"let us introduce ourselves. These are my fellow men Sir Goddart Paupard, he pointed at the burly one and sir Fergus Crescent he pointed at the skinny one. And my name is Sir Nicolas de Mimsy Porpington."
Chapter 17:
They must have wondered why I was gaping like a fish.
I must admit, I was speechless.
My mind was racing a hundred miles per hour. It was like being hit with an avalanche of revelation. I felt like my mind was going to burst from the pressure of this new information. Like the knowledge was too large for the processing capacity of my brain. How could I not have expected this already? It was so simple! It was all so very simple!
We were currently in the fourteen hundreds, Nearly Headless Nick had lived during the fourteen hundreds. Why would coincidence, the fates or whatever power that made the rules, not pull us together?
I only stood there in shock for almost a minute before I managed to make a sound; "Oh . . ."
Sir Nicolas certainly didn't look like the Nearly Headless Nick I remembered. He had been wearing a pipe collar and tights last time I saw him (he had also been dead). These guys were all dressed in more practical riding clothes (and were very much alive).
"And what is your name, good sir?" asked Sir Nicolas, looking slightly concerned about my reaction.
". . . I am Sir . . . Ronald . . . of . . . Grimmauld" I said at last. Using the first names I could think of. In retrospect I realised it was a good idea to change my name from the one I'd used in Watercrest, in case Nick had ever crossed paths with Lord Mordon. "And that is my wife . . . Andromeda" I pointed at Snape. ". . . Tell me . . . what is your purpose in this part of the country?" I asked slowly. I had a strong feeling I knew the answer . . .
"Indeed, we are burdened with glorious purpose!" declared Sir Nicolas proudly. "We are on a mission for the King himself to fetch a sample of the magical water from the Well of Wishes. A glorious task if I may say so myself. And that is the direction we are currently headed. Tell me, what purpose have you Sir and your wife in these parts of the land?"
I had believed I couldn't be more shocked by what he said, but here I was; more shocked. ". . . we are on our way in the same direction . . . We are here on the orders of . . . Lord Mordon of Watercrest to find The Well of Wishes and bring him a sample." In my baffled state I was amazed how well I managed to invent lies.
Sir Nicolas seemed about to explode from excitement. "What incredible news! What say you to join our little party and head to our destination together?"
"Err . . ."
I glanced in Snapes direction. He would not like it if I made a decision like this without him. On the other hand, this was major! I simply couldn't refuse. Also, five wizards were a lot better against Acromantulas than two. "That would be an honour Sir, I would be glad to accept your invitation" I said with a wide smile.
Sir Nicolas clapped his hands together happily and invited us to join them for supper. Apparently, they had set up camp only a few yards away. The other two men didn't seem quite as excited about their new companions as The-not-yet-headless Nick, but they bowed politely when I excused myself to go have a talk with Snape.
My new wife was now hiding his face in Difficults muzzle.
I wondered for a brief second whether he was crying.
"Hey, are you sure you are okay?" I asked carefully and automatically reached out a hand to touch him. He startled and looked at me as if he had forgotten I existed. Then his expression changed to a glare; "I've told you this before. Yes! I'm fine!"
I raised an eyebrow "Okay. Well those dudes over there asked if we wanted to have supper with them . . . and also, they asked if we wanted company on our way to The Well of Wishes. I accepted both."
His glare deepened further. "You told them about our destination?" he asked dangerously.
"No actually, they were already heading there themselves on the Kings orders. I didn't make them go."
He raised an eyebrow. "So, you're saying we simply happened upon someone who were on their way to a magic Well that we have no idea exists, at the same time as we were, completely without your urge?" his sarcastic tone made me want to punch him.
"Severus, what the fuck do you take me for?" I said, feeling the irritation build inside my chest. "I'm not running around announcing our destination in case someone wants to join in a parade. At least give me some benefit of the doubt."
He raised a dangerous eyebrow "And yet you still decided to make this decision without me?"
"Yep" I said without regrets.
He bristled and seemed about to snarl at me again, but I stopped him by interrupting. "Don't you see? The guy who pulled you up, do you know who he is? It's Sir Nicolas de Mimsy Porpingon."
He snorted in disbelief "What?" He obviously thought I was joking, but he still scanned the three men wo were heading away from us intently.
"Sir Nicolas de Mimsy Porpington! You know, Nearly Headless Nick? The ghost at Hogwarts? Pipe collar and tights. The guy who always complains about not being able to join the headless hunt-"
"You've got to be fucking kidding me" he half stated half asked, still scanning Nick and his men.
"I am a hundred percent, not kidding."
"You have to be, because the notion that we just happened to stumble upon a live Nearly Headless Nick is completely ridiculous."
I shook my head seriously.
"How it that even possible!?"
"I don't know! I am as shocked as you are." I said and tossed my hands in the air. "But you see what this means? The last bottle of water from The Well of Wishes was inherited down generations from a relative of Nearly headless Nick! This is supposed to happen! Nick is supposed to find The Well and bring some of it with him . . . and I think we are supposed to follow them!"
"I . . . How!?" Snape was out of words while he looked between me and the men of Sir Nicolas. I could see the wheels turning in his brain. He was probably conducting theories of time and space far beyond what I had managed to do earlier, but I was pretty sure he would conclude with the same thing I did. That we were meant to be here.
"I haven't the faintest clue" I said honestly.
"But it's simply impossible."
"I thought switching souls was impossible. But we've done that a few times already. I don't think anything can shock me anymore" I deadpanned.
To my surprise there was a thug at the corner of his mouth, and he made a gesture of agreement.
I understood his confusion though. What we were dealing with here ventured dangerously close to . . . fate. A concept neither of us really believed in. If we were really supposed to follow Nick and his men to The Well, that meant Severus and I were partly responsible for our own predicament in the future. Or in our case; at this very moment. I didn't believe in time loops, but this sounded very much like one.
Snape looked like he wanted to discuss this further, but I knew I'd be out of my depths if we tried to venture into theories of timeturners and space continuums and whatnot. I don't know if I've told you this, but I'm not one for theoretics. Instead I reached out a hand; "Come on, I'll introduce you to them. I told them my name is Sir Ronald of Grimmauld. You are my wife Andromeda." Snape snorted at my name choice but he didn't take my hand. Instead he walked next to me with Difficult in tow.
Sir Nicolas and his men were very welcoming and open. They wanted to know everything about us. I lied myself through a long and complicated story of how my wife Andromeda and I had come to work for Lord Mordon. Something in the line of owing him a favour. Snape stayed quiet. Not because he was out of spirits but because he simply didn't want to talk. He listened intently to my lies while we ate. Probably to remember them for later. Then he wished us all good night and went to put up our tent. I knew he didn't want me to follow right away. His body language clearly signalled to leave him alone, so I stayed with the men for a while longer and listened to their tales of some hunt they had done the muggle way. When we all dispersed and went to our own designated tents they assured me they had put up protections against Acromantulas. I hoped they were strong enough against a hundred of them.
Snape had already fallen asleep when I entered the tent. He lay curled up with his back to me, his blankets pulled up to his ears. But when I began to pull off my shoes, he stirred in his sleep and drew a sharp breath.
I froze and scanned his dark form to see whether I had woken him. But he didn't stir again.
Perhaps it was only a twitch?
But after I had undressed and almost fell asleep myself, he twitched again. More violently this time. Then he started to trash around in his sleep. A whimper escaped his throat.
I lifted my head to see him better. A nightmare of course. That was it.
I lit my wand and scooted over to him on my knees. He whimpered again and curled into a ball as if shrinking away from my presence. It took a lot of effort to wake him but when he finally opened his eyes he cried out and shoved my hand away forcefully. Then he breathed out in relief when he discovered who I was and covered his face with his hands.
"You had a nightmare" I said informatively. Not that he needed to know that. I put my hand to his forehead and stroke his sweaty curls back. "Are you okay?"
He nodded and said nothing. He still lay on his back and still covered his face with his hands. I waited for a while to see if he wanted to say more, but he didn't. "Okay, well . . . good night then." I turned to scoot back to my own part of the tent when he grabbed my hand with both of his.
"I must apologise . . . for what I did earlier" he said while he sat up, still holding my hand. "I shouldn't have- . . . I let my anger get the better of me and I am . . . sorry." He sounded like the words were incredibly difficult to say. Like he had been forced to use a language he didn't speak. But I realised why he was still holding my hand. He wanted me to know, to feel through our link, that he meant every word. "Will you . . . forgive me?" he asked my hand.
I studied him with a frown. It took my tired brain a moment to realise he was talking about the memory incident earlier today. I had forgotten about that. Ever since the Acromantulas, I'd had other things to think about. Like staying alive for example. But now that he mentioned it, I realized I couldn't stay angry at him. Not when he had apologised properly for once, and clearly regretted what he'd shown me. I couldn't brush that off so easily. Also, we had more important things to do than be angry at each other.
I bent down and kissed his forehead. "Of course I will forgive you" I said and gave his hand a little squeeze.
He stared at me with a strange expression. He looked almost confused. But I was too tired to ponder over what it meant, so I lay back down under my own blankets. "Let's get some more sleep eh?" He nodded and I waved my wand to turn the light out.
We lay in silence for a few minutes until Snape shifted. "Did you seriously name the horse 'Difficult'?" he whispered curiously.
"Yeah what of it?" I felt the corners of my mouth slowly turn upwards.
"Why?" there was an element of amusement in his voice.
"Well, given how she acted towards you I thought it rather fitting, don't you think?" I said with a smirk.
I heard a snort from Snapes side of the tent. "Very fitting indeed."
And with that it was as if the tension between us suddenly dissipated. I couldn't help but smile. How strange it was to be friends with Snape . . .
. . . Severus I suppose.
Authors note:
Hello readers. Sorry for the long wait for this chapter. I've been spending large parts of the summer without wifi, done some travelling and moving to a new place. But now things are starting to settle down so I hope to post a new chapter soon.
