Chapter Seven
The next day, Snape once again taught Lupin's classes. He seemed to take particular pleasure in teaching a lesson on nocturnal monsters in general, frequently mentioning the werewolf this time. This behaviour made Lin mad, but she controlled her anger as she knew she must.
In the evening, Lin visited Lupin again, knowing he would need a full night's sleep. They hardly talked before she cast the sleeping spell on him, allowing him to rest.
The day of the Quidditch match dawned cloudy and rainy. Neither were promising conditions. As the morning progressed, the light rain progressed into a torrential downpour. These conditions were far from promising for the Quidditch match.
Despite that, Lin walked out to the field with the throng of students and staff to take a seat in the bleachers, ready to watch the game. The stands were, as always, packed full. Lin squeezed in with the rest of the Gryffindor crowd to watch the game and cheer the team on.
It was a very good thing that Lin did not mind being cold and wet, or she would be sick as many of her classmates were the next day.
Part way through the game, lightning struck the end of one player's broomstick, but it was quickly extinguished by the rain.
Only a minute later, it seemed that the two seekers had spotted the snitch. The Hufflepuff seeker flew up with his arm stretched out to catch it. Harry, the Gryffindor seeker, was not far behind. However, the Hufflepuff seeker was struck by lightning. He fell about halfway to the ground before catching himself and pulling out to a stable flying position.
Still Harry flew onward and upward, always toward the snitch. As he flew, rain began to freeze on his broomstick handle and eye goggles, but he still flew onward.
However, the next the thing he knew there were dementors flying at him, sucking the happiness out of both him and the crowd. Lin sensed them and looked worriedly up into the clouds. Still, the crowd could not feel it.
Suddenly, a figure came plummeting down from the clouds. It was Harry! Lin noticed nothing but that as she quickly stood and stretched her hand out.
Harry's descent slowed instantly. By the time he reached the ground, he was slow enough to lightly set down.
Everyone stared at her in shock. Seeing this, Lin ran from the stands. As soon as she was out of sight on the stairs, she jumped down to the ground and ran back to the castle.
oooooooooooooooo
As soon as the dementors were gone and Harry was in the hospital, Dumbledore hurried to his office. Once he had entered the room, he hurriedly closed the door and used a powerful locking spell.
"Lin, why did you have to reveal yourself like that?" he demanded as he turned back from the door.
"Would you rather have had Harry fall to his death?" she demanded. She was seated in a chair off to his left, one leg stretched over the arm of the chair.
"I could have handled it," he insisted.
"You and I both know that my reflexes are far better than yours. He would have broken bones if I had let you deal with it," she said.
"Yes, but now everyone has seen how powerful you are! What are we to tell them?"
"Perhaps there's a way to solve this without actually telling anyone anything," Lin said, her foot beginning to tap the air as that leg dangled from the armrest.
"What do you mean?" the Headmaster asked. After all, she had some pretty brilliant ideas sometimes.
"Perhaps, if you arrange for me to take my NEWTs as soon as possible, they would think that you didn't know," she said, looking up at him.
"I will have to explain to the staff. They won't believe that," he said.
"But the students will, and that is the biggest problem," she said.
"What will I tell the staff? I can't tell them the truth, or you'd never be able to stay at Hogwarts," he said, thinking harder still.
"What if you told them that you were waiting until I graduated to hire me, but this gives you an excuse to hire me earlier?" Lin asked. "Would that work?" Her foot was still bobbing in the air.
"That's brilliant!" Dumbledore exclaimed.
"I have my moments," she said, shrugging.
Almost the second Lin stopped talking, the door burst open and McGonagall hurried into the room, shutting the door behind her. "What are you going to do, Albus?" she asked worriedly.
"I've arranged for her to take her NEWTs on Monday. We need to tell the staff that we intended to hire her as soon as she was out of school," Dumbledore said calmly.
"Severus and Remus will suspect," she said, knowing they were the most suspicious and perceptive of the staff.
"That is why you get the lovely job of convincing Snape, and I shall speak to Lupin," Lin said from behind her.
"Lin! You're here. Are you sure you can convince him?" McGonagall said, turning quickly in surprise.
"Quite sure," she replied confidently.
Even as she spoke, the door opened and in came Professor Flitwick and Hagrid. "Dumbledore-" Flitwick began to say.
The Headmaster interrupted by saying, "You're here about Lin Sarvial. Let's wait until Severus arrives before we begin."
They did not have to wait long. Moments later, the door opened again and Snape came in. "Headmaster, I-" he began.
"Your questions are about to be answered, Professor Snape. I would suggest being patient enough to hear a full explanation of the current situation. If you have any more questions at that time, I would be happy to answer them," Lin said from her place lounging on the chair.
The three newly arrived Professors turned quickly to look at her because they had not known she was there. Unfortunately for Snape, because of the way she had phrased that, Snape could not reproach her for disrespect, even though she had been quite bold.
"Now, you're all here about Li- Miss Sarvial here. I've known about her power for some tme. I was going to hire her as soon as she graduated," Dumbledore said, beginning the explanation.
"At what post?" Snape interjected suspiciously.
"I would have started as an assistant unless Defence Against the Dark Arts wasn't filled. In that case, I would have taken that post," Lin said calmly.
The Professors studied her for a second as she lounged nonchalantly. She seemed complacent, calm, and confident.
"What are you going to do now?" Flitwick asked.
"I have arranged for Lin to take her NEWTs on Monday. After that, I'll hire her."
Everyone was silent, pondering what this would mean. After several seconds of silence, Hagrid said, "Good...Good luck on your NEWTs..." Flitwick copied the half-giant's well-wishing moments later. The two of them left right after that, seeing no reason to stay.
However, Snape stayed, peering at her suspiciously. Lin met his gaze calmly. After a few moments, she looked over to McGonagall and Dumbledore. "I'll go tell him," she said.
The Headmaster nodded before turning to Snape. Now came the hard part: convincing the skeptic.
Lin left quickly and walked through the corridors at an accelerated pace. She hurried to Lupin's office and knocked before listening for an answer. Please be awake.
"Come in," Lupin called as usual. Thank the wind!
Lin stepped into the room and closed the door behind her. "Ah, Lin! How was the match? Who won?" Lupin called jovially, though still weary.
"Hufflepuff won. Harry fell from his broom-" she began.
"What? He's a fantastic flier! Why did he fall?" Lupin asked quickly.
"The dementors came. When Harry fell, he was unconscious...I saved him, but...the staff knows that I'm powerful. They are suspicious...Dumbledore arranged for me to take my NEWTs on Monday to placate their curiosity...After that...After that, Dumbledore will hire me," she explained. As she spoke, her feelings began to show in that her tone was becoming less and less controlled, and more and more worried.
"Lin, come over here," he said, sounding surprisingly unaffected by this news.
She walked over to the far side of the room and stopped at the side of his bed. After all, he had been bedridden since the full moon.
"Everything will be fine," he said, looking her straight in the eye."
"I wish it was so simple," she said, looking down to hide her eyes. She blinked quickly, hoping the tears would not fall.
Seeing this, Lupin reached out and took her hand. He used that to guiode her to a seat beside him on the bed. "Why isn't it?" he asked.
"You know I cannot tell you," she said, looking up for a second.
Lupin put his other hand on her shoulder and said, "The only thing stopping you is yourself," he said seriously. What a cliché!
She tried to stand, but Lupin pulled her back using her hand that he still held. Because of the force he exerted to pull her, she fell back and landed with her head in his lap. Despite this, he still kept his other hand on the shoulder closer to him.
"What are you doing?" she demanded, looing sharply at him.
"Is there anyone you can talk to about this?" he asked.
"Albus and McGonagall," she said immediately.
"Do they understand?" Lupin asked pointedly but softly.
Lin's eyes began to glisten with tears once more. She looked up at him sadly and said, "No."
"Make me understand. Tell me," he said slightly more forcefully. As he spoke, he put a hand on her cheek, making sure that she could not look away.
Almost instantly, Lin took a hold of his wrist and pulled it away from her face. When she released his wrist however, she did not attempt to rise. Instead, she brushed her hair back, revealing an ear that tapered to a delicate point.
Lupin frowned in bewilderment. That was quite simply one thing he had not expected. One of his hands hesitantly reached out and touched the point, almost as though it would shatter at the slightest touch.
"What are you?" he asked, his voice unintentionally puzzled.
"I assume you've heard of the fey folk," she began.
He nodded.
"There are two ways to distinguish them: light or dark and little people or Nairveith (normal sized people). I am a Nairveith of the light, specifically a sylph."
"That's impossible! They're extinct, and you don't even have wings!" Lupin exclaimed.
"I cast a spell when Dumbledore said I could stay here. My wings grew into my body in a very painful process. I can separate them at will, but that is extremely painful as well. Ans as to being extinct, we are quite close to extinction. However, we still have one settlement in a range of European mountains, which I shall not name."
"Why can't you just go back to your people to escape this mess?" he asked, puzzled.
Quite suddenly, she became grim and said. "In can never return," she said, looking away from him.
"Why not?" he asked, frowning.
"A...very evil being came to our settlement. He was so powerful that we could not stop him. He talked with our leader. He had several conditions that had to be met otherwise he would destroy the settlement and kill everyone. He wanted a vial of sylph tears, a condor egg (which I'm sure you've heard is quite valuable), a young hippogriff, and a young, beautiful sylph female. There were only 18 of us to choose from..."
"He chose you, didn't he?" Lupin finished for her.
She looked back to him for a second and nodded.
"What was he? A wizard?"
"If only it were so...He is a maedar," she said.
"A what?" Lupin asked. He knew more about dark creatures than almost anyone, but he had never heard of a 'maedar'.
"A male medusa. They do not petrify with a look. In fact, they're immune to it," she said factually.
"Why haven't I heard of them before?" he asked.
"They're even more uncommon than medusa. Hardly anyone has even heard of them, and even fewer know that they actually exist. I think there are about ten in the world right now. They all live in southern Europe," she said, filling him on some information.
"What do they look like?" he asked, more than ready to watch out for any for her.
"You've seen one. The boggart turned into him," Lin said, controlling her voice quite carefully.
Lupin noticed and took her hands in his. Then, he asked, "What happened?"
Her muscles clenched in fear. Observing this, Lupin began to rub the backs of her hands with his thumbs. She began to relax her muscles, but she still did not speak. Instead, she turned her hands to grasp one of his in both of hers. Slowly, he moved his hand to rest on top of hers.
She began to speak, very quietly at first. Her volume grew as she continued. "He took me to his lair deep in the Rhodopes of Greece. He...he told me that I was his mate," she said. Her voice broke on the last word. With that, she broke down into tears.
Instantly and most certainly on reflex, Lupin wrapped his arms around her tightly. After a minute, she took a deep, long breath and said quietly, "Maedar mate for life...They will pursue their mate to the ends of the earth...He said that I could never leave, and that if I did, he would find me and drag me back...back to that dark, windless, soulless cave..."
"He hasn't found you for 87 years. Perhaps he won't find you," Lupin said reassuringly.
"He said that he could sense me," Lin said quietly, horrified.
"Have faith in Dumbledore. He has cast spells on the castle to protect against things like that," he reminded her.
"Lupin..."
"Remus," he corrected entirely on instinct.
"Remus..." she whispered, "He is more powerful than me..."
"What is his name?" Lupin asked. In all this time, she hasn't once said his name. Why? Who is he?
"Vaeldin," she whispered after a second. She shuddered for a second before continuing her tale of sorrow. "As soon as he left, I flew away. He would have found me had I returned to my people. So, I just kept flying. One of the centaurs found me passed out from exhaustion in the Forbidden Forest. They took care of me, and one of them told Dumbledore of me. He took me in, taught me English, and helped me blend in here..." She paused her took take another shuddering breath. "I can never leave. The spells on the castle protect me. If I leave, he will find me...Even if I stay here, he might find a way, despite the spells."
Lupin just held her closer. She was literally on the edge of hysteria. Nothing he could say would convince her of her safety. As she continued to cling to him, she whispered, "...I'm afraid...afraid that someone will found out and tell the Ministry..."
"Does someone suspect you?" he asked, catching the implication in her tone.
"Snape," Lin said bluntly.
"I'll help you hide from him. I promise," Remus said reassuringly.
"Thank you," Lin said, pulling away. However, she still retained her death grip on his pajamas.
It was then that he noticed the weariness in her eyes. She did not even seem to radiate her ethereal radiance anymore. "Are you sure you're alright?" he asked, gently holding her chin to carefully examine her face.
Lin smiled wearily and said, "It is nothing, Remus. I am just tired from the levitation spell with which I saved Harry. After all, it was a lot of speed to work against."
"You should rest," Remus said, scooting over on the bed and guiding her into the new space.
"I know, but..." Lin began to say.
"No excuses. You need to rest. Besides, would you rather return to your Dormitory and the students waiting to question you?" he said, guiding her shoulders and head back to rest on the bed and pillow.
Lin smiled and said simply, "Good point." Seconds later, her breathing slowed and her eyes closed, testifying her exhaustion.
Remus smiled and slid down on the bed so that he was laying next to Lin. He turned toward her and relaxed her grip on his pajamas. There, he hesitated before tentatively placing his arms around her. He would not admit it, but he had longed to hold her like that.