Once Damon had seen Maya off to school, even if it did make him anxious to send her after the events of yesterday. Maggie and Enzo had left for work, and Stefan had gone to school, with a promise to invite Elena and Jeremy over for a discussion that evening. Damon had already sent off a message to Jenna, about needing to talk, and could she come over that evening. She'd responded with an uh-oh face emoji and a thumbs-up, but he knew she wouldn't miss it, and with any luck would drag Jeremy and Elena along, even if they turned down Stefan's invite. Now, with everyone else occupied, he could focus on his mission for the day.

"All right Rosebud." He said entering the living room where their new houseguest was sitting crying. "I need some answers."

Rose stood up and grabbed a tissue to wipe away her tears.

"Oh, please don't tell me you're crying 'cause your buddy Trevor lost his head."

"You always been this sensitive?"

"You gambled. Trevor lost. You must have been aware he's death was always going to be a probable outcome."

Rose's chuckle was dry and filled with pain.

"I thought it would be both of us or neither of us. I never imagined that I would live, and he would die."

"People die, Rosebud. That's the world we live in, you can either sit around crying about it all the time, or do something."

"Yeah? Like what?"

"How do I find Klaus?"

The Horde had been trying for the last twenty months to try and find Klaus, but every time they'd thought they'd gotten close, he disappeared again. But Rose had managed to find Elijah, so maybe, where goblins had failed, vampires could succeed. Damon was willing to take a chance and try. Maya deserved a chance to at least meet her father, a chance to build a relationship with him if she chose too. And perhaps if they reached out first, let him know they were looking for a way to break the curse without anyone dying… Maybe he would accept that, be willing to wait.

"You don't find Klaus, he finds you."

"Come on." Damon's sigh was exasperated, "Somebody's got to know somebody who knows where he is, right?"

"Add another two hundred somebodies to that and you're still not even close." Rose said, sitting back down again.

"Humour me. You got in touch with Elijah, how did you do it?"

"Through a very low somebody on the totem pole." Damon waved his hands, pushing her to continue. "A guy named Slater in Richmond."

Finally. He knew if he pushed her hard enough, she would provide some actual answers.

"Perfect. I'll drive."

"No. You forget not all of us can do sun."

"Then you drive." Damon responded easily; he wasn't about to let her wriggle her way out of helping. "Come on." He walked out of the room, not giving her the opportunity to argue with him. After a moment she followed.

They didn't talk much during the drive, Rose attempted to ask a few questions, but Damon either gave her short, clipped answers, or none at all, and she soon gave up. Rose pulled into an underground parking lot.

"Back entrance." Damon commented as they got out of the car, "How convenient."

"That's the point. We can't all have little daylight rings."

Damon wiggled the fingers on his ring hand at her, a slight smirk on his lips.

"How do you know this Slater guy is even here?"

"I called him. He's here. He's always here."

"Good." Damon replied chirpily, before pushing her against a pillar, pinning her down with an arm across her throat. "Just one thing. If you're setting me up in any way, I will rip your heart out and shove it down your throat. It's something I'm very good at."

He saw the change in Rose's eyes and released his grip dodging to the side and racing back at speed when she attempted to turn the tables on him. She stumbled slightly, but was able to catch herself before she fell.

"You know I'm older and stronger than you right?" She said, trying to act as if he hadn't surprised her with how easily he'd avoided her grasp.

"Yeah. But I'm craftier."

"You can trust me."

"I am trusting you. I never would have allowed Maya to offer you an invitation inside the house if I didn't trust you. Doesn't mean I won't rip your heart out if you ever do anything to harm me or my family."

Rose nodded, a look of understanding entering her eyes. She led him into the coffee shop, through the back entrance, Damon was surprised when she walked through the darker part, heading towards the more sunlight front of the shop.

"Whoa. What about the sunlight?"

"Double paned and tempered. UV rays can't penetrate. You see the appeal now?"

"That and the free Wi-Fi." A man said approaching them.

From the way Rose immediately reached out and embraced the stranger, Damon was guessing this was Slater. The very person they'd come to see.

"Hey, how are you?"

"Good. I saw you come, what are you doing here?"

"Mmm, it's a long story. But I want you to meet…"

"Damon Salvatore." Slater finished her sentence for her, as he turned to look at Damon.

Damon pulled a face at him, very much not comfortable with this guy knowing who he was without ever having met him before. He didn't like people knowing more about him than he wanted them to, and he really hoped this guy didn't know too much, or he might just end up killing Rose's friend and he's only lead to Klaus.

"Turned 1864 in Mystic Falls by Katherine Pierce aka Katerina Petrova." Slater completed turning back to Rose, "So, I take it I was right, what I told you about the tomb under the church was true?"

Damon was gonna give him a pass for now, knowing his name and who turned him was no big deal. There was much more important information, that he'd rather the guy didn't have.

"Yes. It was right. Thank you for the tip."

Slater looked back at Damon, intuiting, correctly, that Damon wasn't too happy with the way this meeting was going.

"It's nice to meet you, maybe." Damon shook the hand Slater held out to him, side-eying Rose as he did so. Slater also turned back to Rose. "What's going on Rose? Where's Trevor?"

Damon ordered them all drinks. He could at least attempt to be nice, until he knew whether he needed to kill Slater or not. Rose took the time to feel Slater in on what had happened during her attempt to get a pardon for herself and Trevor from Elijah. Including the part where Pearl had staked him and pinned him to the wall. Something Damon had yet to tell Maya, he would, just not till she'd had a few days to process the whole trauma that had been her experience with the Boggart turned Dementor.

"And you're sure Elijah's dead?" Slater asked, when Rose had finished, and they were headed to a table by the window with their drinks.

"Beyond dead." Damon answered.

"Trevor was a good man; he helped me with my dissertation on sexual deviance in the Baroque period." Slater said after a moment, before adding for Damon's benefit. "I was going for my Psych PhD."

"Slater's been in college since '74" Rose explained.

"When I was turned. I have 18 degrees, 3 master's and 4 PhDs."

Damon raised an eyebrow. Enzo and Stefan both enjoyed getting degrees, but it wasn't all they did, they actually used them as well once they'd gotten them. Maggie also had a number of degrees, but all of those were related to her job as a psychiatrist. He wasn't sure he saw the point in just continuously collecting degrees if you did nothing with them.

"The point?" He asked.

"Exactly, I mean, what is the point? What should I be doing with my eternity? If you have an answer, please enlighten me." Slater answered, offense in his tone.

Rose laid a hand on Slater's arm and drew his attention back to her, attempting to keep them on track.

"We need your help. If someone wanted to get in touch with Klaus, how would you hook him up?"

"Craigslist." Slater answered, flicking a finger at his laptop.

"Really?" Damon asked in surprise.

It couldn't be that simple, could it? Surely if it was as easy as that the Horde would have succeeded by now. Their knowledge of the non-magical world was top-notch. They made sure of it because it earned them and their clients a lot of money.

"Seriously. I respond to a personal ad to get sent to somebody who knows somebody who knows Elijah… who's dead and that's where my connection ends."

"But you could find a new connection?" Damon pressed, "I mean you knew who I was as soon as you saw me. You knew about the tomb underneath the church in Mystic Falls, you were able to get a message to Elijah for Rose. So, if you can know all those things, you must be able to figure out a way to get a message to Klaus, even without Elijah."

Damon ignored the confused look Rose was directing at him and fixed his gaze on Slater, who blinked a few times, before nodding.

"I mean, I could try. No promises I can succeed though."

"I understand, and I will compensate you for trying and you'll get a bonus if you do succeed."

Slater's eye's flickered to Rose and then back to Damon.

"What sort of compensation are we talking about here?"

"Money and a daylight ring if you help us."

Before Slater could respond to his offer, the glass windows imploded inwards. Coating all the patrons in shattered glass, and Rose and Slater in UV rays. Rose began to scream as her skin blistered and burst. Damon glanced outside, but couldn't see anyone suspicious. As Slater pushed himself to his feet and fled the sunlight, Damon covered Rose's exposed skin as best he could and helped her to her feet. Dragging her through the coffee shop with the rest of the screaming crowd, and into the underground parking structure where she was safely hidden from the sun. Eventually picking her up in his arms and carrying her to the car.

"You're gonna be okay." He promised as he set her down in the car.

"I know."

"Who was behind that?"

"I don't know. Where is Slater?"

"Iowa by now." Damon bit out, supremely irritated at losing his most promising lead, "Who the hell knows."

"He's not behind this, he's a good guy, he wouldn't betray me."

"Then who did it?"

"It's Klaus," Rose's voice was threaded with hysteria as she dissolved into sobs, "Don't you understand? You don't know this man, we're dead, we're all dead."

Understanding that he wasn't going to get anything more from her right now, he tucked her into the car and climbed into the driver's seat. There was no point trying to hunt down Slater, he'd just have to find another way to get in touch with Klaus.

Sora and Kamala were waiting by the gate for Maya when she arrived. She'd spoken to them a little last night, just letting them know she was okay, but she hadn't really gone into depth about what had happened. They both rushed forward as they saw her, pulling her into a three-way hug.

"Are you okay?" Sora asked, looking into her eyes with concern.

"Yeah. I'm all good now."

"It was so scary. That thing your Boggart became and you… you just collapsed. Then Professor Mephisto was forcing the Boggart back into the trunk, and Mr Crowley was carrying you away." Kamala blurted out.

"Kamala!" Sora hissed scoldingly, sending a nervous glance Maya's way.

Maya laughed.

"It's okay. I'm okay." She repeated, "Come on, I'll fill you in on the way to Homeroom."

The three friends linked arms, Maya in the middle, and started heading towards their classroom. As they walked, Maya explained in a low voice what had happened the day before.

"So, that 'thing' was a Dementor."

"That was a Dementor!" Kamala exclaimed.

"Wait. That's one of the things Luna, Draco and the others said was guarding Hogwarts this year?" Sora said a heartbeat after Kamala.

Maya nodded her head, eyes grim. Now that she had experienced firsthand what a Dementor felt like, she had a better understanding of the tone her friend's letters had taken this year. She shivered, remembering how it had felt to face just one, and a diminished version at that since it was actually a Boggart, she couldn't imagine what it must be like to spend a year surrounded by hundreds of them.

"Yeah. Himiko says that they drain hope and happiness out of the air around them. That they feed on all your good feelings and experiences, stealing them away and leaving you with just the bad. That's why I had such a bad reaction, because my bad…" Maya paused, for a moment.

Sora and Kamala knew everything, she'd told them everything when she'd told them who she was. They knew her history, and they would understand the significance of what she was about to tell them, just as Damon had when she'd admitted it to him the previous day.

"I heard… I heard my mum, the night… the night she died. I heard her. She was begging him not to hurt me. She sounded so afraid."

Sora and Kamala pulled her to a stop and embraced her tightly again, just as Damon had when she'd told him. Their hug was just as comforting as his had been, and Maya closed her eyes, letting the warmth from it sink inside her. Professor Aradia had been correct, a night of rest and all the chocolate Dobby had forced upon her yesterday had done it's job. Warming her up from the cold feeling that had been left behind by her experience, had gotten rid of the tired and drained feeling that she had been left with. But it hadn't driven away the lingering shadows the experience had given her. The awful experience of hearing her mother's voice for the first time, terrified and alone as she'd begged a monster to spare her innocent daughter. Maya doubted that would go away anytime soon, but knowing that she had a family and friends who loved her, that she wasn't alone, and that the monster was dead. That all helped. A lot.

"I love you guys." She said, voice thick with emotion, when they finally pulled back.

"We love you too." The chorused as one.

"Are we allowed to join the hug-fest as well?"

All three of them spun round to see Aidan and Ronan standing behind them, Aiden was looking at Maya with just as much concern as Sora and Kamala had. Ronan looked concerned too, but not with the same level of intensity as his cousin, which told Maya that Aiden had followed Professor Mephisto's instructions and hadn't breathed a word of what had happened with the Boggart to anyone. Not even his own cousin.

"Ronan!" Maya said, grinning sappily at him.

"And Aiden." Sora added, rolling her eyes at Maya.

"And Aiden." Maya parroted obediently, smiling at him, before turning her gaze back to Ronan.

"You, okay?" he asked, "I missed you in Science yesterday."

"Yeah. I'm fine, just a little incident in that magic lesson we had yesterday. Professor Aradia sent me home for the rest of the day, but I'm fine now."

"And… we're officially going to be late for Homeroom, unless we move now." Kamala said.

Aiden who had a different Homeroom tutor, split off from them as they went inside the building, and the four of them continued heading towards Professor Mephisto's classroom. None of them wanted to be late, Professor Mephisto was not known for being forgiving of tardiness without a supremely good excuse for it.

"So, are you still able to come to the dance on Friday?" Ronan asked Maya.

"Yeah." She grinned at him, feeling a flutter of excitement in her stomach.

"Great. I can't wait."

"Me either."

Sometimes Maya wondered what would have happened if she hadn't made friends with Draco. If Narcissa hadn't taken the Horcrux her husband had been keeping to the Horde. If she hadn't rescued Maya and helped her escape the Dursley's forever. A small part of her always wondered if she would be dead by now if she'd stayed in Britain. Most of the time though she was just grateful. She had a family now, more friends than she had ever had as a child, both here and in Britian. Not just friends, but a potential boyfriend… Maybe.

They'd both talked about it and decided to see how the dance went first. Neither of them wanted to put a label on it yet, because they might both decide they preferred just being friends. But it didn't make her any less excited about her first dance with an official escort. Which Sora and Kamala found hilarious, because they'd hung out with Ronan and Aiden at all the other school dances they'd been to, so how was this any different. Maya had laughed as well, unable to explain it, just knowing that it was.

Professor Mephisto eyed them all as they stepped inside the classroom, mere seconds before the bell rang, but they weren't technically late, so he didn't say anything about it. Just gesturing at them to take their seats. Homeroom was over quickly and soon they were all leaving headed for their first class of the day. The Professor stopped her before she could leave, giving her a serious look.

"How are you, Miss Nichols?"

"Much better, thank you Professor."

"Good. You are not alone, Miss Nichols, remember that."

"I know."

He offered her a rare smile and nodded.

"Good. Run along then, you don't want to be late for class."

Maya smiled back and left the classroom, to catch up with Sora and Kamala who were waiting for her further down the corridor. She smiled at them both, letting them know without words that everything was fine.

"Come on." Sora said, "Math first."

Oh joy.