A/N: Thanks for sticking around, Liz. The support is appreciated! My initial note seems appropriate without much editing: I did *not* mean for the OC bits to be so drawn out. Damn me for trying to make an impossible situation "organic". But it's nice to know it's holding your interest. ;D.
Also that outage was TERRIBLE. 2 days of being locked out!
Jonathan felt incredibly guilty that night. He had forced Erin out of the house, thinking it would do her some good. Then she returned in pieces.
"He doesn't remember- he can't remember!" she kept repeating.
Erin was slightly disheveled and her clothes looked scuffed up all on one side. He guided her to the couch and sat her down.
"Erin, honey, what happened? Talk to me"
Her eyes were wild.
"I-I need some water," she finally said.
He got up wordlessly and headed to the kitchen. When he came back, she was noticably calmer. Her hand shook a bit as she accepted the water. He also handed her a small chocolate bar, and she took that as well.
"Are you hurt?" he asked.
She rolled her shoulder experimentally and winced.
"Just sore, I ran into a door"
"Did someone attack you?" his tone became more urgent.
"No- I mean, kind of?"
He waited for her to gather her thoughts.
"I went to see Howard," she said, her voice more steady.
"When I got there, I thought I saw some men inside. I thought they were about to hurt him, so I broke the door down. They had gotten away by then, and he was just there. I asked if he was ok, and then he just exploded saying he didn't know me. He didn't recognize me at all"
He rubbed her arm in a reassuring gesture.
"We need to call this in," he said.
He saw her hesitate and was confused.
"Did you hit your head?" he asked, both in the rhetorical and serious sense.
"No- call the police then. I was just hoping to sleep my nerves off"
He took his phone out of his pocket and dialed 999. He kept an eye on her as he spoke to the operator and explained the situation.
Erin was still tightly wound up from the encounter and was sitting with a stiffly ontop of the cushions. She held the cup with both hands and looked into it, trying to think of how to play this. She had made a mistake in coming in such a state. If she had been smarter, she would have stayed in the car for just another minute to figure out what to say. But she had been so startled by the wizards, her brain felt scrambled. She supposed part of it was that she had practically suppressed the memory of running into that wizard from years ago.
But now she had that Vow to think about. What was it? She was fairly sure if she let anyone else know about wizards and magic, she would be violating their terms of agreement and fall over dead, as he had put it. She rubbed the cuff anxiously.
"Ok," said Jonathan, still on the line, "they transferred me to the local authorities. They're heading over to Howard's right now and they want a statement from you"
Her stomach flipped over and twisted into a million knots.
"Of course," she said as confidently as she could.
He finished the conversation, then grabbed his stethoscope from his bag and went back to Erin to take a better look at her.
"I'm ok," she protested as he pulled the skin above her eyelid to look into her pupils.
"Hush!"
Once he was satisfied, he had her take off her jacket and listened to her breathing. He then had her lift her shirt up to show him her ribs. Her shoulder, elbow, and ribs were predictably badly bruised. He clicked his tongue in disapproval as he palpated gently.
"How's that feel?" he asked.
"Hurts," she hissed, "But I don't think it's that bad"
"Right," he said skeptically, and had her dress again so they could head out.
He escorted her to the car and drove to the station. It was a small building and the one person on staff asked if they'd like any tea before asking Erin for her account of what had happened. She tried to give general descriptions so that they couldn't actually attempt to find someone to pin the blame on. As she was finishing up, the door opened and another officer came through.
"You the Doc?" he asked.
"Yes"
"Howard- Mr. Ames is just as ... what's the politically correct term for this- off his rocker, as he's always been. I couldn't get a sensible word out of him, but he was physically unharmed. There is however, some damage to the house"
"I have that in her statement, Hamish. She said she broke the door down to get to him"
He tilted his chin up a bit, unsure of if he believed the slip of a woman could have done it.
"Ah"
"I'm so sorry," said Erin, "I'll pay for the damages. But I really thought there was someone about to attack him"
"I'll take another look in the morning, and the report will be written up. But I wouldn't lose sleep over it. He was probably talking to himself."
"Apologies-," said Jonathan, cutting in. "But could you also post some warnings that there may be some suspicious figures in town? I'm just concerned for my partner's safety"
He thought it over for a bit, then nodded. "Ok. All right."
Erin felt a rush of relief course through her. Disaster and death averted. She let herself be herded into the car again and into bed. Before falling into exhausted sleep, she heard Jonathan pull out the rifle from the closet.
The next morning, she woke up with horrible aches. She groaned as she tried to stretch her arm and get out of bed. She was now acutely aware of how mediocre the water temperature was, and decided to skip the shower, going into the kitchen instead. She saw breakfast was already fixed for her out in the common space.
"Morning, you're in for an x-ray on Thursday," said Jon, pulling the chair out for her.
"Thank you," she said, feeling pampered and patronized at the same time.
"How are you feeling?"
"Tired. Sore. A bit rattled, but I'll get over it," she said as she picked up the fork and dug into the eggs.
"...Ok, I'm here"
That was enough words between them to get the whole point across. It was already running the risk of becoming a saccharine exchange.
She suddenly noticed the time as he was checking his emails.
"We're late!" she hurriedly ate a sausage and got up.
"Ah-ah," he said, wagging his finger, "I put out the word we're closed for today. Sit."
"Jesus, you're not my mother," she said, stung. She slinked back into her seat.
"No, I'm your friend. And sometimes, I have to put my foot down with you"
She couldn't help but scowl at him. His severe expression broke just for a split second to give her a wink.
"Incorrigible," she said.
The incident had passed without much consequence. Although she was sure Jonathan had lost some sleep over it. She had stopped from making house visits for a while, instead focusing on doing some reading and drafting a more comprehensive paper on what they were seeing there. The first two had been published in small journals and forums before the attack, and were being met with moderate success. She and Jonathan were responding to questions and found there was an interest in their work.
His side of the project was coming along as well. He had started applying an algorithm that would sort cases out by distinct traits. They were going to look at the data from different angles to see if anything would crop up. So far, they had identified 2 general groupings: comatose amnesiacs and psychotic amnesiacs. She did regret that she couldn't get more information about the "plague" from Howard before they had come to wipe his memories. She often sat on the porch with her laptop, wondering if that was the fate that could have befell her if she hadn't forced Severus Snape into protecting her.
Snape. The word often came unbidden into her mind. She morbidly wondered what he was doing, if he thought of her, if he was dead, if he knew what was going on here. She admitted to herself only recently that she was afraid to see him again. Because that really meant she was going to get sucked into his murky business- and she had just started to believe it was all in the past.
In any other situation, she would have been overjoyed to find that magic was real. But it was horrible. It made killing and maiming easier. She could only think of the illegal feats one would be able to achieve with the help of magic. Illegal and unethical. She shuddered as she thought of Howard's mind being blasted back to the edge of insanity.
She got the distinct feeling that she and Snape were two unstoppable forces, destined to crash at any moment.
But she knew she couldn't just leave these people. She and Jon had started something big. She secretly thought that this project might be her defining moment. She felt that the body fundamentally wasn't run just by magic. The history of molecular biology had to count for something, and it seemed to exhausting for all those cellular processes to take place by some deliberate force. If this were true, then despite what was done to people like Howard, there had to be a way to pinpoint that damage and intervene. It raised the question of whether they were on the cusp of a massive conspiracy- a town of Obliviated people. And if she was completely wrong, she stood to reveal to the world that there was something else beyond DNA and proteins. It was a heady thought.
Their neighborhood crow was in their tree, as always. Jon made a regular habit to throw rocks at it as he came in to the house. It was oddly persistent in its perch and would flap and caw in protest, but never abandon its post.
She supposed she was a lot like the bird.
Snape fought the sudden urge to violently retch into MacMillan's bubbling cauldron. His nostrils flared as he breathed deeply, trying to settle his stomach. The Hufflepuff mistook the nostrils as a sign of intense disapproval with his work and tossed the rest of the ingredients in, stirring furiously. "DISMISSED!" Snape snarled, and vanished the contents of the cauldrons.
Ernie MacMillian was never happier to get out of detention early, even if it was with Snape yelling at him. He wordlessly picked up his things and ran out of the classroom. Once the door swung shut, Snape hunched over, grabbing the edge of his worktable and moaning.
It was the worst it had ever been. He was unprepared for the assault and lay there for what felt like hours. Behind closed eyes, he could make out the vision of a darkened window, some type of flashing device, number nines. He got up shakily, and ambled haltingly over to the floo. The pain was now subsiding. His mind was clearer as he threw in the powder and emerged in Dumbledore's office.
The older wizard was mildly surprised by his unannounced entrance. But once seeing Snape's condition, he rushed over. Snape exercised his stiff jaw and squared his shoulders.
"This cannot be allowed to continue," he said.
"It happened again" Dumbledore said.
He went to his desk to collect a charmed unicorn figure.
"Perhaps," he said thoughtfully, "we should discuss the possibility of bringing Ms. Coffrey into our effort against the Dark Lord"
Snape wasn't sure if he heard correctly.
"Come again"
"It's becoming clear that we can't leave her up to her own devices. From Benson and Kingsley's reports, she's becoming involved with obliviated and Kissed people, trying to reverse the effects. We believed it would go unnoticed with Voldemort putting pressure on the Ministry. But she seems to be gaining a following. And this puts her in a direct line of fire from Aurors."
"And how is that supposed to help us?" he asked "You describe a liability, not an asset."
"She's making connections with muggles in critical areas that may be able to provide us with intelligence. I suspect the attention she's garnering from her research is from witches and wizards who want to rise against Voldemort. His activity is not only in Europe, and there are unsavory actions occuring overseas as well."
"You want to use her to speak to them," he said, putting the pieces together.
Dumbledore nodded as he picked up the unicorn.
"I believe you would be the logical choice as an emissary. With some time, you could convince her to return with you. And I'm sure the students would believe you've gone on sabbatical to collect some Meerian Flatroot," he added with some levity.
Snape grumbled under his breath. Dumbledore handed him the unicorn and tapped its horn with his wand.
"Ms. Benson," he said.
The unicorn's mouth opened as if to neigh.
"Sir," came a feminine human voice.
"Our plans have changed. Severus will need to rendezvous with you in the morning. In the meantime, you must keep a close eye on Ms. Coffrey until then. Do not let any harm come to her"
"Yes Sir. Is that all?"
"Indeed Ms. Benson, good night"
The horse closed its mouth. Dumbledore looked at Snape for a second, assessing the damage done, and patted him on the back as he turned to go back into the floo.