Chapter 14

Of old friends and old enemies

AN: Hello, dear readers, here the next bit, hope you'll enjoy. Btw. a while ago I started rewriting the whole thing, re-reading chapter by chapter, correcting things, trying to throw out unnecessary junk and kitsch. I've been posting it on archiveofourown. It's under the title "The Rime of the Watcher and the Witch". Should you ever feel like reading it anew, you can check it out, I would be really most grateful for a few more reviews there, whether it's better or not...


While listening to Alexandru's last couple of songs and watching Helen, whose eyes were now fixed on him, something changed in him. He felt all of sudden as if everything would be alright, no matter what happens. But that was not all, not the only thought that was suddenly giving him comfort. A new, vague idea was creeping into his mind, very slowly, very stealthy, as if at first he didn't dare to think it, but when it didn't go away, he was realizing it was not a bad, nor a forbidden prospect. What he had said to his father was true – he had always thought of himself as a watcher, or at least for over the past twenty years anyway, it was his purpose. On this evening, however, here, sitting on his sofa, only few inches away from a woman that had filled spaces and seemingly hidden hollows inside him he hadn't known he had, for the first time he had the notion that maybe he could imagine a life while not being a watcher, he could imagine it as not being worse nor emptier than now. It might lack the purpose, but he realized that he no longer desperately needed one to feel whole. That he could imagine for the rest of his life being without it – and it wasn't scary or abhorrent.

For the first time some inner voice at the back of his mind asked him in the quietest of whispers whether it really would be so bad, if he quit and someone else took his place. Now, this had nothing to do with the cruciamentum as such, he was still anxious and fearful to death about Buffy and about losing her in the process. With surprise he admitted to himself that he would willingly give his life for Buffy's at any time, simply because he considered it being worth a lot more than his. But this new notion was not about that.

"Thank you very much for this," Helen said to Alexandru on their way towards the door, while Giles was helping Elisabeth into her winter coat. "I had a wonderful time."

Alexandru bowed gallantly. "For you – always."

Giles thought he saw her eyes glisten a little, when she said: "Who knows if-... I mean when we will see each other again..."

Alexandru pulled her into a tight embrace. "Next time," he said simply, just the way she remembered from their teenage years when they would part at the end of the summer holiday, with a bright smile on his face and an even brighter one in his crystal blue eyes.

Something occurred to her suddenly and she asked: "Can you sing the Rückert-Lieder, by Mahler?"

Alexandru raised his brows, surprised at the question, but nodded: "Of course."

She smiled now back at him and let go of his hands: "That's what you'll sing to me then," she gently patted the lapels of his coat, then turned away a little too quickly to shake hands with his wife.

When the couple left, Helen watched them disappear in the dark for a while, Giles stood next to her with a hand around her shoulders. "He turned out really handsome," she murmured dreamily, and when she looked at Giles, she noticed his raised brow. "Oh, come on, you must admit he looks pretty dashing," she said.

Giles shrugged merely, then consented: "I suppose they make rather a handsome couple," he said, unwilling to praise another man alone.

"They do," Helen agreed thoughtfully, then looked at him somewhat outraged, "hey! We make a handsome couple too, you know. We're both pretty, and... cute!" She said, suddenly offended that he should find another pair more appealing.

"Hm," he faked a pondering, doubtful expression, then said "I know I am," and smirked, and while she looked at him with an open mouth, he closed the door at last.

She had to grin when she thought about it: she loved how cocky he could suddenly get at times. She wasn't exactly sure where it was coming from, but it always increased her sense of the intimacy between them, it always reminded her just how close they were with each other, because it was in complete opposition to his general behaviour when other people were around. It made her feel special for being the one who got to see this side of him.

They sat down, although it was already very late, there still was some vine left in the bottle.

Giles' features went from smug back to bashful, when he shyly asked: "So-uh... you two-uh... never...," he only threw her a quick look to make sure she was listening, then turned to talk to the glass in his hand, "... were-uh..."

She decided to not let him suffer and hurried to say: "No, never, not like that." She shook her head and somehow automatically ran her hand gently through his hair. "Come to think of it now, he is actually the oldest person I know... well, I mean the person I know the longest... my oldest friend," her voice trailed off as she began to recall bits and pieces from her childhood.

"After our father moved us to Romania, we took a house, near Sighişoara, but seemingly in the middle of nowhere... And the Iacobescus – Alex's family, they were the closest wizarding household in the neighbourhood, about an hour's walk from our place. I spent a lot of time there, my brothers were at school and in the first months, and years we knew very few people... That's where I got turned towards music, too. You see Alex's mother Lucretia was a veela, and she was also a singer. She taught me to play the piano..." She paused for a moment, remembering the grand black Bechstein from 1889 that stood in the Iacobescu's spacious living room, its yellowish keys, parts of the ivory missing on B1 and G2 or the sticking B7, the black piano stool, and Alex' mother sitting on it with her long, sleek golden hair spread over her slender back, her long pale fingers interlacing over the keys, playing some Romanian folk tune, while her clear, unearthly voice filled the room.

"I had a friend like that," Giles suddenly said, interrupting her reverie, and she turned at him curiously, "a neighbour's boy, too. He lived a few houses down the street..." For a moment he looked almost surprised at this memory, he had not thought about his childhood friendships in a long time, yet somehow when Helen spoke of her oldest friend, his mind wandered, trying to recall just who that might be on his part. "His-uh... name was Edward, or Edd" he smiled, then furrowed his brows, "I can't remember the family name anymore..." It was strange, as he considered his memory for names to be faultless.

"His parents had an old bath tub in their attic, we used to play fighter pilots in it, pretending to fly raids on Dresden or Berlin," he said. "Or one time we painted it silver, and flew missions in a... Hawker Hart in India..., or repainted it in green and brown so that Eddie could pretend to-uh... have heroically rescued me on see in a Spitfire."

He laughed shyly and looked a little bashful, as if he felt almost embarrassed, but there was pure affection reflected in her face.

"Of course after it was decided that I was to be a watcher, my grandmother would have none of it," he said with a trace of bitterness in his voice. "She thought friends were-uh... too much of a distraction whilst I needed to concentrate all of my focus on my watcher studies."

"Do you sometimes think you would have? Become a fighter pilot if you weren't a watcher?" She asked after a brief moment of silence.

Giles frowned perplexed for a moment that their talk has taken this particular turn, for he had been thinking, just moments ago, while Alex was singing, about things that could be...

"Well, if nothing else my short sight had taken care of that I wouldn't have," he said.

Helen slid closer to him and gently took off his glasses so that she could look him in the eyes without the light being constantly reflected off of them. He turned at her with a pondering look, she sensed he was thinking about whether or not to bring up something that was on his mind.

"What is it?" She asked.

He exhaled once more, hesitantly. Then he shook his head as if he wanted to dismiss it after all, although he couldn't quite get rid of the notion anymore.

"Whaaat?" She asked drawling amused, her curiosity piqued now.

"Nothing... I-uh... I had a...," he paused, then turned at her directly and moved a little closer even. "Something-uh... had occurred to me... earlier this evening..."

"What was it?" She asked eagerly, and at the same time almost wished he wouldn't tell her, so that she could stare into his sheepish eyes like this for a little longer.

"That... if... I were to quit, it perhaps would not be-uh... that awful a prospect," he said slowly at last, and looked at her, anxious to observe what her reaction would be.

Helen did not understand. "What do you mean?"

He took another breath. "Only that I could-uh... leave... the council, and not be a watcher anymore..."

She frowned as she clearly didn't follow, nor really understand where he was going with this. It didn't make any sense to her especially after their conversation earlier that day.

He saw her confusion. "I'm not saying now, or even next month, but-uh... I could imagine a life-uh... without it... perhaps... And Buffy will soon turn eighteen, she-uh... might not require a watcher for very much longer." He had not spoken with Buffy in length about her plans after high school, and he wasn't even sure what exactly the council's policy was for older Slayers. Not many lived long enough to worry about that. Somehow he felt that Buffy might just top them all, and he wondered how long she on her part would be willing to work under his guidance. It was possible, he thought, that in a few years' time their paths would split anyway.

Helen was silent for a moment, she looked utterly perplexed. This development has stunned her so much that she did not know what to think, and certainly not what to say. "Do you really mean it?" She asked finally.

He looked away, feeling a little sobered by her reaction. He didn't know what he had expected, this was after all very fresh and new for him as well, but somehow he felt she was less enthused about it than he would have thought.

"I-uh... don't know... I-uh... all I realized was that-uh... if something like that were to happen, that the council should find me, or my work unsatisfactory for whatever reason, that-that might perhaps not be the-uh... curse I had thought it would be, it might actually be a-an... opportunity... a chance to-uh... do something else... with you together maybe," he looked up now to see what she'd say to that, and just for a fraction of a second he thought he actually saw panic in her eyes that he misinterpreted and hurried to say what he thought she would like hearing more clearly: "I would do it for you, we would have more time for each other-,"

"Please don't," she interrupted him suddenly. "I...," she broke off, somewhat at a loss as to what to say to him, what words to use that wouldn't hurt him, she was simply taken completely by surprise and she never had thought he would seriously consider leaving his watcher career behind. "Where... where does this come from? Have I ever given you the impression that I wanted you to quit?" She asked gently.

"No," he replied slowly, he was starting to feel really strange, not uncomfortable exactly, nor awkward, just as if they had been talking at each other without listening for the first time, as if for the first time they were both riding on two different waves, without the chance to meet one another, the one always being a little ahead, the other always just a tad behind. "I didn't mean I would do it because of you, I just meant that... if... I were to quit, then we would both maybe-uh... profit from it, we would have more time for each other, could-uh... do anything..., go anywhere... just the two of us... together," he said with a slight emphasis on the last words and feeling at the same time somewhat silly for having to point out what seemed so obvious to him.

Typically for him he did not for a moment suspect there might be something she was not letting him in on. On the contrary, he felt as if he had missed something, had overlooked some essential knowledge or evidence that was making him not understand, or not see some fundamental flaw in his idea, something that would point out that it was completely unreasonable and ill-conceived. He just couldn't think what it was.

He frowned again, trying to think hard, yet couldn't help but say, "I-I am sorry. I thought that now you were back, we-we could perhaps... do... other things..."

"I might not be here forever," she interrupted him rather without thinking, desperate to turn the conversation into some more agreeable direction, "I want you to have something for when I'm-" She stopped abruptly, realizing she had said too much. She felt sweat coming up on her forehead and her hands.

He was looking at her, at first frowning, but then his features turned serious and almost angry. "You're not planning on leaving here again, are you?!"

"No!" She exclaimed, and felt a strange mixture of relief and pain. "Merlin, no," she repeated with a nervous laugh.

She moved closer to him and her face turned earnest again, when she said: "No. I want to spend the rest of my life with you. However long." And she leaned to kiss him.

"Just-ah... don't-ah... close that door yet," she said in a husky voice when their lips parted. "Don't do anything rash."

He nodded and smiled, feeling appeased, and looking into her dark eyes was distracting him. "Right. Let's-uh... see... how things develop," he said in a half-whisper before pulling her even tighter into his arms.


It was Thursday morning, the day of the Cruciamentum. Helen was just packing her things and was about to leave for school, when a loud pop from behind her scared her.

"Oh, thank Merlin, at last," Kingsley Shacklebolt exhaled. He was panting slightly as if he had been running around for a while before he apparated in Giles' apartment.

"Kingsley!" Helen exclaimed with a hand on her chest, still a bit startled. "What are you doing here?"

He adjusted his clothes before looking at her. His expression was suggesting that he had some unpleasant business to discuss, and that he felt uncomfortable about it.

"Look, I'm already running late for a class, so unless-" She said and grabbed her bag that she had let fall out of her hands as he arrived.

"You're probably going to be even later," Kingsley interrupted her in a sombre voice, and motioned for her to sit down.

She hesitated for a moment, but she knew better than to protest when he had something on his mind. "This better be important," she murmured as she sat down on Giles' sofa.

"I'm afraid it is," Kingsley replied as he took a seat in the armchair next to her. The look in his eyes, his whole appearance in fact were starting to make her nervous. He looked equal parts annoyed and miserable miserable, and also... guilty a little bit, or so she might have thought if she didn't know better. She didn't like it all.

"Alright then, let's have it," she said and sounded much more casually than she felt.

Kingsley put his hands together and rubbed them nervously, before blurting out: "Rodolphus has escaped."

At first she just stared at him. It seemed as if his words only reached her after a long while, when she simply said: "What?"

"Lestrange escaped. From Azkaban," Kingsley repeated. "It looks like he overpowered two of the guards, killed one of them, tortured Secundus Travers beyond recognition, and then took off."

"How?" Helen asked in a low voice. She was staying calm on the outside, but she could feel her stomach tighten inside and her heartbeat getting faster.

Now Kingsley dropped his look to avoid hers. "We-ah... are investigating the issue. We don't know much. Travers has been in St. Mungo's hospital, unconscious since Tuesday-"

She raised her brows. "Tuesday?"

Kingsley looked up at last and nodded.

She jumped to her feet. "You mean to tell me that it's been two days since he's escaped? Two whole days, and you've waited until now to tell me because...?"

Kingsley raised his hands. "I-... stay calm," he said.

"No!" She said defiantly and looked around her as if expecting Rodolphus to apparate at any moment, then rubbed her forehead desperately.

"I didn't want to bother you unless we thought it was absolutely-"

"This is not about me!" She said loudly, and made a few frantic steps towards the door, then back towards the sofa, only to turn around abruptly again, not knowing what to do first out of sheer panic that was seizing her. She was worried, scared even, and her thoughts were of Giles and her friends, whom Rodolphus had sworn to "deal with", should he ever get out of Azkaban. "You know what Rodolphus said to me at the hearing last year. You do remember, don't you?!"

"Yes," Kingsley said patiently and got up. "Which is why I have a dozen aurors placed around this town.

"You do?" She sounded a little calmer now.

"Yes," he nodded, "there's half a dozen of them at your school, keeping an eye on the Watcher, the Slayer and the others, the rest of them are spread across town, near your house and at the store that that Ethan-character used to own."

She sat down again and looked thoughtful.

"Do you want to let them know? Warn them?" He asked her.

She didn't answer right away, but thought about it for a while. Today was Buffy's cruciamentum. Giles had so much on his mind. He had been administering the muscle relaxant to his Slayer for the past week and was feeling all the worse for it. And after meeting with Quentin Travers yesterday at a house at the other end of town where the vampire Buffy should fight was being kept he looked beyond wretched.

"You really couldn't have picked a worse timing," she murmured at last, then sighed. She wasn't sure what to do. Should he be told so that he would be ware, yet – possibly – distracted from Buffy's exam which neither of them could afford, or should she leave him in bliss of not-knowing, and rely entirely on the skills and capability of the aurors that were watching him, and trust that they would be able to protect him and the Scoobies if it came to it?

"Who is watching him?" She asked.

Kingsley shifted somewhat uncomfortably. "Well, as you know the auror's office is still under-staffed," he began evasively.

"Meaning?" She asked impatiently.

"Our resources are limited, and we also need to watch other spots than this one," he said.

"Come to the point. You said you had a dozen of people here. Who are they?" She pressed him.

"Well, I split them into six couples, pairing up an auror... with an apprentice," he said in a quiet voice. He was aware that this arrangement was far from ideal. But after the battle their ranks were thinned, and the Ministry training could only supply so many newcomers in such a short time. The fact was that next to the apprentices who haven't yet completed their training, most of the actual aurors were as well young people who obtained their license only months ago. On the other hand there were some among them who despite their young age had some experience fighting in the battle of Hogwarts when they were still students, and thus were fairly versed in fighting against the dark arts.

"Brilliant," Helen said sarcastically, though she knew it wasn't his fault and it couldn't be helped. She had worked at the aurors office for a few months after the battle, so the situation was not exactly a surprise to her.

"I-ah... I had posted Angus Travellian with Fay to watch Mr. Giles," he said.

"Fay Dunbar?" Helen recalled one of her former students at Hogwarts, an ardent Quidditch player. She had long aspired to become an auror, and though during her school days she used to strike Helen as a bit reckless on occasions, she also remembered her as someone who, once having set a goal for themselves, would accept nothing but perfection in pursuing it. She would one day, no doubt, become an exemplary auror. Could she be a match to Rodolphus, Helen wondered for a moment. Flawless reflexes and fast reactions were the key to getting the upper hand on him. Admittedly, Fay as the former beater of the Gryffindor Quidditch team did not lack any of those. As for Angus, her former colleague, he certainly wasn't Helen's favourite person, but he was considered an experienced auror with acceptable skills.

"Yes. They are all connected to the other couples, so that if Rodolphus should turn up, they ought to be able to get reinforcement within few moments."

Helen pondered once again whether to tell Giles or not, and at last she decided it might be better to leave him be, it would only distract him, she knew he would worry, not only about Buffy and himself, but about her as well. From what he had told her yesterday she gathered that the vampire involved in the cruciamentum was a particularly vicious one, so she wanted him to put his whole focus on that dreadful exam.

"How did it happen?" Helen asked again. "How could he even escape?" She remembered very well the mass break-out of Death Eaters from Azkaban prison six years ago that was majorly aided by Dementors, as well as a small group of then-free Death Eaters who were beginning to gather again after Voldemort's return.

Kingsley shrugged, he looked tired. "We're not certain. His cell was in a wing at Azkaban that is no longer guarded by Dementors, as they had proven-ah... to be a liability in the past. There were two elderly guards, none of them awfully experienced in defence though. I don't know what happened yet, the one that survived is being treated at St. Mungo's, he hasn't said much yet. From what we were able to deconstruct, after breaking out of his cell Rodolphus took the wand from the other guard, killed him, knocked out the other one, then blew open Secundus' cell and apparently tortured him with the Cruciatus-curse... I hope to get a statement from him by the end of the week... if he can talk again," he said sombrely.

"You do realize he couldn't just have got out of his cell," Helen said pointing towards what she thought was obvious. "It is highly unlikely he did it on his own, isn't it?"

There was no denying it, even though Kingsley was clearly still having troubles to accept and process the fact. "I suppose. We are looking into the two guards and their backgrounds," he said.

She nodded merely, then sighed. "What do you want me to do?"

She thought for a moment where she should go. Strangely, she was not at all worried about herself. For a second she considered going to school so that she, too, could keep an eye on Giles and the others. She tried to imagine what Rodolphus would do, whom he would go after first. It was hard to tell, as he probably didn't know that she had got her powers back. On the other hand, she thought, if he was to target her first, it might be better if it wasn't at a place filled with people, such as a school.

"I want you to stay put, either here or at your own house," Kingsley said.

"But surely he must know that half the aurors are after him," she objected.

"Yeah. I don't really think he gives a damn," Kingsley objected gloomily. "To be frank I believe he even gets off on it. His distorted little world fell apart after we had won the war, there isn't a place for people like him anymore, he is at a loss really," he continued thoughtfully, "even if he might not be aware of it. So he does what he can best – that is torturing people he knows." He stopped abruptly and cleared his throat, then looked away.

Helen pierced him with her eyes. "You were thinking of using me as a bait, weren't you?" She asked.

"No," he protested. "We weren't thinking it. Just-ah... you are here, and you're the only one we know off whom he has openly threatened to come after. I wouldn't call it using you if he would have come here either way," he said defensively.

She glared at him.

Kingsley shrugged, then said: "You could have voted for him to get his memories wiped last year when you had the chance, then we would have none of this."

"Again, you do this," she suddenly burst out in a mixture of frustration and agitation, "you're acting like you have come to-to clean up my mess! Like I'm some-some prodigal teenage daughter that keeps inconveniencing you..."

Kingsley looked taken aback by this unexpected outburst, but to her frustration he did not reply at first.

He swallowed dryly, then said: "You will recall that-"

"Do not dare bring that apparition story into this!" She interrupted him loudly. "And by the way, you didn't have to come here because of that just to tell me off, you could have sent anyone from the Ministry to do that for you!" She didn't even know exactly why she was so upset with him. He had on occasion made her feel like a little child, or treated her and her "little insecurities" like a nuisance she should get over with. It had irritated her at times, but never enough to implode like this. At first she supposed it was because of the spell she had tried to lose her magic, and that he may have despised her for it, or at least no longer felt he could take her seriously, but now she thought about it - he had been treating her like this long before that; she could remember only few talks between the two of them where she didn't have the feeling he was even just ever so slightly annoyed by her or bothered by having to deal with her.

He pursed his lips, and for a split of a second she thought she saw his features screw in a grimace of pain.

"Are you honestly saying that it is my fault he escaped?" She asked after a while.

"I-ah... no, of course not," he said awkwardly, then took a pocket watch somewhere out of his robes and gave it a poorly faked frown. "I-ah... I have to get going... There are two aurors watching your house, and this apartment. Should you-ah... against my recommendation decide," he saw her roll her eyes and shake her head at those words, "... that you want to go somewhere else, please let them know. Here, the Granger." He stretched out a hand with a silver coin in it that should serve to summon help – a variation on the idea Hermione had implemented years ago at Hogwarts during the Dumbledore's Army meetings, and accordingly the coins now carried her name.

Helen took it reluctantly. She wished he would have said something else. She felt a little embarrassed now for yelling at him, even though she thought she was right.

Kingsley's dark eyes looked at her once more, with an intensity she didn't know they possessed. "Please, be careful for Merlin's sake," he muttered, a jerky short bow followed, before he turned on his spot and disappeared.

She had no idea what she should do. She looked around her, it felt... creepy, knowing that Rodolphus could pop in at any second, and it felt silly to just sit here and wait for it. A part of her even doubted that he would show. He must have known that he could not surprise her by now. Which made her wonder – why did he wait until now? Where has he been for the past two days? Why didn't he come straight away if he wanted to take revenge? Why has he let precious time slip away?


AN: Thank you for reading. I'd really love to read your thoughts here, as I was feeling a bit unsure about the Giles-wondering-if-should-quit part. I would not let him do that, I think that would really be out of character, but I thought that at least, just like Buffy did in the 3rd season have a "flight of fancy" where she briefly considered leaving Sunnydale and going to college somewhere else and do other things – I thought I'd mirror those notions in Giles' mind as well, not as something he would do in the end after some serious consideration, but at least have him think about and imagine what-could-be... what do you think? did it read all possible?