Disclaimer: All belong to J.K. Rowling
The Separation
The next day, Cadfael found his Master and Mistress in a seriously bad mood. Neither of them attended their breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Both of them also gave him a deadly gaze when he appeared unannounced in their rooms.
Not until the evening that both of them accidentally crossed their path in front of the library.
Severus, who was hiding away in the basement, made a note in his journal of the potion's recipe that Ethelinda gave him. He had heard about some alternative ingredients mixed with the potion during the brewing, but using blood was something new. When Cadfael handed the vial of Ethelinda's blood, he asked the butler about the recipe and knew that it belonged to the founder of Lefevre's family. He looked around and came to a conclusion that whoever the founder was, that person was definitely a Potion's Master. As much to his curiosity, he remained in the laboratory and refilled his traveling stocks. He did not know how long they would stay at the mansion, so he tried to keep up with potions that only needed to brew in a short time. However, the truth was he was avoiding her.
Around eight in the evening, Severus finally dragged himself out of the basement. After scaring Cadfael away, his stomach made the ultimate protest of hunger. He grumpily murmured something to himself, probably cursing his hunger. He took another look at some of the potions he was brewing before heading down to the kitchen, planning to cook something by himself, rather than called his butler and saw that mocking face again.
Not much different than Severus, Ethelinda buried herself in the library with her quill and a blank parchment laid boring on the desk. Her mind wandered to their last conversation and realized she was hardly paying attention to anything at all. She blew softly to the end of the quill's fur. She knew they needed a plan for the new change in their power and… their relationship. However, she could not get herself over their last conversation. She rubbed her temples and leaned back against the chair.
Her eyes trailed off to the ceiling, a painting of a night sky with stars and a full moon. She wondered who came up with the idea but it was helpful to relax her mind. Then she remembered something she told Cadfael long ago.
"Cadfael, will I ever go outside?" The four-years-old Ethelinda sat comfortably on her butler's lap in the small attic.
"Yes, you will, Ethel," he replied gently as he kissed her hair.
"Anytime soon?" She worried, not knowing when that day would finally come.
"Very soon, dear," he ensured while wrapping his arms around her, providing some comfort to the child.
"I want to the see the sky at night, Cadfael," she murmured, starting to get sleepy. "Novas says that the sky at night is the most beautiful scene of the day… stars and moon…"
She smiled faintly at the memory. He probably was the one who suggested the painting. She let her mind drift away for a few minutes and finally looked back to the blank parchment. Her left hand tapped on the desk's surface as she was thinking of a new plan. Then, the idea arrived at last.
When the block in her thinking lifted, she quickly jotted down the different directions they could approach. After two hours of writing, she concluded one final plan. It was not a perfect one but the fastest one they could work out. Besides, without the two ambushes of the Death Eaters, they did not even need this absurd new plan. She frowned as she remembered about the suspect she had prior to the talk with Severus.
"Cadfael!" She called.
"Yes, Mistress?" Cadfael appeared next to her desk and waited for her order.
"Where are the contracts?" She narrowed her eyes at Cadfael and asked.
"Which one are you looking for?" Cadfael with his usual voice wanted more details in her request.
"All of them," she dropped her eyes back to the parchment.
Cadfael nodded and snapped his fingers. A box with beautiful crafting appeared in front of Ethelinda. Her wand tapped softly on the lock and the box opened, revealing a stack of contracts inside. Her fingers flipped through them quickly, her eyes moved up and down in an unnatural speed.
"If you can call the contractor's name, the right one will fly out," Cadfael suggested.
"The problem is, Cadfael, I don't remember their full name," she grumbled while looking through the contracts.
Cadfael looked amusingly at his Mistress. She forgot that she could basically give him the given name and he would find the one she was looking for. However, he just let his Mistress enjoy her work, she needed something to distract her from the Master.
The finding took more time than Ethelinda expected. Until seven-thirty in the evening, she finally pulled out the three she was looking for: Dave Hogan, Donovan Norman, and Thanos Poindexter.
"Not Jonathan Reid?" Cadfael knitted his eyebrows together when he saw the contract she pulled out.
"No, he left me here the moment I entered Hogwarts," she said sadly. "I have not contacted him since then."
Cadfael remained silent, his eyes wandered off to somewhere else, thinking of the man with a very disrespectful face. In the meantime, Ethelinda read the contracts thoroughly and to her butler's surprise, she burned them all.
"Mistress?" He screamed, horrified.
"Don't worry," she soothed him. "I will form a new contract with them, but not until I find the box."
Cadfael let out a relieved breath. He almost thought she would disown the best three servants in the family. As much to his own curiosity, he decided not to ask her the reason behind her action. Freya might tolerant to his noisy interesting, but he doubted Ethelinda would. He sensed her change the moment she stepped back to the mansion. It seemed that the one bad gene from her father's side finally caught up. It was better to avoid asking too many questions at this time.
"I need to check on something in my mother's room," Ethelinda stood up as she led herself to the door. "You can leave the box there. I still have some work with it."
Cadfael nodded and disappeared. Ethelinda opened the door and stepped out, unaware of someone passing by.
"Ouch, watch where you're going," she whimpered but quickly remembered that there were only two people living in this mansion, not counting her butler. "Sev… Professor?"
Severus half closed his eyes when he strolled along the hallway, when something stumbled him. He squeezed his eyes and then slowly opened. For a second, he almost did not recognize the young woman in front of him, if not for her soft and perfectly soothing voice. Under the light from the study room and the hallway, Ethelinda in her twenty-four's body was wearing a white shirt, opened two buttons at the collar, with her favorite creamy skinny jeans and no shoes. His eyes scanned carefully at her from top to bottom, noticing how round her face became to have a more grown-up feature with light make-up. Her hair was put neatly into a braided side bun and the color was slightly off, more like a darker-brown than a raven black liked she used to have. Her eyes were still pit black as his but it did not lose its beautiful and mysterious form. And when he moved to her lips, he just stood there and stared. He nearly licked his lips as he watched her lips move. That bottom lip is very eatable.
"Professor?" Ethelinda watched him and his strange reaction. He probably surprised to see her in her adult form, but the way he looked at her was unexplained. "Are you alright, sir?"
Her question drew Severus back to reality. He cleared his voice as his face was successfully blank. His eyes fixated at her, his lips moved as he spoke, barely noticeable, "Nothing that concerns you, Miss Lefevre."
She pursued at him but did not make further comment. She already hated the way he addressed her, so she did not want to listen to his surly insult right now. Nevertheless, she still needed to thank him for brewing the potion for her.
"Uhm… thanks for the potion, Professor," a sudden awkwardness rose in her voice. "It worked perfectly."
"I can see it worked… to its best," he smirked. "Although, you hardly make it to my shoulder."
Ethelinda frowned, then she realized he just made a joke about her height as he walked closer to her. Her face turned scarlet, she directed her eyes to somewhere else.
"Ah, uhm… I worked out the new plan for us," she continued the conversation while nervously tucking a lock of hair behind her ear. "If you are not busy, may we meet at nine in the library?"
His eyes gazed at her for a second then he nodded and walked passed her. She let out a heavy exhale the moment his footsteps were no longer audible. This will be a long night.
Ethelinda led herself to her mother's room, which was located deep at the end of the hallway. Staring at the rusty door, with five different locks, she sighed annoyingly. This mansion was not the original one that Severus encountered her long ago. However, her mother had created a spell to secure her room and made it movable. Therefore, when this mansion established, under Jonathan's supervision, he was able to relocate the room to this new one. Unfortunately, the woman was a bit paranoid, she sealed the room with too many difficulty spells and locks. Not to mention that, she was the one who hid the stupid box in the first place. Crazy woman!
She waved her wand and began to lift the ward, then she continued to unlock the locks. When she finished, the clock in the living room chiming at eight-thirty. She groaned grumpily as she entered the room. However, her feet stopped immediately. The room was vacant. There was nothing in the room, not even the floor's carpet.
"CADFAEL!" she yelled angrily.
"Any request, Mistress?" Cadfael appeared right next her, bowed and waited for her order.
"Raise your head up and look around," she placed her index finger under his chin and lifted his head up. "Tell me! What the bloody hell is happening here?"
Cadfael frowned but his eyes quickly adjusted the scene in front of him, "Interesting."
"WHAT?" She definitely lost her temper. "Lower your head, NOW!"
When he lowered his head to her level, she smashed pretty hard to the back of his head.
"Say something more productive this time, Cadfael!" she ordered while tapping her right foot on the floor.
"The only person that has accessed your mother's room is Jonathan. If you want an answer, he will be more productive than I am," he smirked.
"You!" she groaned as she stormed out the room.
She was not planning to contact Jonathan. She wanted to keep this mission away from him as long as possible. However, she had a feeling that sooner or later the old man would know of her plan. She hated him.
The old clock in the living room chimed again, reminding Ethelinda and Severus of their nine o'clock meeting. She sighed and headed back to the library with Cadfael followed behind.
"Sorry for the smash, Cadfael," she suddenly spoke, feeling terrible at her action earlier.
"Don't worry about it, Mistress," he smiled faintly at her, knowing she really did not mean to outburst at him.
"Will you not call me Mistress?" she stopped in front of the library and asked her butler. "It reminds me about her."
"Sorry, I can't do that, Mistress," he shook his head, refusing her request. "You know the reason."
"So it's true," she nodded slightly and pushed the door led to the library.
She was not surprised to see Severus was there, waiting for her. She gestured her butler to leave. However, the man lingered for a second and then patted her head softly before he retreated. She flinched at his contact but quickly felt a sense of closeness with him. She smiled to herself while walking toward where Severus was sitting, unnoticed the man's eyes was watching her.
"It's late, Miss Lefevre," Severus told her. "Can we do this tomorrow?"
Facing her back to him, she rolled her eyes, "It won't take too long, Professor." She grabbed the parchment laid on the desk and turned around, heading to where he sat. "You know that we still have four more locations to visit. Now that you have the ring, we can divide the works."
"You want me to perform the spell at those locations?" he asked while his eyes observed her.
"Yes," she nodded, ignoring his intense look. "The faster we unlock the spell, the quicker I can access the box. Besides, you have already known basic ritual, it won't take long."
"The plan can end earlier than we expected?" he sounded a bit of surprise.
"Yes," she paused, sensing a strange feeling floated up to the surface. "Once we're done, I will process the promise we have."
His eyes flicked in a second then became impassive. "When will we depart?"
"Tomorrow's evening," she replied.
"Separately?" he asked again.
"Yes, I will give you the locations before we depart," she explained. "About the spell, we will do it tomorrow's morning. It will be quick."
"Are you sure… you will be alright by yourself?" He suddenly sounded concerned, remembering the recent incident.
"I can take care of myself, Professor," she ensured him, but secretly felt happy that he was still worried about her.
He kept his eyes on her for a second then he stood up and excused himself. When he walked past her, she grabbed his wrist. Their backs faced each other.
"Are we still at it?" She asked.
He knew exactly what she was referring to, but he refused to acknowledge it. "I don't know what you are talking about, Miss Lefevre."
She turned her head to look at him, but his face hid behind his long hair. She could not read anything from his voice or his expression. She gripped his wrist one last time and released it.
"Good night, Professor," she spoke up while walking back to her desk, she still had her back to him.
"Good night, Miss Lefevre," he bid his farewell and left the room.
The silence fell down in the library once again as he exited the library. She turned to the door and had a glimpse of his robe. He was back to his usual clothes while in the mansion. She smiled softly at that image. She wondered that if after all of this would she have another chance to see it again, the billow of his robe.
A/N: The more I write, the longer it gets to finish lol Anyway, here is the new chapter. Best regards to all my readers and reviewers. Love ^x^
Specially thanks to my lovely beta, Hero of Olympus in Disguise ^x^