Chapter Ten
Saturday 15th of August 2008
11:48 am
Chateau d'Annecy lay at the top of a cobbled walkway that stretched upwards. Winding the narrow gaps between the houses. Due to the size of the streets, we occasionally needed to shift about as a group to avoid bumping up against other people going up or down. Most of them were happy to put in a warm word or two of greeting.
"Soooooo." Mark drew out the word as he slipped back next to me and looked forward. Seeing the three-way conversation taking place between Mum, Iris, and Ciel.
"Oh, I loved the animation in the space scene!" Iris gushed. "The movements were so well choreographed."
"Oh! Oh! And when he showed her the plant in the shoe." Ciel replied emphasizing with her hands. "It was so cute."
My sister focused more on the animation and cinematography of the scene. While Ciel seemed to focus more on the story and emotional impact. But I guess it was nice to see Iris having someone she could talk to about her interests without spacing out. I enjoyed a good movie as much as the next guy. But I really didn't have it in me to consider a long breakdown of what filmmaking and story techniques were used in its creation.
"How'd ya meet?"
"Cafe."
"Come on you've got to give me more than that. Did you approach her or did she approach you?"
"She came to me."
"Brave girl. Given you, you know, being you and all." I chose to say nothing and my brother took that as encouragement to keep going.
"You'd be an awesome person Harry. If it wasn't for your personality." Okay, that one wasn't bad. I was going to remember that. I maintained my stoic facade.
"I mean look at that badonkadonk." Who the hell used badonkadonk? "Come on you can't tell me it's not great." I held my tongue and focused on the road ahead. Apparently, Iris had moved on from Wall.e as had Ciel.
"You've never seen it?" The elder blue-eyed woman demanded.
"No. Never even heard of it."
"A travesty."
"What?"
"Every word in the sentence you just said was a travesty."
"Was it really that good?"
"Better than just good. Ghost in the Shell is one of the greatest animated feature films ever produced."
"When you say one of the best can you categorize it a little better for me?"
"My top five animated movies of all time, in no particular order. Ghost in the Shell, Sprited Away, The Emperor's New Groove, Shrek, and My Neighbour Totoro. If we were talking top ten I'd have a few more to throw in there. But Ghost in the Shell beats out Toy Story and Wall.e to the top five."
"I haven't seen half of those."
"Which ones haven't you seen!?" Ciel sounded desperate.
"Uh, Ghost in the Shell, Spirited Away, My Neighbour Totoro, and The Emperor's New Groove." Iris sounded sheepish while Ciel did a passable impression of a clown machine from a carnival with her mouth open.
"We need to get some time to watch those. I need to find a DVD player." Ciel responded sounding distracted while my Sister seemed enthused at the idea.
"We have a DVD player at the villa. We'll make a day of it." Mum offered with a smile. That sounded like it could be bad. Mark started talking louder and I turned my attention back to my brother.
"So you going to tongue punch that or not?" I had no idea about the current context of what he was saying. But given what he'd said before, and how wide Dad's eyes were at the question, I could guess it was inappropriate. I answered in the only way I reasonably could.
"No one." I enunciated carefully to make sure I was understood. "Will ever find your body." Mark looked me up and down. Snorted in derision and put his hands behind his head showing just how unaffected by my threat he was.
"Nah." Dismissing me he walked forward to joining the gaggle before us. I breathed out slowly and counted backward from ten. Reminding myself that no matter how justified. Disappearing my little brother was not a good idea.
"Well, that was certainly something," Dad muttered taking Mark's place at my side.
"Yeah."
"I have no idea where he learned that."
"I do."
"...Sirius?"
"Sirius."
"God damn it Padfoot." Dad groaned rubbing his head. A common state of being for my Father when he spoke of his best friend.
"Speaking of the mutt. How's his project going?"
"She actually agreed to go on a date with him." I was floored. I owed Moony ten galleons.
"You must be joking. Please tell me you're joking." I was begging and I didn't care who knew it.
"I'm afraid not. Remus has been counting the days until you get back."
"Fuck."
"I'd usually say something about your language. But you did just lose ten galleons so I'll let it go."
"Why, why now?"
"Well, I haven't exactly had a chance to ask her and it's not my place to do so. So I don't know." He sounded amused, bastard.
It was a long-standing point of fact that Sirius Black had fancied Rosmerta Ryan. More commonly known as Madam Rosmerta proprietress of The Three Broomsticks. She'd graduated when he'd been in his fourth year. She'd brought the Three Broomsticks when he was in his sixth. Apparently, he'd stuck around like a lost puppy every Hogsmeade weekend.
He'd finally worked up the courage to ask her for a date at the beginning of my sixth year. Some Gryffindor. Took him seventeen years after Hogwarts to ask her out. She'd turned him down showing the down-to-earth common sense that our house was known for. Which of course begged the question of why exactly she'd decided to say yes now when it was most inconvenient for me. You're letting the badger down Rosmerta. Common sense was supposed to be our superpower.
"I'm happy for him." I ground out.
"You hate the fact you lost money."
"Of course I do." My voice was a hiss.
"Them's the harsh realities of gambling!" Dad told me, and everyone for a hundred meters in every direction, in his best announcer voice.
"Have they actually gone on the date yet?" If he crashed and burned before there was a chance I could still get out of this.
"Last night. Apparently, it went swimmingly. She even kissed him on the cheek and they've another set for two weeks from next Wednesday." Like that, my final hope of weaseling out on the bet died a fiery death.
"Should I wait to see how smug Remus is or just send him the money?"
"Do it in person. He's been looking forward to this."
"Of course he has."
"Foooooou." The animal chuckle from my squirrel-dog drew my attention back to him as he laughed at my misfortune.
"You're all heart." That only made him laugh harder.
"So I've been meaning to ask. Why does everyone seem to ignore him?"
"I have no idea. I don't even know what species he is. I asked him that not too long ago and he didn't seem to know either."
"You asked the magical creature?" Dad said slowly.
"The magical creature that fully understands at the very least English and apparently can communicate back just using barks and yips. Yet I can understand him perfectly, most of the time." Dad blinked at that.
"You understand him."
"Oh yeah. Nine times out of ten."
"Do you think it could be some kind of natural form of legilimency?"
"I don't know." I looked down at Fou my face scrunched in thought.
"Any ideas?"
"Fou."
"He doesn't know and doesn't care enough to find out."
"You got all that from a yip?"
"He has very expressive yips."
"Fou."
"See."
"Yeah, that's not concerning at all." I could practically taste Dad's sarcasm. "Do you think he could be an animagus?" I considered the massive shadow monster that Fou had turned into.
"No. No definitely not."
"Would you, he," Dad corrected himself. "Mind if I checked for my own piece of mind." I looked down at the dog-squirrel.
"Fou."
"Go ahead but," I looked around at the open street.
"Maybe not here."
"I'll go with you back to your hotel, we'll do it then?"
"Sure."
"You know I had been thinking and I wanted to put the idea to you."
"Yeah?"
"Well, when I was waiting for the responses from my Enforcer contacts. I know that they rarely take new members on their first entry attempt. A lot of candidates take a year before applying to polish their skills. Some work as Freelancers as well. My point is that if you decide that being an Enforcer isn't for you then you always have the option of becoming a Freelancer instead. The pay is going to be less guaranteed since you'll have to work by commission, contract, and bounties. But if you want to avoid politics it could be your best bet."
I mulled the idea over in silence. Rolling it around my head. It wasn't a bad idea. Granted it meant that I wouldn't have access to the training facilities or the resources of the Enforcers. But if they didn't take me based on my first application then it would be a good way to get some experience and maybe hit the ground running on the next exam.
"If you're interested in that. I can get some books that should help you pass the Defence License Exam. That'd give you the legal freedom to pursue targets in Britain without the Aurors coming down on you. Provided you follow the rules. If you wanted to expand your horizons a little more then there are private detective agencies that require you to have a Defence License. So that could be another avenue of employment if being an Enforcer doesn't work out." He'd really put some thought into this.
"Thanks, Dad. I'll think about it and get back to you. But off the cuff I like it."
"You're welcome. I'm your Father. I'm supposed to think of things like this."
We were silent for some time as we walked trailing behind the group in front of us. As we got closer and closer to Chateau d'Annecy.
"Dad."
"Yeah?"
"If I tell you something. Can you promise me not to freak out?" He thought my words over for a second before answering.
"Did you get someone pregnant?" His eyes were locked on Ciel. I could actually hear my mind grind to a halt before I managed to sputter a response.
"No! No. I haven't gotten anyone pregnant."
"Then yes I can promise whatever you tell me won't make me freak out." I wet my lips a few times and looked at the sky.
"I don't know where to start."
"I find the beginning is usually a good place." Fat chance of that. I was not explaining everything about Zelretch and Mordred Pendragon to my father while we walked to a museum. Preferably I was not ever going to do that.
"There have been disappearances around Annecy."
"Okay."
"Vampire-related disappearances." Dad's eyes hardened and his jaw set.
"And how do you know this?"
"I got called in by the French Aurors regarding it. I was in the area where some of the Dead were found. They asked me back a few days later to make sure I hadn't thought of anything else or time hadn't shaken anything loose." It wasn't so much a lie as a half-truth. I had gotten very good at telling both.
"How bad is it?"
"Bad. At least seven people missing according to a muggle newspaper. But there were six Dead found near where I was."
"So that number is probably a severe lowball. Great. How do you know it's vampires?"
"When they got me back the Auror in charge of the interview mentioned it near the end."
"Alright. Are you involved further?"
"I'm keeping an eye out for things but that's it. But I've done some poking about, nothing dangerous." I lied as easily as I breathed. "They've been at least a dozen sightings of the Dead. Some of which have been put down."
"Okay, so a definite lowball then." Dad cupped his chin and rubbed in thought. "Why are you still here?"
"Sorry?"
"Why are you still here?"
"I've..." I trailed off. I had a bunch of answers I could say. Some of them could, shockingly, even be the truth. But that would mean revealing too much. Being near an attack by the Dead was deeply worrying for Dad.
If I told him the truth. From the beginning of it all. Admitting I'd almost died and he'd never known. Only kept alive by selling a portion of my life. It could break him. I didn't want that. I didn't want to hurt them even if it meant living in a lie. Because that lie could be so much kinder than reality.
My eyes moved up the path and I focused on the group in front of us. Iris was chatting with Mum about something while Mark was making a valiant attempt to chat up Ciel. She was indulging him. In the way of an older sister humouring a younger brother than any true interest. I took a small step to my right giving myself a more unobstructed view of the vampire hunter and allowed myself to look, really look, at her.
I made sure Dad saw it too.
My eyes flowed over her. Roaming in a way that under most circumstances I wouldn't have let them. The nape of her neck. The curve of her shoulders. The way the muscles moved under her blouse. They trailed lower. I let them linger over her hips and then journey lower still to what I could see of her legs.
Ciel turned as my eyes brushed over where her shoulder blades would be on their return journey back up her body and instead, I was greeted by the swell of her chest. I allowed myself another moment of naked staring before my eyes traveled ever upwards. The crook of her neck and then onto her face.
She looked a little shocked at my actions and then gave me a wicked grin that set off her face beautifully. I was probably getting teased over this later. Finally, I looked into her eyes. Blue. So very, very, blue.
"I've got my reasons," I told Dad. While mentally noting that I owed Ciel an apology for my blatant ogling. Even if it had been to throw Dad off of the scent.
"Fuck Harry. Of all the times you could have..." He trailed off into dark mutterings and I knew he had taken the bait. My obvious, and rather inappropriate, ogling of Ciel's form had given him the exact impression I wanted.
That I was staying in the city because I'd fallen head over heels for the woman before me. Which meant he wasn't likely to ask any more questions about why I was sticking around. I did feel a bit bad about using Ciel like that. But needs must when the Devil drives.
"Okay, okay." Dad shook his head trying to get his head back on straight.
"Sorry for dropping this on you."
"I appreciate the apology. But it doesn't exactly make the situation any better. Why's she still here?"
"I'm pretty sure she has family." I lied and hoped that Ciel would run with it if confronted. I'd need to corner her soon to make sure we were on the same page.
"Could we move them?"
"I doubt it."
"Alright fine. You're an adult you make your own choices. Even if they're stupid." It seemed to physically pain him to make that statement. "Just stay out of it. Let the Aurors do their job and don't look for trouble. Promise me okay?"
"I promise." The lie slipped from me as easily as every other before it and while it didn't make the concern on Dad's face disappear completely he looked relieved. As though a weight had been lifted from his shoulders.
Sometimes a lie could be so much kinder than reality.
Dad didn't say anything else instead choosing to stop walking and pulled me into a hug that anyone who was completely human would have called uncomfortably tight. I barely felt more than a little pressure. I hugged him back and Fou nuzzled into my neck from the side. If it was to assuage me for lying or not I didn't know. But I appreciated it nonetheless. The group ahead of us turned the corner and vanished from sight.
"You really have to be my kid to do something this stupid."
"Didn't you break the law to become an Animagus at fifteen? To keep Remus company and then helped him sneak out so he could roam the countryside as a massive vicious wolf-monster with a taste for human flesh?"
"Which makes me something of an authority on stupid decisions."
"No argument."
"Mouthy brat." Dad let me go and looked, forwards. "We should probably catch up."
"Yeah." We walked forward and I pretended not to notice the tears in his eyes as he brushed them away.
"We thought we'd lost you," Iris said almost jumping at us as we turned the corner. I let her catch me about the chest with her hug. "Are you coming tomorrow?" Ah that explained why she'd hugged me. To make sure I couldn't run away from her questions.
"To what exactly?"
"Movie day!"
"Movie day?"
"Movie day."
"What are we watching?"
"We're doing a full gamut of animated feature films." I turned to look at Ciel who was smiling at my trapped state.
"What films?"
"We each got to choose three," Iris informed me. "I've got Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Treasure Planet, and The Iron Giant." Okay, I'd seen two of those. But they were good and I'd only ever heard good things about Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Admittedly mostly from Iris. I turned to Ciel as Iris let me go. Apparently, content that I'd hear this out without attempting to run or something equally asinine.
"Ghost in the Shell, Kiki's Delivery Service, and The Emperor's New Groove." Ciel answered with a smile. Well, I had nothing to do during the day anyway. Maybe I should drop by Paris and pick up some Pepper Up potions?
"Sure. I'm in why not."
"Great. We'll start about noon." Iris informed me and I looked over at Mark.
"Oh no. You dug this grave you lay in it. I've got places to be." He stated shaking his head.
"What places?"
"Literally anywhere else."
"Party pooper," Iris said mulishly. Causing Mark to stick his tongue out at her.
"Art freak."
"Quidditch cretin."
I felt a smile start on my lips. It always began slowly. But if you let the twins go at it long enough eventually they'd just devolve into screaming the word cunt at each other at increasingly loud volumes. I'd once deliberately set them off near Snape because Iris had decided to steal my last chocolate frog. Mark meanwhile had been an unfortunate casualty of war. Besides I'm sure my brother had done something to deserve it.
"Okay, that's enough." Mum decided to stop it before they could really get going and I briefly lamented my lost entertainment. "I'm not doing this in public, not again. Come along children." She turned walking up the cobbled streets. Iris and Mark followed behind each flipping the other the bird as Dad brought up the rear shaking his head. Ciel went to follow and I reached out almost placing my hand on her shoulder before she slowed to match my pace.
"Sorry, I had to use you as an excuse."
"Oh, is that what your wandering eyes were about?"
"Yeah, Dad asked why I was still in the city considering the Dead. I needed an excuse that wouldn't make him look further."
"Okay." She was silent for a moment as we walked forward trailing behind my family by several meters. Thankfully my excuse doubled as a reason that Dad wouldn't be too suspicious if we spent time together. "See anything you liked?"
My mind, for the second time today, stalled out. I could hear the gears inside of my brain come to a screeching halt then start grinding. And I turned to face her my face having an expression reminiscent of a stunned mullet. My mouth worked up and down a few times without sound. Ciel cackled pointing at me and propping herself up by holding onto her knee with one hand.
"Your face!" The vicious grin on her face didn't abate even as I got myself back under control. "So your Dad thinks you?"
"Want to have sex with you, yes, moving on." I cut her off and attempted to get away from the topic. "He also thinks you won't leave because you have family in the city." The smile on Ciel's face vanished like mist under the noonday sun.
"I see." Her voice was quiet. Almost mournful. "I don't have anyone like that anymore." I didn't know what to say. What could I say in light of a statement like that? "But I can work with it. We'll say my Grandmother used to be a baker and she still lives around here."
She moved away from me and my hand came up unbidden from my side. I wanted to catch her and ask her if she was okay, if she needed to talk, or anything else. I had lost only my Grandfather and Grandmother. I didn't know how anyone could handle losing everyone like Ciel's words implied she had.
I hesitated my arm trembling minutely and the chance was lost as she left my reach. My arm returned to my side and I walked after her. A mental apology echoed inside my mind for opening old wounds. Even as I cursed myself as a coward for my indecision. I may not trust her. But it was hard not to like her. Even if it could just be a mask.
I didn't talk much even as we approached the castle. More a passive observer than an active participant. The outer walls had been lovingly maintained. The iron gates opened invitingly as the warm sun shone down from on high.
Through the gate was a courtyard with a view of the city stretching out below it like a painting. Park benches in the shade of trees. Not that I had long to gaze at the view. Iris instantly pulled Mum forward towards the museum entrance with the rest of us following in their wake.
The displays inside were magnificent. I was no student of history. Not even magical history, well unless you count listening to Mordred's stories about the Knights of the Round Table. But the vases and pottery on display were maintained with such an air of care and reverence that I couldn't help but be impressed. Items from around the castle were dotted in display cases. Several housing things like files, nails, flutes, spoons, and other miscellaneous day-to-day items.
Displays of glassware from perfume bottles to decanters, and cups held pride of place in another display. A small plaque next to a carefully arranged series of stones talked about the construction techniques common at the time of the castle's construction. Metal tableware and shattered marble engraved with Roman words half weathered away by time.
I stayed quiet. Only speaking when spoken to. Not out of a sense of misplaced reverence or the like. But more because I simply didn't have a lot to say. Putting my foot in my mouth once was enough for one day.
Another display this one held carved figurines of men, women, and children. Next to it behind the glass was a set of blacksmithing tools and items like horseshoes that had likely been made by them. Smaller clay pots were on a display nearby.
Ciel and I occasionally drifted toward each other. We quickly found reasons to be elsewhere. It was awkward. I didn't think she'd wanted to share about her family. But I couldn't just forget about it either. Sometimes you couldn't lie to yourself no matter how much you wanted to.
I knew that all too well.
The displays ended and we were directed outside by the layout. Before being funneled toward the next building. Inside was an ode to Annecy's fishing traditions. Examples of nets, recreations of fish, birds, and even boats. I'll admit I found it less interesting than the last building but quite welcome all the same.
Again we were directed outside and towards another building. I allowed the others to gain distance on me before breaking off and heading back to the park benches I'd noticed on the way in. People mulled around them but there were still spaces left. I sat in the shade of a large tree. Voices all around and not a single person I wanted to talk to.
Fou snuggled tighter to my neck and I scratched behind his fluffy ears. A smile on my face. I didn't know what Fou was and I may never. Mordred was completely convinced that it had something to do with Merlin. Whatever he was there was a kindness to him that I very much needed right now.
I sat there looking out over the city. A city I knew to be in danger from monsters. And yet seeing that picturesque view I couldn't help but feel a strange sense of calm and peace. The shade of the tree and the breeze from the lake made for a wonderful feeling as the wind whispered over the rooftops. I wasn't sure how long I sat there when Ciel sat next to me. She didn't speak at first. Instead choosing to look out over the city as I was.
"Thank you."
"For what?"
"For letting me be here today."
"I'm not the one who invited you."
"But you are the one who let it happen. If you'd really had a problem with it you could have driven me away without too much of a problem."
"In case you missed it. I'm not exactly great at overruling my bulldozer of a Mother."
"Maybe I should be thanking her then?"
"Maybe you should." We went silent again.
"I. I lost everything."
"I know."
"Do you?" Her words turned sharp, jagged, meant to wound.
"I may not know how or why. But no one does the kind of things we do for fun. Not without being a psychopath. With what you told me earlier it wasn't hard to put it together."
"I never wanted to be this."
"I don't think many of us did. We do it because we have too. Because we can't trust anyone else to do it." I'm too much of a coward to tell her the last reason. 'So we never have to feel powerless again.'
"That's why I wanted to thank you. Days like this where I can just be another face in the crowd. Where I can speak to others and be spoken to as just another person. Not as a member of the Burial Agency or an Executor. They're more precious to me than anything else."
"Even if they remind you of what you've lost?"
"Especially because of that. It gives me perspective about what's important and what I'm supposed to do."
We lapsed back into silence again. It wasn't enjoyment of each other's company that filled the air between us. But rather a melancholy that let us know even if we didn't come from the same place. We were similar enough that we could understand one another.
"My Father was a baker. My mother as well. We lived a good life. We weren't rich. But we had everything we needed. They were surprised and worried when I got my admittance letter to Beauxbatons. Thought it was a joke."
"Doesn't sound funny."
"That's why I'm not laughing." The smile she gave me was a plastic, hollow, thing devoid of warmth or joy. "I wish it had been a joke. Because that would mean this was a nightmare and I could wake up."
"But you can't, can you?"
"No."
Silence found us again. Fou unwound himself from my shoulders and trotted over to wrap around Ciel's. It was the closest thing to a hug he was capable of giving. I knew from experience they were pretty good hugs too.
"When I was seventeen. A vampire came to our town. No one knew at first. But less than a month after his arrival they'd killed close to half of us and broke the other half mentally and physically." Her words carefully carried no emotion. As though reciting the text out of a book. I wonder how long it took her to manage that. I know I couldn't about Diagon Alley.
"My memories from that time are like a fever dream. A horrible nightmare that I wake up from only to find myself here. In yet another nightmare. I couldn't, I didn't escape. It only ended when several teams of Executors and Enforcers backed by French Ministry Aurors attacked. There were almost twelve hundred people when it started. By the end, there were five of us." The words just kept coming like she was afraid that if she stopped she'd never be able to start again.
"The Church took us in. But gave them a choice. To live sequestered away in an abbey for the rest of their lives or to attempt to become an Executor. As far as I know, only I and one other are still alive. We're the two that became Executors. The others eventually took their own lives."
"I'm sorry." The words were empty air but they were all I had to offer. I wasn't even sure if I was apologising for opening old wounds earlier or for the story I had just been told.
"Do your parents know? Your brother? Your sister? About you I mean. About what you do?"
"No. I don't want them to know. Between everything, I think it would just hurt them."
"You should tell them. Take it from someone who never got the chance. One day you'll look back and all the things you didn't say will haunt you for the rest of your life." She stood and turned taking a single step. My arm shook even as it raced forward and my hand wrapped around hers.
"I," 'I'll do it.' The lie died in my throat before I could give it voice. The lump that hadn't been there a second ago made it hard to breathe. "I'll think about it." I voiced the truth. For once I voiced the truth. Her eyes softened even as pain flashed through them.
"Please do. Thank you for a lovely day." She pulled and I let her hand slip free of my own. My eyes tracked her in the crowd until she disappeared from sight. I turned back to the city. My heart felt like a chunk of ice in my chest. I put my head into my hands and closed my eyes.
I felt exhausted.
Chapter Ten- END.