supervision.
"Show me." He swung his legs off the side of the bed and held Harrison's hands to follow the boy. He felt a bit better when they headed towards the bathroom. That was until he saw the mess.
"See? I go potty!" Harrison squealed pointing towards the toilet.
"So I see," Severus replied, forcing himself not to wince at the toilet paper that had been spread all over the floor and the water sprayed every which way from when the boy had likely washed his hands afterwards. He leaned forward and flushed the toilet before he turned back to Harrison who was so proud of himself. "Good attempt, brat. How about we clean up this mess in here, hmm? Before Grandmum Eileen throws a fit." He was thankful to see that Harrison was still happy and obvious to the fact that it'd have been a better try in Severus's mind if the boy hadn't redecorated the bathroom after successfully going to the bathroom by himself for the first time.
Once everything was right again, Severus picked Harrison up, closing his eyes briefly when his little boy's arms wrapped around him lovingly. He wouldn't exchange this life for anything.
"Let's go get some breakfast, yeah?"
Harrison nodded with a wide grin before he rested his head against his father's shoulder. Together, the two headed to the door with Severus undoing his spell from last night. He couldn't recall how he had arrived back in Harrison's room after speaking with the Fates, but he didn't care either really. Honestly, he couldn't recall feeling as well rested as he did right then. It was as if a very large weight had been taken off his shoulders somehow, leaving him with just the sweet boy he loved.
"Oh-ho . . . look who's finally joining us. The Master of Darkness himself," Demetri drawled with a large grin on her face. "It is the Master of Darkness, right, or was it Master of Death? I always forget which it is." She stuck her tongue out at him when he glared at her.
"What are you doing here anyway?" he asked a moment later, tipping his head to his dad when Tobias grabbed Harrison from his arms. "Weren't you going back to the castle?" He had thought she had said that sometime recently. All his days were blurring together, though.
"Well, you know, I thought you might like to know that they caught the rogue Ministry officials after you this morning," she said with a nonchalant shrug. "But if you'd rather hide out here the rest of your days . . ."
"They caught them?"
Impossible. They had been stuck at the manor for almost a month now with no end in sight. Every single time any one of them had tried to leave, in fact, they had encountered one of the rogue Ministry fiends. He shook his head, though. They were free? His eyes then narrowed.
"How?" he asked, searching Demetri's face. How did she know this? He hadn't heard owls.
"Well, you see, there's this witch. You might know her. She's kind of in love with you. It's pathetic really," Demetri replied with another shrug, as she held his eyes with an amused look. "She doesn't take no for an answer, especially when it comes to you. So, knowing that you had these idiots after you and that the timeline was destabilizing, she did what any woman would do for the man she loves. She took matters into her own hands and, well, threw out the old rule book, calling on the Fates. Then when she returned, well, the way I heard it we should have all been there to hear her dressing down Dumbledore. It was epic."
He was even more confused now. Aurora had returned after the Fates' Judgment and scolded Dumbledore first thing after reappearing? She hadn't come to see him? Furthermore, what the hell did any of this have to do with the rogue Ministry officials being defeated?
"She managed to get him to agree that he owed you, etc, etc, so he and his merry band of misfits took the battle to the Ministry. Which they should have done weeks ago honestly. Let me tell you, though. The Minister of Magic is in some serious hot water now."
"The Minister?" She wasn't making any sense.
"Yeah. You see, the reason the Ministry was after you in the first place, I guess, is because someone filing away birth certificates noticed something in your file when they were adding Harrison's. I don't know. It didn't really make that much sense to me when I heard it from Minerva. But long story short, they noticed something in there and took it to their superior. Well, their superior must have known something about whatever they found because they took it to the Minister. Something about national security according to Dumbledore and how you were a threat. All because they realized that you are a descendant to the long-dead Ashmore family, which of course was revealed, like, weeks ago in the Prophet, but you know bureaucrats. They never do get their heads of their asses if even for a moment. It seems they decided to go after you to hide the truth about their kickbacks from the Ashmores. I mean, we already know the whole reason Diana went after you. Master of Death and all that nonsense. I don't know how, but Aurora was the one who figured this out, I guess."
There it was. Time itself had been stopped from unraveling at the seams and setting into motion a cataclysmic Armageddon his way thanks to the Fates. However, he couldn't stop himself from feeling slightly hurt that Aurora hadn't come back to the manor directly after the Fates had returned her.
"So, that brings me back to the question at hand . . ." Demetri declared loudly, pulling him back from his thoughts suddenly. "Are you coming back?"
"Back?" he repeated, staring at her.
"Yeah, to Hogwarts. You know, the pretty castle overlooking a lake. A castle full of idiot kids we have to make sure don't kill one another accidently every single day of our life. Remember?"
"Oh."
"Ah crap. You don't want to come back now, do you? I told her this was going to happen."
"What?" She told whom? Aurora? Had Demetri spoken with her?
"I mean, don't get me wrong. I get it. You want to stay close to your family, but, well, Hogwarts needs you, Severus."
He stared at Demetri for a few moments before he started chuckling.
"Hogwarts needs me? You sound so absurd, Demetri. The castle is better off without a grump like me, I assure you."
"No. I'm telling you. Minerva's said the castle has been very moody since we left."
"It's not a sentient being," he replied with a scoff. "What you're seeing is nothing more than discordant magic. That's it." Unless they were talking about the Cloud of Hogwarts, but he still wasn't quite certain he hadn't dreamt that part last night or not.
"Fine. Then explain this, smarty-pants. The staircases the other day decided not to let Filius on it. In fact, every time he tried, it moved. He almost died, Severus. So, if the castle isn't sentient, then . . . who caused the staircase to move it?"
"It was likely some student's spell."
"I'm sorry. Did you not hear me? Filius Flitwick, the Charms professor, Severus, this wasn't no idiot this happened to. When Minerva and the others inspected it, they didn't find any magical trace on it. So . . . how about that, Mr. Know-It-All? Explain that."
He stared at her for a minute before he replied, "Excuse me? Mr. Know-It-All?"
"Well, if the dragon-hide boots fit . . ."
Snickers could be heard all around them.
"Obviously," Severus started, rolling his eyes at Demetri's juvenile antics, "all of them missed something, which judging by that group of misfits, wouldn't be hard to do. The castle is infused with magic, yes, but not sentient. So, it had to have been a spell."
"Okay, but tell me, does a spell then decide later to set fire to Filius's rooms? I mean, I could be wrong, but I always got the impression that he, you know, liked Sprout? And seeing as how, she isn't wanting to murder him or anything while he sleeps, and, making an assumption here, he doesn't hold classes in his rooms or anything, how would a student know where he sleeps?"
"It's likely a bad luck charm or something."
"Did you miss the part when I said it was Filius, Severus?"
"No, but . . ."
"That does sound rather odd," Severus heard his mother remark behind him. "The castle would be a more likely answer actually."
"Oh please, not you too, Mother," exclaimed the young man. "Hogwarts is not sentient. It's a goddamn castle for Merlin's sake."
"I don't know, son," Tobias said with a shrug. "Someone killed that git after ya before we came here, and no one else was down there at the time. Maybe, ya know, it is."
"I'm surrounded by idiots," Severus mumbled, shaking his head. "Fine. For the sake of argument, say the castle is sentient, why would it attack Filius?"
"I don't know."
"Exactly. Filius Flitwick is a good wizard, a bit of a pushover in terms of a teacher, but a good man ultimately. So, there is zero reason for the castle, if it even was the castle, to go after him."
"Fine. But are you coming back at least?"
Return to Hogwarts? He turned to look at Harrison, who was staring back at him as he messily ate his cookie. If Severus returned, then he'd see his son less, having to teach brats who couldn't appreciate anything in their lives. But if he didn't return, then he'd have to figure out how to make a living so his son had food, clothes, a roof over his head. Sighing, he shrugged.
"I don't know, Demetri."
He had applied for a teaching position at Hogwarts at the request of the Dark Lord and secretly Dumbledore. While Dumbledore had denied his initial request for being the Defense against the Dark Arts teacher, he had allowed Severus to take Slughorn's old position and become Slytherin's Head of House too. The teaching he had done had been relaxing somewhat somewhat, if he had to be honest. Or maybe it was just knowing that he had a roof over his head and three meals a day with a bit of money to focus on his brewing hobby.
"Well, would it help you to know that I'm stepping down as Astronomy Mistress effective immediately and a certain curly-haired witch has already agreed to take her rightful place at Hogwarts?"
His head snapped to Demetri.
"What?"
"You heard me."
"Aurora's coming back?" He stared at Demetri, barely breathing.
"Oh, dear Merlin," his mother exclaimed behind him. "She's not the one for you, Severus. How many times do I have to say it? Demetri on the other hand . . ."
"El."
"What? Demetri has been here every single day, Severus, which is more than can be said about the other one who called upon the Fate's to fix something that wasn't broken to begin with."
Demetri laughed, rolling her eyes. "That's because Aurora's been a little busy after returning, Eileen. She's been on a mission for Albus. One that finally has ended thankfully."
"A mission for Albus?" Severus frowned. She had been gone for almost three weeks. "What mission? What was she doing for him?"
Demetri shrugged. "No idea. It's all hush-hush. But I'm sure if you bat your pretty little eyes at her at dinner tonight, Severus, . . ."
"Dinner?"
"Yeah, you know, the meal you have at night." She grinned. "I may have told her I was bringing a friend along. So, you might have to explain that one to her, but you know. C'est la vie."
"I, um . . ." The young wizard winced slightly and tugged on his collar. Was the room spinning or was it just him? And why the hell had it gotten so hot all of a sudden? Dinner tonight with Aurora? No. No that was a sure recipe for disaster.
"Oh, no you don't, Snape." Demetri grabbed his arm. "You are not wiggling your skinny ass out of this one this time. You have been telling me since we got over McGonagall's weird crapshoot of a trust exercise that you care for her, that she's the one. So, you are going."
"I can't." He'd ruin it. The odds of a date going well were, no, no he couldn't do this. He'd just watch from afar. Be a jealous git when she went out on dates with guys who didn't deserve her. Hex them later and make it known that she was his witch. But to talk to her, see her . . . after everything . . .
"Why the hell not? You care for her. She freaking loves you to death that it's almost obnoxious for the rest of us to hear! What's the problem here?" Demetri then pointed at Harrison. "That you have a kid? Oh, please! You know she'll love Harrison, consider him hers the moment you kiss the shit out of her, hear your dulcet proclamation of love to her. So, come on. Be brave, Severus. Be brave and go after the witch you care for!"
"Or don't," Eileen chimed in. "And wait for a witch who actually is there for you always. You know, like, Demetri here. Such a nice girl, isn't she, Severus?"
"By the Gods, Eileen, will you give it a rest already! Nothing is ever going to happen between Severus and me no matter how much we want it to—you—how much you want it to." Demetri stared straight ahead as the silence took over for a brief moment, looking as calm as could be.
Severus, however, caught her slip. How much they wanted to? He moved to step closer to Demetri, but stopped when he caught her glare directed at his movement.
"Ah-ha! I knew it!"
"El, no," Tobias warned, grabbing his wife's wrist. "Let's give the kids the room, yeah?"
"There's no need," Demetri replied, forcing her polite smile. "I was just leaving." She then met Severus's eyes again. "If you decide to stop brooding later and want to join us, we'll be at the Hog's Head around seven." She didn't wait for his reply before she left, walking out the nearest door.
"That girl loves you, Severus, and she's here right now," Eileen started the moment Demetri had left. "So, how about you stop with this never-ending Evans's routine you're stuck on and ask the pretty girl who has been by your side instead of—"
He turned to his mother and frowned deeply. "Because that isn't fair to Demetri, Mother. I don't like her like that, and she knows it. I consider her a friend. That's it. Now, maybe if you'd stop being a complete bitch and constantly throwing that in her face, she wouldn't have had to leave just now."
"Excuse me?"
He glanced to his father, though, who was brushing the cookie crumbs off Harrison.
"Now, if you'll excuse me, Mother, I'm going to go fix your mistake. Again."
"Happy fixing, son," Tobias called out, as Severus left.
Severus followed Demetri out of the manor. It didn't take long for him to catch up to her, as he met her just a little way down the road near the gates. He frowned when he saw all the reporters gathered on the other side of the gates now and threw up a privacy spell in front of both of them, so the reporters couldn't see them.
"Thanks," Demetri spared a glance at Severus before walking faster. "If you've come to tell me how much of an idiot I am, save it. I know."
"I wasn't going to say that at all," he replied quietly. "I was actually going to apologize for my mother. And ask if you'd like to join me in plotting her demise?"
Demetri stopped and turned to face him. "You shouldn't have to apologize for her, and either way I'd feel guilty depriving Harrison of a grandmother."
"He'd have a castle full of grandmothers. Let's be honest. Just like he'd have a really fun aunt from America."
"This is true." She sighed, running a hand through her curls. "But I'd still feel guilty for her paying the price for a fantasy of mine that she just happens to share."
"Fantasy?" He snorted. "You clearly do not know me, Demetri. Nothing about me screams that."
"I beg to differ. You have that whole tall, dark, and mysterious thing going for you that the writers of those trashy romance novels are always going on about. Not to mention I've spent how long watching you do everything in your power to get the woman you love?" She threw her hands up in the air. "Do you know how many women would kill to be in Aurora's place? To have someone that loves her that much?"
He winced, rubbing the back of his neck. "I don't love her, Demetri." At least he didn't think so.
"Bullshit!"
"How can I love a person I hardly know? I mean, all of this could be because of his stupid letter. That he says I marry her, and... I don't know her. Not really. I mean, I've met her mother a few times. But I don't know her. I just—I have my idea of her. My fantasy of her."
"And what is this fantasy?"
He kicked the dirt, sticking his hands into his pockets. "It's stupid, Demetri."
"Not as stupid as mine"
He glanced at her and snorted, noticing that they were now headed towards the lifeless gardens.
"We're laughing about something. I don't know what. I can never figure it out. But we're laughing, genuinely happy. I'm brewing something at the time. She's watching me work, telling me that she's almost jealous of a cauldron of all things. And then I hear Harrison in the background and she..." He inhaled sharply. "She's telling him how proud we are of him for his making the Quidditch team. And how she needs his help to get me away from the cauldron. That we'll go out to dinner to celebrate. As a family." He sighed. "And as we leave, she kisses my cheek and reaches for my hand. I... I don't know how to describe it. Warmth. Goodness. A deep feeling of it being right. Happiness even. That no matter what darkness we face, as long as we face it together, we'll be all right."
"Sounds like love to me, Severus.
"No. It's the idea of love that I'm in love with. I don't know her, Demetri. I mean, I act like a complete idiot around her."
"And you can't help but watch her, even if it's something as simple as walking into a room. You associate a certain smell with her and when you find a piece of information or hear a joke you'd think she'd like, you commit it to memory so you can tell her the next time you see her."
He kicked the dirt again, his voice lowering. "I haven't seen her since she cast that spell, asked for the Fates to intervene." He sighed again.
"Well, she's back now. So you have a chance to sit down with her and tell her how you feel without her having to run off and fix the world this time. And I mean tell her, Severus."
He shook his head. "Regardless, we were talking about you anyway."
"I know." Demetri shrugged. "I thought I'd try your favorite tactic, deflection."
"What does that mean?"
"You have the uncanny ability to side step or deflect a question or situation you don't want to deal with. I figured if I flipped this conversation onto you, we wouldn't have to talk about me."
"Well, we talked. Now it's your turn."
"What do you want me to say? That I'm an idiot who fell in love with someone who was in love with another woman? That a part of me secretly hoped Aurora wouldn't come back and you and I could become more than friends?"
"You're not an idiot."
"I have a portrait in my rooms that will tell you otherwise."
"If you listen to portraits of dead ancestors, then clearly I'm mistaken."
Demetri crossed her arms over her chest. "And you think you know me better than my own family?"
"I do, because I'm a Legilimens." He smirked.
"Smart ass." She narrowed her eyes then. "Wait. Have you been inside my head?"
He paused for a minute before shaking his head. "No. I respect you enough not to invade your mind. Not to mention, I can imagine what sorts of things are going through your wicked mind."
"Oh no. You're not getting off that easily. You said you know me better than I know myself. You have peeked haven't you, you pervert?"
"Hardly. I've seen enough bodice ripper fantasizes from enough women over the years."
"Ha. You are a pervert. Did you learn a few tips and tricks? Care to share a few."
"You should have been an Auror. Deflections appear to be your specialty."
"What can I say, I have a great teacher."
"Deflections."
"You really want me to say it, don't you?"
"I would have thought you trusted me enough by now seeing as how I thought we were friends."
"Going for the old pureblood guilt tactic now?" She sighed and again ran a hand through her hair, tugging at the ends. "At first, I thought it was just jealousy. You have a family that honestly cares for each other, no matter how much you fight with each other. My father was always leery of me, being the first female born to the family since Morgana. He believed I was doomed to repeat her history. He was very adamant about me taking the job at Hogwarts. It was almost to the point that I swear he was just trying to get rid of me. That jealousy then became something else though the more I spent time with you. I thought it was just the idea of having someone like you love me and fight for me the way you do Aurora that I loved, but when she disappeared and that little voice in my head began to hope she didn't come back, I knew I was screwed. No, actually, it was when I found the potions lab in the manor and caught the scent of Harrison's shampoo mixed in with some other herbs—sandalwood too maybe—that I realized it was a bottle of Amortentia that I really knew. I've never been able to smell anything specific with that potion other than faint traces of the ingredients that go into it and thought it was a fluke, so I brewed it again—twice at over the past few weeks—and both times I smelled well, you." She shrugged and stopped talking, as she looked out over the gardens avoiding looking at him.
He listened to her as she spoke, resisting the urge to interrupt her several times. She had smelled him? Since when had his life become so damn complicated? Two witches now had fallen for him. Him, the greasy git of the dungeons who made children cry for the hell of it because he could. He couldn't understand it. He really couldn't. Had everyone been dosed with some new love potion around him? It was the only logical explanation. When she finished, he sighed silently. "It's the dark wizard thing, isn't it? That all of you find so damn attractive in me? Because I assure you, I am hardly one who ties women up or has his way with them. It's quite the opposite really."
"You forget I've seen under that 'dark wizard' mask you put on for the world, Severus. Whose rooms did you come to with worry over Sin? Mine. I've also witnessed the way a certain little boy has you wrapped around his finger. That is what attracts me to you." She smirked then, "And I wouldn't mind being tied to a bed, though. It's be a first and could be fun."
"I'm not a kind person, though. Not truly. I have . . . numerous flaws. You're only seeing what you want to see, Demetri."
"Everyone has flaws. It's what makes us human."
He scoffed. "I'm not talking about I leave the toilet seat up, Demetri." He shook his head. "You wouldn't understand."
"I know about your past and what that tattoo you have means. I know what comes with it as well. We all have regrets and demons we must live with, but you got a second chance. You got a do over."
"It's not that. It's not my joining the Death Eaters that I'm referring to. It's—there's a darkness in me, Demetri. A darkness that I hide deep under the furthest depths of my mind. It bubbles under the surface in times of anger, held back by a tether some days. Aurora's seen it before when . . ."
"Is that what's holding you back from admitting your feelings to her?"
He shrugged. "Maybe. I don't know. I lost my temper with her that day. We were—I ended up hurting her. You remember it. You were there. I hadn't meant to, but I did. She stayed away after it for a bit. I had thought she knew something, but she—I was wrong. And—I hurt her, Demetri. I could have killed her, you know?"
"She doesn't see you as the kind of monster you think she does."
"You haven't seen the monster that's underneath, so it's easy for you to say that. I don't see what any of you see." He closed his eyes. "I become possessive, jealous, to the point of madness. That's how it was before at least. And even now, I can feel it underneath my skin. Not knowing." He stopped and turned away. "I should go."
Demetri grabbed his arm to keep him from leaving. "Don't leave."
He glanced down at her hand on his arm before he glanced back up at her. "You both deserve better. A man who isn't so broken, so lost, so...me."
"And what do you deserve? To be alone? To live a life of what ifs? You push people away under the guise of keeping them from getting hurt when in the end your hurting yourself."
"At least I can't hurt anyone else then. I can handle it. That's why I'm the goddamn Master of Death after all."
"You act like that's synonymous to being Darth Vader."
He blinked and stared at her for half a moment. She knew Star Wars?
Demetri raised an eyebrow. "You do dress like him, though."
"What's wrong with black?"
"Nothing. It adds to that, what did you call it, the dark wizard thing that has us witches wanting to be tied to a bed."
He scoffed, shaking his head. "You're mad."
"We're all a little mad. Life would be boring otherwise.
He opened his mouth to speak before he shook his head instead.
Demetri grinned. "I've rendered him speechless, ladies and gentlemen."
"I stand by my words. You're mad. Certifiably so." He headed back towards the manor.
"But you love me anyway," she replied before catching up to him. "Come have a drink with me. I think we both could use one after that conversation."
A drink would perhaps calm his nerves. He sighed heavily.
"So, is that a yes?"
"To a drink?"
"No to tying me to a bed." She rolled her eyes. "Yes to a drink."
"I suppose."
Demetri shook her head but linked her arm in his. "I'm buying the first round," she replied before Disapparating them both to the Hog's Head in Hogsmeade.
"First round?" He raised a brow at her as soon as they appeared in the dusty deserted pub. "What makes you think I'm going to drink more than one?" He glanced around out of habit, relaxing when he saw that it was the usual crowd. No Aurors thankfully.
"You'd let me drink alone?" she asked, smirking.
"Yes. Because I'm a bastard, remember?"
"I was joking, Severus." She sighed as she walked over to the bar and ordered them both a drink.
"As was I," he mumbled under his breath as he went to find them a quiet place away from the others that had gathered, few that there were.
Demetri brought the drinks over to the table, placing his in front of him before taking a seat.
He held up the glass, swirling the liquid for a moment.
"Cheers," Demetri said as she threw back the first of her two shots of Firewhiskey.
He inclined his head, tossing back his shot. As the liquid ran down his throat, he grimaced, feeling the familiar burn. Drinking his fears away would only lead to disaster he knew. It always had. The night he had taken the Mark he'd enjoyed too much in the festivities, the supposed joyous occasion, to understand what was happening around him. The deaths and the blood that had been split. All he could recall about that night was being dropped back off at Hogwarts, sicking up as he recalled the bloody mess of his sacrifice to the Dark Lord.
His second time drinking was even worse. He had sent a drunken tear-filled letter to Evans. It seemed either she didn't receive it or didn't even attempt to read it, though. But he knew he had written it. How he had begged for her forgiveness. Her love.
Would he make the same mistakes again with Aurora, he wondered? He had married her supposedly, so maybe she didn't mind his . . . darkness, his possessiveness, his inner demons.
He looked across the table at Demetri. His first friend since Lily and Aurora. Though, Aurora was different, one who didn't take no for an answer—who didn't make him work so hard at being her friend. In fact, it was more like she had forced him into their friendship when they were younger, like a parasite with its host.
He chuckled quietly. What a way to compare his future wife to a parasite of all things. He was doomed. She'd kill him before dawn.
Demetri raised an eyebrow at his chuckling but didn't comment as she drank her second shot.
"You realize you don't need alcohol to escape this, right? That we're still friends? And nothing has changed?" He gave her a soft smirk when she turned towards him. "Even if you do believe that I'm a sex god in bed."
She nearly choked on the shot at his words. "I am not trying to escape anything but your mother's incessant nagging at the moment. And I don't stomp on your fantasy, so leave mine be."
"So, do what I do. Think of her as Charlie Brown's teacher. It's quite amusing sometimes. Wha wa wha wa," he mimicked.
Demetri laughed. "I may have to try that someday, but if I get hexed for laughing, I'm hexing you in return."
"There's always the option of making a game out of it then. I'd say a drinking game, but you'd likely die of alcohol poisoning or England would surely run out of alcohol otherwise."
"England would definitely run out of alcohol before I ever got alcohol poisoning."
He snorted before he glanced up at a nearby clock. 6:55. The drink hadn't calmed his nerves at all judging by the fresh wave of panic that followed. He drew in a breath and closed his eyes briefly. This would go badly. It was for certain really.
She placed a hand over his and squeezed. "Stop worrying."
He glanced down at her hand before he yanked his hand back when the door to the pub opened. He turned around to look at who had walked in, only to sigh when it was some scruffy wizard.
"I'll be back," he said quietly. "Try not to drink everything in sight, will you?" He glanced back up at the clock, frowning when he saw that it was now past seven. Aurora was late.
"Take too long and I just might," she quipped before she ordered another round of drinks.
He held his finger up and headed to the lavatory.
"Is that a promise?" Demetri called out to his retreating back.
He ignored her, though, slipping inside.
"Is what a promise?" an amused voice spoke suddenly near Demetri. "Oh, Dem. Starting without me already?"
"You're late," Demetri replied, "and I wasn't going to let it just sit there." She glanced at her long-time friend, narrowing her eyes on her at how dirty Aurora looked right then. Had the woman done battle with a dragon? Or had she been a victim of a sneezing troll?
"Blame Albus. He needed to know every little detail. Git didn't even let me freshen up. As you can see." She waved a hand down herself with a sigh. "I'm covered in all sorts of muck that I really don't even want to consider what it is. And the freshening charms aren't really helping. I'll be right back. You'll be all right if I left you alone, right? You won't get into any barfights, needing me to bail you out again?" Aurora teased before she squeezed Demetri's shoulder.
"I didn't start that fight, and you know it."
"Yeah, sure you didn't, Dem. I'll be right back, and then you can tell me all about this mysterious friend of yours."
"I will be fine here, now go before you draw flies."
"If anyone's drawing flies, it's you," Aurora called over her shoulder before she slipped inside the bathroom opposite of the one Severus had entered.
A few moments later, Severus returned, snorting when he saw another set of drinks on the table. "Your second . . . or do you just have the bottle stashed somewhere now?"
"I have half a bar stashed upon my person in case of an emergency if you must know."
He chuckled and inhaled, pausing and narrowing his eyes as he caught a faint smell. "Why does it smell like you wrestled a troll, Demetri?"
She raised an eyebrow. "That smell is not me, you ass. It was Sin. Something about cleaning up a mess and not having time to change. She went into the ladies' room after you left."
He made a faint noise before he sat down, placing a hand on the table. "Oh."
Demetri sighed again before sliding a shot across the table. "You're acting like you about to be executed."
"I might be. It's at least a more humane way," he mumbled.
"I'll make you a deal. For every melancholy comment you make, for every 'woe is me' remark, you drink a shot of my choice. If you can rein in the pity party enough to get through this meal, I'll do something of your choosing."
He frowned. "Fine."
She grinned and slid two shots across the table. "One for you last comment and another to turn that frown upside down."
Groaning, he grabbed the drink and tossed it back. He would have to be more careful, lest end up drunk in the gutter. He grabbed the other one and downed that as well. "Happy?"
"Ecstatic." She laughed as she took a drink herself. Getting him drunk again would make dinner very interesting, but more importantly it'd help him when Aurora finally did join them.
He drummed his fingers on the table a moment later. He normally could keep his emotions in check, but... It had to be the Firewhiskey. "How—how did she seem?"
"Good. She seemed like her old self. With the exception of her smelling like a full cauldron left out to rot."
"Lovely." He forced a grin, wondering if he should leave already.
Demetri narrowed her eyes as she picked up a shot. "Since I can't tell if that's a real smile or a grimace, I'll let it slide." She drank the shot herself.
He chuckled.
Demetri rolled her eyes at him before glancing at the clock on the wall, wondering what was taking Aurora so damned long in the ladies' room. Bored with just drinking, Demetri went to the bar and came back with an empty glass and one filled with Absinthe from the bar. "Okay, Master Vader, let's see if you can use the force and your vast knowledge of Potions to see if you can name at least five of the herbs used in this wonderful concoction."
"Master Vader?" He shook his head before he grabbed the shot and smelled it. "Peppermint."
"That's one. Five points to Slytherin."
He swirled the liquid some more. It was strong whatever it was. He then glanced at the bar. She hadn't said how he had to identify after all. He stood up and walked over to the bar. The bottle was still up on the bar as Aberforth had gone into the back for something. He should have known. Grinning, he turned around, reading aloud from the bottle, "Green anise, Florence fennel, hyssop, Melissa, star anise, angelica, coriander, and veronica."
"You smart ass." She laughed before grinning back and taking a flask from the pockets of her robes and filling the other empty glass with her own brewed Absinthe. Hers still had the thujone in it that was toxic to Muggles in large doses and removed from commercially sold Absinthe, but seeing as how it was basically straight wormwood that was found in most potions, it wasn't toxic to magical folks. It did, however, make the drink twice as potent as the stuff in the bottle Severus just read the label of. "Now see if you can guess what changes I made to mine. And this time you have to drink it." He'd had it before she knew, but it was just so much fun seeing his reaction to it that she couldn't help it.
He snorted. "As you wish." He took a drink and half-gagged and half-coughed. Damn, it burned more than it had last time she had offered him a drink!
She laughed again, pouring a shot from her flask into her glass and downing it without so much of a reaction. "Well?"
"I'll stick to my elf-wine thank you. It doesn't feel like I'm dying from a lethal snake bite."
Demetri laughed. He hadn't answered, but she'd let it slide for now. "You'd think growing up in a family-run Apothecary business, I'd find better uses for wormwood. Wouldn't you?" She took another sip from her glass and shrugged. "My father was furious when he got an owl from my Potions professor about my extracurricular brewing activities."
"A waste of it in my opinion, but to each their own, I suppose," he stated with a shrug. "Especially if someone's wanting to die a slow and painful death... or beg for one." He smirked at her before he glanced towards the closed door to the ladies' room. He groaned quietly as he did this, though, feeling a bit out of sorts. Then again, he rarely drank as much as he was now.
"I never beg, Severus." She arched an eyebrow at his groan and followed his gaze.
"I'll keep that in mind," he replied, turning back to her. He laid his hand down flat atop of the table to keep the room from spinning.
"Will you now?" She smirked.
He stared at her for a moment before he snorted. "Do you truly want to go down this path, Demetri? Because perhaps you forgot who I am, what I am." He leaned towards her, smirking slightly. "I know how to bewitch the mind, ensnare the senses, penetrate the deepest depths . . ." He grabbed her last shot. "Or not." He tossed it back, closing his eyes and shaking his head at it. A part of him wondered what the hell he was doing exactly, but another part knew he needed just a bit more liquid courage.
With a flick of her wand, she summoned the bottle of whiskey from behind the bar and refilled the glass still in his hand before taking it and downing the shot. She leaned across the table to whisper in his ear. "I will travel down any path you lay before me. I know who and what you are, and it doesn't scare me, just adds to what attracts me to you."
At the sound of a door opening in the distance, he loudly announced, meeting Demetri's eyes, "Aurora! How wonderful it is for you to join us. Demetri here was just telling me how she'd travel any path I lay before her and how it just attracts her more to me." He couldn't be certain if it was Aurora or not who had walked out, but he really didn't care at this point. He was not going to back down from this fight with her. Not now.
She raised an eyebrow and met his gaze in challenge. "Our dear friend here needs to learn that he shouldn't challenge a Le Fay. We don't back down," she replied just as loud with a smirk of her own.
"Go down or back down? Because I assure you that I could make you do both, Le Fay."
"Is that a promise?" She flicked her gaze to his lap before returning to his face.
A soft laugh then filtered above them. "Well, glad to see that you two are getting along so perfectly." The last word was almost spat out. "If you'll excuse me, I'm going to go get a bottle of something that's not goblin piss."
Demetri poured herself and Severus another shot, knowing that he needed it, and watched her friend walk over to the bar. She'd have to explain to the witch that she was only flirting with Severus to get a rise out of him. She knew he'd never act on his words, not with her anyway, no matter how much she meant her own words.
Severus didn't touch the shot right away. Instead, he watched Aurora's retreating figure head to the bar and ask Aberforth for something. He closed his eyes, just barely resisting the urge to hit his forehead. He was only joking with Demetri. He hadn't mean for Aurora to walk in on that. He shook his head a moment later and threw back his shot, swallowing the bitter liquid that numbed him even more.
Aurora returned a moment later with a bottle of a clear liquid. She had torn off the label, so they couldn't see what it was. She raised the slender blue bottle to them.
"To my best friend and the bastard of the dungeons," she saluted them both before taking a swig. "Go on. Don't let me stop you after all."
Demetri drank her shot before glancing at the bottle Aurora had brought to the table. "What in the world are you drinking?"
"Sunshine, Demetri. Sunshine."
"What in the Nine Hells is sunshine?" She looked at Severus with a questioning look. Was it some new drink or something? "Wait. Do you mean Moonshine?"
Aurora rolled her eyes. "If it was moonshine, I'd have replied that it was moonshine, my dearest friend. But seeing as how I didn't, it's not." She then glanced at Severus who was staring at her. "Oh, don't look at me like that. I can smell the Absinthe on both of your breaths." She turned back to her. "Three weeks I'm gone, and you're already corrupting him with your wormwood nightmare, I see."
"I'm not corrupting anyone. It was an experiment purely to test his ability as a potions master to identify what was in it, which he cheated at, the ass." She poured herself a shot of the green drink. "I don't remember you complaining about me corrupting you with it when we were in university."
"University was a long time ago," Aurora replied flatly, her eyes staring out a nearby window. "So, with the Aurors out of the way, you'll be back at the castle with Harrison in no time. Teaching again, making Hufflepuffs cry. You know, the usual." She smiled softly, turning to Severus. "That is, if Dem doesn't end up getting you so drunk you end up in Minerva's bed . . . or worse." She laughed softly, the smile not quite reaching her eyes again.
"I am not that bad of an influence, Aurora"
"I believe I know a professor who would disagree, seeing as how you spiked his coffee once."
"Because you dared me to!"
Aurora snorted before she turned to Severus. "Yeah, because that really sounds like me, doesn't it?" She smiled at him. "Are you all right? You look—I don't know what, but that." Something then seemed to cross her mind before she nodded slowly. "Yeah. I guess I deserve the cold shoulder for leaving you like that, but I had to do something."
"Why?" he asked softly.
"What do you mean, why? You know why. And you'd have done the same if you had to be in the snake pit as long as I was. But that's over with now. Over and done. So, anyways," Aurora announced, clapping her hands together, "tell me about you two. What have you been up to lately? Other than flirting with one another, I mean?"
"Is that what crawled up your ass, Sin?" Demetri sighed before taking another drink. "It was harmless flirting. Severus would never act on my challenges and innuendos."
"Up my arse?" Aurora snorted derisively. "You're both adults. What do I care what you two do together? I mean, hell, Severus and I aren't even together. Nor will we ever. He's too interested in his potions, and I'm too—what was that you called me my sixth year—right before Holidays, remember?" she asked him before laughing again.
He stared at her, trying to recall the encounter she was referring to. But he couldn't. All he could remember was seeing Evans slip out of the girl's lavatory, bleeding. Her words then echoed in his head. Nor will we ever. The doubt was slipping back in again. She had been the one to leave, not him!
"Oh, that's right. I'm too much of a hopeless, idiotic romantic with foolish fantasies that even the worst romance novel wouldn't even touch," Aurora stated coldly. "Not to mention, a lady is supposed to be of grace and beauty, and I'm neither." She smiled thinly. "He thought he was Prince Charming, obviously," she joked.
"Who's Prince charming? Not Severus here. He more like Darth Vader then Prince Charming."
Aurora blinked. "What? Who's that?"
"This evil dude from a Muggle movie that goes around in head to toe black and thinks he's the biggest bad ass in the Universe "
"Oh. I suppose." She placed the half-empty bottle back down on the table. "Sounds like him at least."
"See. Even she thinks your Darth Vader, and she hasn't even seen the movie." Demetri laughed before taking another drink.
"Vader had two children, though. I only have the one, though," Severus pointed out.
Aurora laughed. "Well, the way I hear it, Harrison was a bit of a surprise to you. A gift of course, but you could have another out there."
Demetri raised an eyebrow. "Damn, Severus. And here I thought you wouldn't know what to do with it if it was handed to you."
He glanced at both of them, not certain how to react to their words. Their words were lighthearted. At least their tone was. And he didn't feel any anger directed at him, any contempt. Just them joking with one another. He blindly reached for his shot then, grabbing Demetri's instead.
Demetri went to grab her shot back but kept her mouth shut and poured herself another of her Absinthe. He'd learn soon enough.
The minute he tasted the Absinthe, he coughed again but forced himself to swallow. That was not—not Firewhiskey. He shuddered, grabbing his shot of Firewhiskey to wash it down. He then chuckled as a thought occurred to him, albeit a really poor judgement thought brought on by drinking.
"Serves you right for stealing a woman's drink," Demetri bristled.
He brushed her off, though. "Did Demetri tell you about our first meeting? How I stared into her eyes, thanks to Minerva and her idiotic thinking," he asked, watching Aurora's face. She'd respond, show her love for him again. He knew she would.
Demetri narrowed her eyes wondering what he found funny as she downed her own shot. "I believe I did tell her."
"She did. Why?" Aurora's eyes briefly darted to Demetri. "Did you see something? Maybe the time Dem decided to do a brilliant rendition of the Twisted Sisters."
"Oh?" He turned to Demetri, all thoughts of trying to rile Aurora up gone again.
"Shut up, Sin."
"Oh, come now, Dem. Severus wants to know."
"Like I said earlier, I don't back down from a challenge, and my dear friend here bet me she'd get a better grade than me on a paper. The wager was to sing a song of the winner's choosing in front of the school. I went the extra mile and did it in nothing but a strategically placed Twisted Sisters poster."
"She got an Exceeds Expectations. But then again the professor was a bit of a creep."
"It was the only E I got in that man's class."
"Not the only E he got, though, was it?" Aurora joked, snorting into her bottle.
Demetri laughed almost choking on her drink. "Oh my God, Sin. That's horrible."
Severus looked at the laughing witches, ignoring the fact that he was now seeing two copies of them. They seemed to have gotten over the initial jealousy that had come between them. Old friends. Sisters perhaps even, he could see, in their carefree attitudes. He opened his mouth to tell Aurora that he had missed her, that he was glad she was home, back. But his mouth closed instead. How would he have liked it if he had sat there when Evans had told James that all those years ago? He wouldn't hurt Demetri like that.
"Demetri said you'd be returning to Hogwarts now that time is right again and that your mission for Albus is over?"
"Yeah. If Minerva still wants me. But," she shrugged, "I'm not going to be fully back. I've asked if Dem could still teach a few classes. Maybe a few together," Aurora said, smiling softly at Dem. "Being around all those Aurors all the time, and the Fates, ugh . . . it's going to take me a bit to get back into the swing of things."
"If we are going to share classes, we should stop telling stories of our exploits. We wouldn't want to corrupt the children." Demetri glanced at Severus.
Aurora snorted. "We're already beyond saving, Dem." She then shook her head. "I should get back. Before my other mother starts thinking I got lost."
"Your other mother?"
"Minerva. Jeez, Dem. Keep up, will you?" Aurora laughed. "Or has Minerva forgotten about me this year considering I've been gone?" She then stood up, almost falling back down. "Maybe on second thought, I'll just sit here for awhile longer."
"No she hasn't forgotten you." Demetri snorted as Aurora sat back down. "Yeah. I can see Minerva agreeing to allow us to co teach the second she she's us trying to get back up that hill, into the castle and to the tower without killing ourselves.
"Oh, please." Aurora waved her hand drunkenly. "Minerva is so in love with my dad that it's not even funny. Or rather he's in love with her. Did you know after Mother's..." Her voice then trailed off for a moment before she inhaled sharply and continued. "Minerva sent him a bottle of, like, this really expensive wine. Dad wasn't really thrilled that I drank it, but . . . what else was I to do? Cry about it? No. Better off this way." She grabbed Severus's hand and Demetri's. "Being with my two friends. Even if they are snogging one another behind my back," she teased.
"We are not snogging each other, Sin. We were flirting, but Mr. Master of Death here would never act on any of it."
"Master of Death?" She glanced at him. "Oh, you have the Hallows. Huh. That's new."
Severus sat there staring at her for a moment, processing everything she had said a bit ago. He then frowned, glancing at her hand. Something was wrong. However, he decided he'd ask about it later when he was a bit more sober. Right now, all he could think about was how cold her hand felt right then, and how he wanted to pull her into his arms and hold her.
"And why wouldn't he, you know? On second thought," Aurora suddenly said. "I mean, nothing's stopping you from being with Demetri. She's a wonderful witch. A bit of a jagged edge sometimes, but who isn't these days. Honestly, it doesn't bother me. Really. Nothing does. Probably the stuff. But you know, I learned this wicked thing when I was with Kingsley. Like this strong arse drink that will knock you flat on your arse. Thought of you when he told me about it, Dem. I'll go get it."
"You can't even stand, and you want to go get a stronger bottle of alcohol?"
Aurora waved Demetri off, though, and happily stumbled over to the bar.
"And she says I'm the one who can't hold my liquor," she said to Severus as she watched her friend comically make her way to the bar.
He snorted. "Yeah." He then leaned in towards her before he decided against it. He couldn't put his finger on it. Not quite yet. "We should probably get a room, yeah?"
"Planning on showing me that whole bewitching the mind and ensnaring my senses?" Demetri joked, wiggling her eyebrows at him.
He jerked before his head whipped to her. "What? No. So you two don't kill yourselves."
"Like I said, wouldn't know what to do with it." She laughed. "We don't need to get a room here. I have a flat I rented behind the apothecary when I moved across an ocean to work at the castle."
He nodded. "All right. After this drink, we'll head there." He then leaned in towards her. "All of us, so you don't get any ideas."
Demetri leaned across the table again, close enough that she could feel his breath on her face. "I always have ideas Severus."
"I don't doubt it, wicked woman." He then pulled back just before Aurora turned back around, stumbling back. His eyes narrowed at the three shot glasses. "What is it?"
"Oh, just drink it, you old stick in the mud." Aurora patted his arm. "It'll warm that little black heart of yours. Promise." She then held up her glass and waited for them. "One."
"Two," Severus murmured, glancing at Demetri. They would likely drink on three.
Demetri bit back her retort and the fierce urge to say fuck it all and kiss the damned man when he pulled away. She held up her glass keeping her eyes on the insufferable man as she said three before downing the drink.