Chapter Three
Friends
Lenore wiped her wet eyes with the back of her hand; glad for once the tears had not been caused by old memories. She had just climbed into the attic and had a series of sneezes causing her eyes to moisten. Remus entered soon after her, sneezing a few times as well. They both looked around the small attic with a grim expression. The attic, though no larger than a twelve-by-twelve room was filled nearly to the breaking point with various items. Dumbledore had suggested the two tackle that room of the house while he disappeared for one of his mysterious daylong trips.
School had ended only two weeks ago and now it was nearing June twentieth and she was almost done packing up the house. The attic was the last thing to tackle and it looked like it would be a day long project…maybe longer. Unless everything up here was junk. Lenore hopped over a rather large piece of wood that looked like a rain stick in order to get into a large empty space. "It's strange how much dust can get up here in such a short time," she said shifting a box to the side.
Remus seemed to be fighting another sneeze as he lifted a tarp and let a puffball of dust into the air. "What—what do you mean? Achoo!" he sneezed soon afterwards.
"Bless you. And what I meant was, my mother used to come up here every once in a while…always came down with puffy red eyes from crying. I always wondered what she did up here…meant to ask her the next time she did it…" she trailed off, a frown on her face. She hadn't cried all day, figuring that she cried enough and it was time to get on with her life. She thought that it was heartless for a few hours but then realized it was what her mother would have wanted.
"I'm sorry, Leo." He said examining a bunch of paintings.
"It's all right, Remus. I'm past crying. I have to get on with my life." She said tracing a frame that held her mother's picture in it. "We could sell these and get more tuition money." She said suddenly.
"The paintings? Are you sure?" he said surprised at her thought.
"Yes. I'll keep this one though; it'll remind me of her but the others I don't care about. She always bad mouthed them until one day I brought them up here so she couldn't complain." Lenore chuckled fingering a portrait of mother out by the fountain. She glanced at the others, which were paintings of her days at Hogwarts. "She always got a misty look when staring at these. Said someone special had taken the picture of these events and painted this for her."
Lenore shrugged and waved her hand at the portraits she was planning on getting rid of. They shrunk and she dropped them into an empty box she had brought up. She frowned staring at the back of one of them, the only one that didn't shrink. The two glanced at each other and then she reached out. "This isn't one I put up here." She said, knowing it by just looking at the back of the frame.
"Careful." Cautioned the werewolf.
She turned it around and froze, merely staring at it. The frame was unique because it was silver, gold, and green intertwined on vines. Two of the vines (that she realized were snakes) made an elegant heart at the head of the frame with a ruby stone in the center. She traced the words etched on the outside: S Love Everlasting S. But it was the picture that caused her to freeze. The painting was masterfully done, the colors mixed in the background creating a church with not many people around it but it brought out the main focus of the picture. A man and a young woman were staring happily into each other's eyes, as if deep in love. She recognized the woman immediately along with the well-loved cream-colored dress: her mother. Lenore's eyes snapped to the man and she knew that face, that hair…Severus Snape.
"Bastard." She muttered tossing the frame away from her.
Remus dodged it and looked at her startled. "Lenore, maybe your father would like—"
"Don't call him that. He hasn't been a father to me for the last sixteen years he's not going to be one now." She said moving onto a box.
He sighed. "All right, Severus would probably like the painting, just to know your mother—"
"Do whatever you want with it. Burn it for all I care." Lenore snapped angrily.
She heard him sigh and try to shrink it. "Hm…I wonder why it won't shrink." She heard him mutter. "I'll carry this downstairs, all right? Will you be—"
"I'll be fine, Remus. Lord, it's not as if I'm going to throw myself out a window." She scoffed rolling her eyes.
He chuckled half-heartedly. "I know. I'll be downstairs clearing out the rest of the living room." He then awkwardly lugged the painting out of the attic. She sighed and opened a box that looked the least dusty. She frowned looking at the well-worn letters in the box before taking them out. She didn't recognize the fancy writing. She unfolded one letter and began to read it out loud.
"My Dearest Stef, It has been many days since I was last able to reach quill and paper to write to you but I've managed fine. The training is hard as are the raids…you cannot imagine and I wish you not to even try. I long for the day that I can come home to your waiting arms. It is exhausting work, to brew potions day after day. I have seen and done horrible things and I cannot fathom why you still wait for me. But know this…I will never stop loving you." She felt tears well up in her eyes before she looked at the signed name. "S.S." Ire burned in her now. She tore at the box and found that it contained bundles of letters written with the same writing. She estimated it reached nearly a hundred letters.
She shoved the letter back into the box and shut it. She shrunk it and was about to toss it into the box of give-away before she stopped. Without knowing what hit her she slid the box of letters into her pocket before starting on the rest of the attic. She found several keepsakes that her mother had obviously received from men…most likely Lenore's unfortunate relation. The black haired girl had no trouble clearing out the room, finding most of it filled with odd knick-knacks. She thought she was done when she spotted something hiding by a corner beam.
She ducked around the beams and worked it out. It was a small box looking like a jewelry box. Her name was carved on the top in beautiful Calligraphy. Frowning she traced her name and then the design of roses along the edge of the box. At each of the four corners was a different animal, lion, snake, badger or beaver, and an eagle or hawk. In the middle of each of them was a mythical creature, a unicorn, dragon, griffin, and at the very top a faery. She opened it and a familiar melody hit her ears. She couldn't place where she had heard it but she could hum it and felt comfort from it. Her frown deepened when she saw a single piece of jewelry sitting on the emerald green velvet.
She lifted it out and held it up, examining it. The chain was long and made of twisted silver leading to a corked vial no bigger than her pinky (in fact smaller). It was encased in silver and had a snake around it with a crescent moon and a flask or mixing bottle at the bottom. In side the corked vial was a rich shimmering liquid that looked and sparkled like glitter. It flashed between black, emerald green, ruby red, and sapphire blue. She frowned and found on the bottom something engraved on the silver. My Daughter, I Love You written in print so small she had to squint to read it. There was something else on the edge of the tiny vial, something so small she couldn't read it. Shrugging, she studied the necklace.
She felt a smile tug her lips as she placed it around her neck. She smiled down at it closing the box and hurrying from the attic with the box of give-away, the music box, and the painting she was keeping floating behind her. She hurried and placed each where they belonged and then looked for Remus but found a tired looking Dumbledore instead.
"Hello Albus, where is Remus?"
"He is on a mission for me now, Lenore. I'm sorry he did not have the chance to say goodbye." The old man truly did sound sorry but she merely frowned at him.
"You mean he's gone?" she said in disbelief.
"Alas, yes. This matter could not wait another day and his opportunity opened up and if he did not take it in that instant then it would not come again. He sends his regrets at his inability to say goodbye." Albus said but something rang oddly false about it. He was telling the truth but part of her knew that Remus would have said goodbye if Albus had left him.
"Oh," she said biting her lip. "Well…well I just finished up the last room. All that's left if the big furniture but we're leaving that."
He straightened up, smiling. "Good, then, if that is all, we should go to Hogwarts now."
"Now?" she exclaimed, startled. "I hadn't expected to leave so suddenly….my friends will want me to—"
"Mr. Washington Levi has sent a letter saying that he as been accepted as a lead in a musical that travels and left early this morning. Your two friends Ms. Helen Accent and Mr. Stephan Albright are leaving for Rome tomorrow from LAX, therefore they are using Transport down right now. They said," the old man looked as he was trying to remember something. "They said 'the only way we can get over there now is the Muggle way'. Your friend Mary Anne and the other one, Garret have informed me that by noon they will be off for the Outback and Hawaii—why Ms. Winds had to tell you she was going out back I don't know but she asked me to say goodbye for. However, the three friends that arrived together, the younger ones, Isaiah, Alph and the young lady—"
"Isaiah, Ralph and Astrid?" Lenore said their names, disbelief and hurt in her voice.
"Those three have opted to take a camping trip this week and will return this Saturday. Your two vampiric friends are now on a ritual expedition and don't expect to return until fall." Albus said kindly and apologetically. "Saul and Renee are back in Canada at the moment and Erica is meeting with the National Magical Government of International Affairs this week."
Lenore sank into the chair. She felt so forgotten. "They're all gone?" she whispered staring at the floor in disbelief.
"I'm sorry, Lenore. But these plans of theirs were made before this horrid occurrence." Dumbledore rested his hand on her shoulder.
Lenore shook her head, blinking back tears. She looked away. "Laura is still at the school, right?"
"Correct,"
"May I see her before we leave?" she asked, refusing to look the old man in the eye.
He was quiet for a moment, as if calculating something before answering. "Very well, child. We will leave tomorrow morning, early so we can get there in time for lunch."
A sarcastic voice boiled in her. I wasn't actually asking your permission you old fool, I was just being courteous by informing you in a question that I was going to see her…yeah…that made sense. She shook her head. "Why early?"
"The hour change, dear."
"Oh." She said and was silent for a moment before she stood up. "I have a Transport pass to my school, I'll be back before dark." Lenore said quietly, part of her wondering if all of the things he had just listed off about her friends was a lie.
She moved towards the door and then stopped. "Would you like me to set you up with one of the movies again?" Albus's eyes light up. A few days ago he had discovered the wonders of the TV and movies. "Which movie?"
"How about that one with that ogre and rude donkey?"
Lenore giggled half heartedly. "Shrek? I'll go put it in for you. All you have to do is say start when you come into the room." Albus was like a child when the smile lit up his face. "I'll be back," and with that she left the large custom build house behind.
It was hard to believe that in only a few hours it would seem she would be leaving all that she ever knew behind and be entering an all new world. Shaking her head the raven-haired teenager walked towards the Private Transport and slid the card on the pad. "Salem," she said quietly and the machine fazed her to the Transport on the platform at the school.
Lenore was okay with traveling by portkey but America found that Transport, a morphing of portkeys and Floo with a stabilizing machine and Muggle technology. Unfortunately the Brits didn't believe in putting magic with Muggle technology no matter how helpful so she's going to be stuck traveling by Floo and portkey. Merlin I hope a portkey is more popular over there Floo. She thought walking towards the school. She was a klutz when it came to the Floo and could never land on her feet.
It took her less the fifteen minutes to make her way to the Potions Lab where Laura Bent's wing of rooms was. Knocking on a false back to the bookcase in Room 313A the red-oak bookcase moved and she followed the hallway down to the door at the end and knocked once more, knowing that by know Laura would have been alerted to her presence.
"Enter," a voice said from the other side and Lenore pushed open the door.
The redhead was leaning over a cauldron, her red hair pulled into a ponytail and then further tied back by a bandana. "Hi Laura," Lenore said swallowing hard, fighting the hurt that was still in her chest from what Albus had told her.
"Hello Leo, will you give me thirty seconds? I have to stir this exactly but then I can let it simmer," Lenore didn't answer but moved further into the room, looking at the many potions texts on the shelf. Both of them were completely silent for several minutes before Laura let out a happy sigh and set the stirring spoon down and turned around. "There we go. Hi there, how are you doing?" Lenore, once again, didn't answer but went on reading the spines of the books, the titles that she knew by heart already. "Leo? What's wrong?"
"Is it true?" the teenager asked quietly looking at the redhead, tears in her eyes. "Is it true that they've all gone without saying goodbye?" Laura let out a sigh, wiping her hands on a rag. The redhead went to clean the chopping knife, without saying a word but it spoke in spades. Lenore fought gasping as looked down, tears overcoming her. "How could they do that to me?" she asked softly. "How could all of them leave without saying goodbye?" a tear fell down her face. "I promised myself I wouldn't cry today!" she exclaimed swatting it away angrily, turning her back to the redhead.
"Lenore…Leo, they couldn't cancel their plans in time." Laura said walking towards her.
Lenore whirled around, anger sparking in her. "Even Saul and Renee?"
Surprise lit the woman's face. "Who told you they were gone?"
The dark-haired girl took a step back. "What?"
"Saul!" called Laura.
Moments later said young man walked into the room, his hair pulled back into a tight ponytail and the only animal that seemed to be comfortable with him, Latisha, his spider monkey, was eating a cracker. "You rang?" he slowed to a stop. "Leo, hi…what's wrong?" he asked his brow furrowing moments before she burst into tears. "Hey, hey," he said coming towards her and pulling her into a hug. Latisha jumped off his shoulder and onto the bookcase and made an 'oh' sound and stroked Lenore's hair as Saul hushed her. "What is it?" His eyes were on Laura.
"Who told you that Saul and Renee had left without saying goodbye?" Laura asked slowly as Lenore pulled away wiping her eyes and allowing Latisha to climb on her shoulder.
"Dumbledore." She said sniffing. Lenore looked at Saul. "He said that everyone left because of their prior engagements. That they didn't have a chance to say goodbye…he said that you and Renee went back to Canada for the summer like usual and didn't say goodbye."
Saul shook his head and pulled her into another hug. "Little one, I'd never leave without saying goodbye to you," he said rubbing his hand up and down her back.
"I know that but it was just that…with everyone else leaving I thought…" she mumbled.
"It's okay." Saul said quietly motioning to Laura.
The redhead disappeared and moments later Renee came in on her hover chair (it hovered as apposed to wheeled due to the carpeted floor.) "Leo," the blonde said as Saul led her over to the couch.
"Hi Renee," Lenore said with a wiry grin. "I feel stupid."
"It's okay sweetie, it's understandable." She said coming forward and taking Lenore's hand and giving it a squeeze.
There was a comfortable silence of understanding that passed through all of them before Laura cleared her throat. "Onto other things," she said sitting in the armchair across from Lenore. The blue eyes looked at Renee for guidance and the blonde nodded. "Leo, Renee, Saul and I have been brewing like mad for the last few weeks for you." Lenore opened her mouth to object but Laura went on as if she didn't see. "We have made a collection of potions that will protect you and your new friends if you get into any trouble in England—that is not and invitation to get into trouble."
"Now," Renee said straightening up. "There are the defensive and aggressive potions along with protection and healing. We have devised a new way of brewing that allows normal people like me," she smirked. "Take the potion while all you have to do is add a drop of your blood, shake it up and then drink it. The potion will last so much longer on me if I took it than it would normally but it would have the same affect and exact same side affect as the ones normal people are used to brewing."
Lenore snorted. Saul patted her on the shoulder. "We have all been brewing the different components of the Elvin Potion of Protection for you," Lenore gasped. The potion was extremely complex and often cost many valuable supplies. Despite Renee's owning a potion's shop the ingredients were even rarer than basilisk scales. "We wanted you to be safe, no matter where you went. The potion should be ready in a little under two hours,"
"I really can't accept—"
"Hush, child," Renee said firmly. "We don't want to be attending your funeral now and because that foolish old man," for an odd reason Renee cast a glare at Laura. "is insisting to take you to England while there is a war going on we want you to be protected. Please use these things responsibly. Promise?"
"I promise. But you really shouldn't have—"
"Don't tell us what we should or shouldn't do, Leo." Laura piped in. "In the bag over there we've got Calming Draught, Sleeping Draught, Dreamless Sleep, Shield Potion, Protection, Polyjuice, Healing Potions, an Invisibility Potion, Bottled Hexes and Jinxes you can smash to protect yourself." Lenore's mouth was dropping farther and farther open. She, of course, could brew all the potions but it was terribly expensive. "Here is the most recent one that we just finished," she handed it to Lenore.
She gasped. "Elvin Healer Potion…" She glanced at the redhead. "Guaranteed to counter act any spell, curse, hex, or attack one person had suffered. Powerful enough even to cure the curse of a werewolf if administer immediately, only works on the person once. Only spell it cannot counter act is…the Killing Curse." She recited from memory before staring at her teacher in awe. The potion was incredibly complex, taking nearly two months to brew with over a hundred ingredients, the hardest being dragon's blood mixed with the shavings of a unicorn's horn, phoenix tears and, as thought of before, basilisk scales, all of which were priced into the hundreds of Gallons. "How can I….the money is…" she stumbled over her words before sighing. "Thank you."
"I started brewing that one for you in May because your mother…" Laura sighed. "Your mother was planning on taking you meet Severus Snape this summer." Lenore went ghost white, her eyes shooting from the vial to Laura, horror and disbelief filling her. "She left me," Laura stood up and walked over to her desk as she talked. "With these,"
The redhead started to lift a box up but Saul was on his feet in an instant. "Let me help," he said, striding over and not even listening to her protest.
Laura shook her head and pulled a key from around her neck, unlocking the desk drawer. She fished something out before directing Saul to put the box on the table in front of Lenore. "I was entrusted with this shortly after you turned five. Something I don't think your mother and I ever spoke about, Leo, is that she and I knew each other from England."
"What?"
"I can't tell you all the reasons as to why we kept it a secret." Laura said quietly. "But when you turned five she gave me her journals from England because you were reading anything you could get your hands on and these journals are rather mature." Licking her lips nervously, the redhead pushed the box towards her. "It has your mother's journals spanning from her first year at Hogwarts until…until she came here. She asked me to give them to you if anything happened to her before you became of age."
Lenore ran her fingers along the edge of the box but then shook her head. "She was going to take me there? Did he know?"
"No." Laura said softly. "You were to travel as Muggles and visit the school without his knowledge."
The teenager looked away, her fist clenching around the vial in her hand. "Leo, she was doing it for your own good," whispered Renee.
Lenore looked at her sharply giving her a death glare. "I don't want to know him. I don't want to have anything to do with him." She said in a low controlled voice.
Renee and Laura sighed as Latisha made a tiny chattering noise and began to preen Lenore's hair. "I want you to wear this ring at all times," Laura held out the tiny box she had taken from her top drawer. "It holds protection spells and it grows the strongest when you are afraid for someone you love."
"But," added Lenore waiting for the redhead to finish
Laura looked edgy and nervous. "But it is borderline Dark Magic. I do not want to get you into trouble but it will protect you from…death." Laura said handing the box to the teenager.
Lenore gasped. "What do you mean? You have a ring that will save me from the Killing Curse?"
"The Killing Curse will still hit you and it will knock you out for a minute or two but you will wake up and your enemy will be none the wiser."
"Why haven't you told anyone about this?" gaped Lenore.
"Because, I told you it was borderline Dark Magic! I had to cast the three Unforgivables in order to find the loophole in each of them! And I had to use the blood of the intended person in it." She said pacing back and forth. "It is dark magic but not evil. It can pass any screening test and you will have a protection around you that no one, not even Voldemort can break." Lenore was still in shock. "The ring has been passed through generations of my family, gaining immunities to common curses and even dark ones. I've added my own spells to the ring, including the three Unforgivables."
"I still don't understand, Laura. People would like it enough because of the protection so why not—"
Laura smiled weakly and pulled Lenore into a hug. "Because the curse has to be directed somewhere, the ring does not absorb it."
She stiffened. "You mean it relays the magic to someone else?"
Laura held her hand and slid the ring on. The cold metal felt good but it immediately latched onto her hand. "Yes. Not someone though."
"An animal?" she whispered softly. Laura nodded. Lenore tried to pull it off. "I don't want an animal dying just for—why won't it come off?"
Laura flushed looking away. "It will not come off until you are of age."
"You tricked me!"
"I apologize." She said not sounding the least bit sorry.
Lenore shook her head and sighed. "Fine. I'll wear it."
"Please promise me you'll never take it off, even after you turn seventeen."
"I will do nothing of the sort but I will promise you that I won't remove it until all threat of the Dark Lord is gone." reasoned the teenager.
"Deal," Laura said smiling weakly.
Renee smiled at the two. "I have to get back to my half of the potion,"
"As do I," Laura said.
Saul laughed as Latisha climbed onto top of his head. "Don't look at me, mine was the first part, I finished is early on."
"Wanna go for a walk?"
"'Kay," he answered standing up. "We'll be back."
"Don't do anything I wouldn't do," Laura called as they made their way to the door.
Lenore snorted. "You do everything, Laura."
The woman winked. "I know."
Rolling her eyes the teenager left the room followed by her best friend, close to brother. Latisha hopped from Saul to Lenore causing her to giggle. "How are you doing, Leo? You looked pretty panicked earlier," Saul asked once they cleared the potions classrooms.
"I thought that everyone had forgotten about me." Lenore said softly, scratching Latisha's chin. "I want to know why Dumbledore lied to me about you and Renee. Why doesn't he want me to know you two are still here?" They headed towards the bridge overpass between Salem and Oregon's schools. "It's like he wanted me to be cut off from everything here."
"Do you want to be?"
"No. I want to stay. But Renee and Laura seem to think that this is some sort of huge lesson for me." Lenore said biting her lip. "Part of me wants to tell them to go screw themselves," they pulled open the door to the bridge overpass. She liked this overpass because it looked out over the joining yard between the two schools. "But the other part of me," she continued. "The other part of me just wants to run from all of this."
"Running is never the answer Leo," Saul said feeding a cracker to Latisha.
"Are you sure?" she muttered shaking her head. "I don't want to talk about it, Saul. I don't even want to think about it…" Lenore muttered. "They were the ones that forgot about me."
He leaned her arms against the railing, his elbows supporting him so he could look at the young girl. "Leo, not saying goodbye was kind of callous, yes, but you can't expect them to stop their entire lives."
Lenore looked at him and then away. "I'm not Saul. But they were my friends and I just…I guess I just had a level of expectation of them and they didn't meet it."
"That doesn't mean they don't care,"
She shrugged and for several minutes they were silent just staring in opposite directions. Latisha swung off Lenore's shoulder and reached into Saul's pocket for another cracker. He laughed and patted her. "Go on you little brat." He said. The monkey let out a cute chatter and scurried to a corner on the railing and happily munched on the cracker.
"I'm going to miss all of this," Lenore said with a smile.
"What Latisha stealing her treats?"
She giggled. "No, this," she motioned to the surrounding. "The environment of Salem and Oregon…Hogwarts is a joint school, Saul. It's going to be so different. They don't integrate Muggle things with their curriculum; in fact they do their best to ignore the Muggle world all together. Everything is going to be so different…"
Saul grinned. "As someone once told me, different is just another word for adventure."
She snorted. "But as you rebutted it is also a synonym for danger."
For a moment they stared at each other and then laughed. "At least you listened," he said with a shrug.
"Barely." She muttered. "I never listen, you know that."
"Leo," he took her hand and turned her to look at him. "Something in my gut is telling me that you need to be careful."
"I'm going into a war zone, of course I need to be careful," she joked but she saw the look in Saul's eye. He was really worried about something. "Did you go along with this ring thing too?"
Saul snorted. "After Laura told us about the ring I insisted on it. I don't want my little sis dying out there."
An embarrassed smile spread across her face. "Saul, how am I going to live with that man?" she asked after a moment of silence.
