Two more Muggles had been killed and Alastor was convinced he was still at least a day behind Levings' movements. He was getting closer, but not much, and Levings had not fallen into the trio's trap nor had Albus and Minerva noticed her skulking about near their area.
It had been nearly a week since she'd last struck, however, and they were expecting her to do so any time now. They only hoped that they could, perhaps, catch her this time. Albus and Minerva were keeping their eyes peeled for any sign of her and trying to note if anyone seemed to be missing. Alastor was doing his best to catch up to her but it seemed that Miss Levings kept tripping him up. She knew that there had to be an auror trailing her by now and she was making it difficult.
Minerva was honestly more worried for Alastor's safety than her own. She had Albus to watch her back. Alastor did not, and Levings knew that he must exist. As far as she knew, Levings had no idea what Minerva and Albus were up to nor that they even existed in relation to her murders.
"Has Alastor sent another letter yet?" Minerva asked Albus one evening. She'd just woken but there was no sleep in her eyes. She was quite alert.
"Not today," he answered.
Minerva could not stop some of her worry from showing on her face. They'd not heard from Alastor in three days. This was not terribly unusual, but the facts that Levings was due to strike again and that they'd not heard from him in a while as a combination made her uneasy. It just didn't smell right to her and it seemed something was wrong.
Moreover, at times she'd found herself distracted by her continually growing attraction to Albus, and that only increased her worry and created some substantial guilt. What if she'd missed something because of her distracting, and notably silly, attraction to a man who undoubtably still thought of her in many ways as his student.
On the bright side (assuming she wished to term it that), however, the more she worried about Alastor, the less she thought about Albus, something which she considered to be an exceptionally good thing. Her worry drove him straight from her mind, generally speaking. The thought that perhaps she did love Alastor, had brushed into her mind.
"I'm sure he's fine, Minerva," Albus reassured. "He's quite cautious after all."
A small, grim smile appeared in Minerva's lips. "He has all of those scars for a reason, Albus. On occasion, someone is able to get the drop on him."
Albus would have done anything at that moment to have gotten rid of the sadness that haunted Minerva's beautiful eyes. The deep blue color her eyes normally held had turned to resemble a deep ocean, and her eyes were indeed like twin oceans of sadness and worry. He would do anything to five that, absolutely anything at all. His heart told him he should take her into his arms and soothe away the worry, or even go out and find Alastor, no matter how hard that task was, to prove to her that he was okay and she need not worry. As long as it worked, his hear told him to do it. That was what was important.
"He's always come out alive before."
"True," Minerva agreed, and Albus was rewarded with a more genuine smile.
/E/E/E/E/E/
Much to Minerva's relief, they received a letter from Alastor tow days later. He was, indeed, safe and healthy. He was also closing in on Levings. In fact, he was certain he knew what day and where she would strike next.
"That's not far from here at all!" Minerva stated with excitement. "We'll easily be able to keep an eye out. There's no way that she'll be able to abduct any Muggles without out noticing her."
Minerva was terribly pleased at the idea of this expedition ending quickly. At the times when she had escaped her worry long enough for Albus to seep quietly into her thoughts, she'd noticed her thoughts of him becoming more and more similar to those she'd had as a teen in love with him. She'd had enough of worrying about Alastor—the two of them should never be working on an assignment like this together, she'd decided—and even as she contended with that she found herself straying down an all too familiar path. The fact of the matter was that she needed to get away from Albus Dumbledore lest she fall in love with him all over again.
Albus, for his part, would be sorry to see the mission end despite the safety it would bring to the Muggles in this part of London. He liked being around Minerva. He liked speaking with her on a daily basis. As selfish as he knew it was there was a part of him that did not want that to end. He would very much have liked to have stayed like this for a much longer time, just so he might be with her more.
"Let's not get too overconfident," he warned her, his cautions being fed by the idea that the longer this lasted, the longer he was with her. "She's been escaping detection for a long while now."
The truth in Albus' words settled over Minerva like a rather thick and uncomfortable blanket. "That is true, but I hope she doesn't elude us. I don't like the idea of these killings continuing and I don't particularly want to be here more than another day."
Though he knew that her reasons for wanting this mission to end centered more on the fact that she hated what she was pretending to be rather than a desire to be away from him, Albus felt a stab of hurt. The idea of being away from her was not one he liked. They would begin exchanging letters as they had before and distance would grow between them. He did not want that at all.
"I know, Minerva," he said, sitting down next to her. "We will do our best to make ceratin that she is caught, and then you will never have to look at that silly clothing again."
Despite herself, Minerva let out a small laugh. Albus' eccentricity, kindness and love of merriment were all amazing sources of amusement to her. Most of the time, she would respond to his jokes with the most serious expression she could muster, only laughing on the inside. Sometimes though, Albus would manage to actually pull from the stern, serious young woman a laugh, and that was something special. Far more special than Minerva really cared to contemplate.
This needed to end tomorrow.
/E/E/E/E/E/
"With dark skin, an alert expression and cheekbones that Minerva envied, it seemed a shame that a thirteen year old like the one that was just then passing by should live in a neighborhood as bad as this one.
Minerva's eyes followed the girl as she continued on her way. Levings had yet to attack a child and Minerva severely hoped she never would, but it was certainly not guarantied that she would not. What if that very child in front of her, or even a younger one who'd not even reached adolescence, was next? It was certainly a possibility, and most assuredly not a pleasant one. Minerva had always had a certain fondness for young people and she hated—no, dreaded—that possibility. Yet she knew very well that it was indeed that it was indeed a possibility, and in fact could already have happened. Minerva and Albus had been waiting here, right where Alastor's letter had told them that Levings would find her next victim, all day but they'd seen not hide nor hair of either witch or wizard.
Neither Albus nor Minerva knew exactly what was going on with Levings or Alastor, and that was a very bothersome thing indeed.
The girl disappeared from sight. Minerva stayed where she was for a few moments, scanning the people that passed as well as the alleyways and shadows. Seeing nothing, she turned and moved back to Albus.
"Have you seen anything?" he asked.
"No. You?"
"Nothing. Something is not right here. Alastor said she would be here by now. I'm thinking that we have missed her."
"Oh, god, I hope not."
"Well, there is something we are missing here, and I'm thinking it's Miss Levings."
"Why haven't we seen Alastor then?" asked Minerva in a worried tone. "He said he would be right behind her. Surely we'd have seen him even if we missed her. Even if we missed her and he lost her then he'd come and talk to us. She must not have arrived here yet."
The sparkle in Albus' crystal blue eyes was not present and he looked to be deep in thought. "That doesn't seem right, Minerva. None of this seems right and it has not from the beginning."
"What are you talking about, Albus?" Suddenly he'd lost her. It was as though his thoughts had pushed themselves onto a plane that she could not follow them too.
Or perhaps that she was unwilling to follow him to.
"You have good instincts. Tell me that you have not had an ominous feeling hanging over you from the start of this." His eyes were boring straight into hers in the most intense fashion.
She took a step away from him, and her eyes blazed intensely. Her mouth formed a thin line. "That preposterous. That sort of thing is utter nonsense."
"No, it's not, Minerva," he said firmly, and closed the distance between them with a long stride. "This has all been entirely too easy, sounded entirely too easy. Right from the start. In your eagerness to leave, you may have missed it consciously, but I've seen in your eyes all day a look that mirrors my own misgivings on this matter. This has all sounded far too easy, and now things are not going as they seem they should. Something is wrong."
A vague amazement at the perceptiveness of Albus flitted across Minerva's mind but was chased quickly away by the thing that had put the thought there in the first place. He was right. This was too easy—and she'd known it the entire time. She'd just been too distracted by her want to get out of here and away from him to allow herself to see it.
Albus could see the realization in Minerva's eyes as she spoke. "We've been intentionally lead astray."
"I agree. Miss Levings has been making us play right into her hands, either by letting Alastor get near her, or by capturing him and making him write that letter to distract us and make us think he's safe."
"Either way, she has Alastor now," said Minerva, drawing the only plausible conclusion from what they knew. Her eyes were dark with worry, though her face remained otherwise impassive, but Albus could see it clearly and wanted sincerely to kiss it away. That would fix nothing, however, and he damned well knew it.
So he decided to do the only thing he knew would help her.
"Come on," he said. "She likes to take her victims to hotels. She'll have taken Alastor to one as well. Hopefully she's not far."
/E/E/E/E/E/
"Ennervate."
Alastor's deep brown eyes snapped quickly open. They focused immediately on Miranda Levings, who stepped back from him and then turned, apparently going to get some item or another.
"Well, you've caught me," he told her. She glanced back at him from across the room, a blank and harmless expression on her face. "Now what do you plan to do with me?"
Her face did not change or shift even the smallest bit. She turned her gaze from Alastor and went quietly back to what she was doing. She wasn't going to respond to him and Alastor knew that. Levings wasn't a talker. She worked silently, moved silently. That was how she'd gotten the jump on him, after all. He still had her though. He'd managed to keep his want on him.
And even if that didn't work, Albus and Minerva would figure out what was going on soon enough. They had to have been thinking that there was something too simple and straightforward about that letter he sent them. He'd suspected a trap when he sent them the letter, but at he'd known that Levings was intercepting his owls, he'd not mentioned that in the letter. He realized now that walking into Levings' trap and expecting to catch her anyway had been an arrogant mistake. Hindsight was a bitch.
He'd have needed an eye in the back of his head, or one that could see through the back of his head, in order to have kept Levings from stunning him. She was excellent at stealth and she'd picked a good location to ambush him.
Alastor began slowly loosening the bonds Levings had conjured around her wrists.
/E/E/E/E/E/
As it turned out, it did not matter that Alastor had managed to keep his wand. Whether Levings noticed Alastor slowly loosening his bonds or simply wanted a victim that did not move, no one ever did find out. In either event, she placed him a full Body Bind and he was rendered helpless just as it seemed that he would be making another spectacular capture of a dark witch.
Only Alastor's eyes betrayed his pain as she began to cut lazily into the skin on his palm with a cursed knife that had been gifted to her by Grindelwald. He was trapped, immobile on the floor and unable to do anything to prevent the searing pain the knife caused when it so much as touched his skin. Had he been able to, he surely would have screamed.
He could feeling the knife tracing its way up his arm, burning unnaturally and reviving the pain in old curse scars as it slicing jaggedly through them. The pain kept all of his attempts at performing soundless spells from being at all effective. He was completely helpless and that was something far more disturbing and unpleasant to him than event the torture he was enduring.
Alastor passed out at least twice during the entire ordeal. Every time he did, Leavings would cease her cutting immediately and revive him, so she might further enjoy the storms of pain that swirled about his eyes. He had no idea how much of the day had slipped away from him during the time she'd been cutting and slashing at different parts of his body, nor how close help might or might not be.
/E/E/E/E/E/
Levings had just began cutting on Alastor's handsome face when Albus burst into the room and sent a stunning spell hurtling straight at her. She was blasted clear away from Alastor's unmoving form as it hit her.
Minerva, who'd been right behind Albus as they'd ran outright to the room where the clerk has said a woman of Levings' description and using one of her aliases has checked in, pushed straight past Albus and into the room. She lifted the Body Bind from him and pull his bleeding body into her arms. Albus could see a few rare teardrops glimmering on Minerva's fair cheeks as she queried Alastor about his condition.
As much as he liked Alastor and was happy to see him alive, the sight of Minerva holding a man he respected and would even hazard to call a friend so close to her body hurt Albus to see. How could he have allowed himself to fall in love with her?
The question crossed his mind even before the realization behind it did. It was not something he noticed, however. He was too absorbed in what he saw before him. Pain and jealousy roared through him. He hated seeing how much Minerva cared for Alastor. He wanted to be the object of that affection, and had secretly, unconsciously hoped there was a chance that he could at least become that.
Minerva's eyes swept up to meet his own, a thankful look in them. All of the sudden a new emotion was added to the ones he was already feeling. She was happy to see Alastor okay, and as much as the source of that happiness hurt him, he was indeed very glad to see it there. He would do anything to see her happy, to see one of her rare smiles light her face.
He allowed the new emotion to flood over the others. What good was love if a person twisted it so that their own selfish desired outweighed those of the person they loved?
Albus moved forward to help Minerva. "Let's get Alastor to St. Mungo's. I don't like the color that some of those cuts are turning."
Minerva nodded at him and the thankful look in her eyes made his heart swell.
/E/E/E/E/E/E/E/E/E/E/E/E/E/E/E/E/E/E/E/E/E/E/E/E/E/E/E/E/E/E/E/E/E/E/E/E/E/E/E/E/E/E/E/E/E/E/E/E/E/E/E/E/E/E/E/E/E/E/E/E/E/E/
Author's Note: I'm sorry Kaima, but I do believe I will be driving you crazy for a while longer. You and everyone else, for that matter (more than likely). I any event, I appreciate everyone's patience and if you stick with me I am hopeful that I will not disappoint. In the meantime, there's a little button down at the corner of this screen just screaming at you to click it and review. Obey the button.