(A/N): In this chapter, Leo reads two letters- one from Dahrya, and one from Elaine. Split POV between Leo and Lisbet, and Lisbet receives her own letter from Elaine. Jerremyah is bullied by birds, Greygorry is once again not having a good day, and I reference a Katy Perry song. This is the last chapter before the Halloween chapter, and I just thought I'd let you know in advance that it doesn't take place directly after this chapter, but is chronologically really close behind. Like, within a couple of hours. That's all I can tell you for now, without giving anything away. Foreshadowing, ish? I mean, it's very slight, and was honestly unintentional, and isn't really even foreshadowing, it's just, 'huh, that could be a reference to a thing that happens in the near future', that someone said. You'll see what I mean in the next chapter.

Leo

Dinner was, in fact, quite spicy. Herc certainly hadn't gone easy on me, and he didn't apologise for it, either- the closest I got was a shrug, in response to the betrayed look I shot him after I took my first bite.

Lisbet and Jerremyah chose to eat with me, for whatever reason, but neither of them seemed bothered by the spice level in the slightest. Whether that was because they were- somehow, despite mostly going without human food for at least a few hundred years- accustomed to the heat, or whether they were simply very good at faking like it didn't affect them, I couldn't tell. Either way, Lisbet sat to my left, and Jerremyah to my right, and other than some light teasing from Greygorry about how long our 'conversation' had taken- and a brief attempt at an apology from Shari, which I quickly shut down- we remained uninterrupted until Charlie came hurtling through the window.

She'd clearly been aiming for my shoulder, but had either entirely forgotten about the letter tied to her leg, or simply miscalculated- because instead of perching perfectly on my shoulder, she pitched over it, and tumbled into Jerremyah's lap like a feathery football. Despite the fact that he must've seen her coming, Jerremyah yelped as though she'd intentionally attacked him, and when he froze, seemingly torn between wanting her gone and not wanting to hurt the poor bird, Lisbet reached across me and scooped Charlie into her own lap.

"Don't let her con you into letting her near the food," I reminded her after swallowing, so I wouldn't be talking with my mouth full. "She's smart and sneaky, and she isn't afraid to manipulate you to get what she wants." Lisbet met my eyes, and raised a brow at me pointedly. "Yeah, yeah, I hear you loud and clear. Now, do you want to make fun of me, or do you want to let me eat?" She looked conflicted, but in the end, she waved me back toward my dinner. "Good decision." She rolled her eyes at me, just like I knew she would. Just like I'd planned.

As I finished my food, Lisbet distracted Charlie by untying the letter from her leg, while Jerremyah watched on warily from my other side. True to form, the second her burden was removed, Charlie started trying to jump up onto the edge of the table, presumably to get to Lisbet's food- only to be hindered by her wings hitting the table before the rest of her did, and by Lisbet's constant managing. When I finally cleared my plate, I set down my fork and caught Charlie midair, tucking her to my chest before she had the chance to squirm her way out of my grip.

"Come on, trouble." I grabbed the envelope from the table, and immediately knew there was more than one letter in there. Dahrya must have written back, too- hopefully that meant Elaine had done as I'd asked, and stayed by her side while she read my previous letter. It was simultaneously reassuring- because I knew Dahrya was as taken care of as I could arrange from such a distance- and nerve inducing, since I also knew Dahrya was very much not going to be pleased... with me, and with Greygorry, even if she didn't currently know he was who she was mad at.

Unfortunately, I wasn't subtle, and as I stood up, Lisbet did the same in order to block my path out of the kitchen. "Why do you smell nervous?" Her voice had a slight edge to it, like she would've been sharp with me if I were anyone else, and I didn't bother trying to hide my sigh.

"Not that it's any of your business," I started rather archly, even though I didn't particularly care that she'd asked, at least at this point in time. "But," I shot Greygorry a look, and it took him a second to realise, and take his nose out of his book to meet my eyes. "I sent a letter to Dahrya, to let her know I'd be talking to her when I got back. About her father." He froze, and looked like he'd stay that way for a second, so I turned my attention back to Lisbet- catching the tail end of her wince as I did so.

"And you're... worried about how she reacted to that?" I shrugged.

"Not that worried," I told her, and she relaxed slightly. "She can't do anything to me until I see her in person, so I'm safe for now." Immediately, that semblance of relaxation disappeared, and she looked vaguely horrified.

Thankfully, by this point, Greygorry appeared to have recovered- at least for the most part- since he set his book down on the table in order to devote his full attention to me. "Did you tell her-" I shook my head, knowing exactly what he was asking.

"No. Figured it might go over better in person- also thought you might want to talk to Lavinia, before you interacted with Dahrya again." He blinked, before an expression of abject terror overtook his face.

"Shit." He said, and I knew by the way Lisbet was eyeing him that she would've rather liked to punish him for cursing in front of me, but felt bad enough for him that she didn't. "I hadn't thought about- what if she says no?" Who? Lavinia? "What if it's not- what if it's not just that she was upset I left, but because she didn't want me around? Because she doesn't want me around her- our- child?" Uh oh, this was far above my pay grade.

I pondered that for a second, and when no one else spoke up, I regretted the fact that I felt like it was my responsibility- as his new clan leader- to at least try to reassure him. "Well," I started awkwardly. "If it makes you feel any better, I don't think Dahrya's the type to just blindly do what her mother tells her to. If she wants to know you, I don't think Lavinia can stop her. Also, it's not like she's going to be able to keep you from coming into contact with each other, considering you regularly come to Hogwarts in order to train me." He frowned. "Even if we meet at Hogsmeade rather than on the grounds, she's still going to know you're around, and honestly... well, you've seen her. She needs training, too." He looked freshly sickened, as if he was evaluating her abilities anew, now he knew she was his daughter.

"Is she weak?" Jerremyah asked, never one to beat around the bush, and Greygorry and I both winced.

I screwed up my face, and shrugged. "Not weak," Was the first thing I made sure to say, as if she might hear me- and decide to take her wrath out on me physically just to try to prove him wrong. "Just... painfully young. I can't imagine Herc was much stronger than her at that age, I think I'm just..." I trailed off, knowing they all knew what I meant.

"Strong with a capital S?" Jerremyah supplied, and I felt my cheeks heat.

"Built different?" Greygorry offered, and my flush only intensified.

Lisbet stepped in close and brushed the back of her hand down my cheek, presumably to feel the heat for herself. "My strong little man," The fact that her hand was on my face meant she could invariably feel the blood rush to my face, even more than before, as well as feeling it. I started to open my mouth, but she cut me off. "If you're about to say something negative about yourself, save it. If I have to hug you right now, I'll squish the bird." Slowly, I closed my mouth. "Good boy." She pressed a quick kiss to my forehead, and I found myself wishing I'd forced her to hug me, anyway.

"I... I should... read those letters." Her smile was more than a little smug, probably because she knew she was the predominant reason I was flustered. "I'll... let you know how it goes." I glanced at Greygorry, and he gave me quite a fragile looking nod. Lisbet squeezed my hand one last time before I left, and once I was alone in my room, I opened the envelope. I wasn't sure whose I should read first, but in the end, I decided to rip off the band-aid, and opened Dahrya's.

That decision had nothing to do with the fact that I could use Elaine's letter as a reward once I was done- absolutely nothing. No, getting my daily dose of Elaine was the furthest thing from my mind right now, I assure you... whether you refuse to believe me or not is entirely up to you, and there's nothing I can do to change your mind, so I won't even try- of course, you'd be right, but still.

Leo,

What the FUCK?!

Clearly, Dahrya didn't care about keeping things 'kid-friendly'- probably because she was a kid herself. Even more so than me, in fact.

What do you MEAN you know who my father is? Who?! How?! You can't just say something like that and then tell me you think you should wait to tell me in person! Are you CRAZY?!

I rolled my eyes, even as I sympathised with her dramatics.

I'm going to take this opportunity to remind you that you're currently in a different country, and I have unobstructed access to Elaine the whole time you're gone- oh, and by the way, I think it was pretty underhanded of you to ask her to watch over me. I do NOT need a BABYSITTER!

It was pretty ironic that she thought I was being underhanded, considering she'd just threatened to do... something, with Elaine. I would also pay to see her call Elaine a 'babysitter' to her face.

TELL ME, or SUFFER THE CONSEQUENCES.

Your worst nightmare (Dahrya Rachel Jeyms)

I rolled my eyes again, and set the letter aside in favor of Elaine's. Immediately, I felt a truly goofy grin bloom on my lips as I read the first line.

Dear Leo,

You know lying doesn't work on me, I can see right through you. Must be something to do with being in love with you.

Mmm... I'm sure that had everything to do with it.

My mother is... well, the nicest way I can explain it is 'wary of men'. Because of this, and I assume also because I'm her daughter, she's a bit strict about boys. As I'm sure you're aware, you are, in fact, one of those.

I chose to snort quietly at her snarky comment, rather than dwell on the implication of that, right now.

I've assured her you would never, EVER hurt me- because you won't, I KNOW you won't-

It was exceptionally heartwarming, but I didn't let it change my view of things. Elaine may not think so, but I was a danger to her, and everyone else.

-but honestly, she seemed far more worried about Remus than about you,

...huh?

probably because she's MET you, and as such, there's no room for her to imagine you as anything other than the sweetest boy I know.

I felt my cheeks heat again, and hoped my nosy little vampire family was minding their own business.

Leo. I'm adding that to the list.

I winced, especially because at this point, I wasn't sure what she was responding to, and I couldn't check my previous letter to find out, since I'd sent it to her- obviously, or I wouldn't be reading her reply to it right now. Ugh.

That sounds... really odd. Not the- you know I don't care about the fact that they're two guys, I'm talking about the way they freaked out. That seems odd to me, too.

I shook my head, smiling fondly at Elaine feeling the need to clarify she wasn't talking about Jerremyah and Greygorry's relationship. No, Elaine would never look down on me for being attracted to anyone outside of the strict parameters of what she deemed to be 'appropriately feminine', like my mother would.

So, how many times have you violated her 'family friendly language mandate', so far? By the way, make a note of that, I'll be bringing it up in our conversation about her, and you're going to be kicking yourself for not noticing, if you're as oblivious as I think you might be.

I... make a note of what, exactly? I scanned back over the last few lines, but saw nothing out of the ordinary. Nothing 'noteworthy'. I really hoped she was wrong, but I also knew deep down, Elaine was rarely ever wrong- especially when it came to me and my obliviousness.

Wait, so... you were in the forest behind my house when you got my last letter? That's... a hell of a coincidence.

It was.

Oh, I'm sorry- should I say 'heck', to protect your poor innocent ears? I'm sure Lisbet would appreciate the effort.

I snorted and rolled my eyes- oh, she thought she was hilarious, didn't she? Unfortunately for me, she was correct.

I think it's quite mature of you to be willing to wait for her to be ready, but I want to remind you that it's okay to speak up, if she's doing something that makes you uncomfortable. I'm sure she'll stop, I know she cares a lot about you.

She does. I care about her, too.

That's... so sad for Danniel. I hope I can help him get back to his mum, and Jo with... whatever it is Jo wants.

Jerremyah dead, apparently, which wasn't going to be happening anytime soon, if I could help it.

I don't know if I should be happy for Lisbet or not. It's nice she has a mate, but the fact that it's HIM...

My eyebrows furrowed, and I was confused for a second before I realised that in my last two letters to her, I hadn't exactly displayed any affection for Jerremyah. I'd have to rectify that, when I wrote my reply.

Thank you for letting me know. As you're aware, I'm 'decidedly not fond' of my father myself, so Jerremyah and Greygorry are in good company. Are all vampires this odd, or is it just all the ones that seem to want to join your clan?

I blinked. Not because I was surprised she thought we were odd, but because she apparently hadn't realised this before now. This wasn't a revelation, she'd know me for almost five years.

That's going on the list, too.

No!

I'm not sure you meant to say- write- that, but I'm definitely going to use it against you, when you get back.

Double no! What the hell did I say?!

That's honestly kind of hilarious. I wish WE could use your heartbeat to tell when you're lying, instead of my old tried and true.

If there was one thing I was eternally grateful for, it was the fact that Elaine was human- for multiple reasons, but right now mainly just because if she could hear my heartbeat, I don't think she'd ever let me keep the necessary distance, again. And, it would be absolutely mortifying to know she could hear the very specific rhythm my heart beat out every time I even thought about her, let alone when she was near me- or touching me. Kissing me...

I can't wait to hear all about it. Even if the subject wasn't such an interesting one, I love hearing you talk- and it certainly doesn't hurt that we tend to get rather 'comfortable' with each other, whenever we're in a room alone for a prolonged period of time.

I blushed, and again, I hoped my clan weren't keeping track in order to make fun of me for it, later. Speaking of kissing...

Thank Herc for me, for the emergency charms. And you can rest assured that I won't team up with Jo against you... TOO often.

Well, I suppose I deserved that.

Now, I think I should start by telling you that Charlie didn't come to me with the letters, but went straight to Dahrya, instead.

What? I glanced at my owl, who seemed to be taking a power nap in her cage. "What are you about, feather brain?" She cracked open one eye to glare at me, and I wasn't sure if it was the insult she was taking offense to, or my voice, even if I did keep it hushed exclusively for her benefit. I turned my attention back to Elaine's letter, as her eyes slid closed again.

I think she knew you were worried about Dahrya, and she was making sure I had no choice but to be there for her, since Dahrya had to come over to the Gryffindor table to hand deliver the letter. She... didn't take it well. Dahrya, I mean, not Charlie. Charlie took it fine- and also tried to take my eggs.

That didn't surprise me in the least, knowing my little glutton.

Leo. I have a theory about who Dahrya's father is. I'm not going to say it- well, write it- because if I know for sure, I'll feel really bad about not being able to tell her, but if I'm right... I completely understand why you want to tell her in person, and I think it's the best decision you could make, given the situation.

Knowing Elaine, she was correct- which meant she knew, deep down, that Greygorry was Dahrya's father, even if she didn't want to admit it. I couldn't blame her, if I could've chosen not to know, I probably would've done it too.

I'm going to say this now, since I have other plans for the postscript- I adore you, too. I'm absolutely nuts about you. You're the pot of gold at the end of my rainbow. And- you are, by far, my very, VERY favorite.

I love you,

Elaine

PS: I need you to do me a favor, and it is vitally important that you follow my instructions EXACTLY. Here's what I want you to do-

Lisbet

About twenty minutes after Leo had withdrawn upstairs to read his letters, while I was doing the dishes- redoing the dishes, because there wasn't much else to do right now, and it was either distract myself, or not-so-accidentally eavesdrop on Leo- Elaine's owl Lawrence flew in through the same open window Charlie had, almost half an hour earlier.

"What's with these owls, today?" Jerremyah asked, sounding quite nervous as he watched Lawrence flutter around the kitchen- like a plastic bag drifting through the wind. I quickly dried my hands, and snatched the bird out of the air.

"Hello," I greeted him, and he eyed me like I was the one of place. "Got something for me?" He reluctantly offered me his leg, and I freed the letter, which was, indeed, marked with my name. I set him on the counter as respectfully as possible, and cracked open the envelope.

Dear Lisbet,

Thank you for telling me- especially since Leo didn't bring it up in his letter.

No! Really? I'm shocked!

No, he doesn't know I sent you this- yet- but I suppose it's karma for him not telling me himself. I wanted to find a way to thank you properly, because words don't feel like enough, but I had no idea what to give you. I doubt the customary chocolate holds much appeal, so in the end, I decided to ensure you received something I suspect you'd appreciate much more. Hopefully the timing of this works out- I sent Lawrence out half an hour after Charlie to give Leo time to get his letter first, but if not... please know I tried.

Love, Elaine

PS: You told me once to 'take care of your little boy'- I promise you, that is my highest priority. I love him, and I know you do, too. I want you to know that I think you're exactly what he needs, right now. Give my love to the rest of the clan, and... good luck with your 'boy problems'.

I blinked back tears, and even though I was confused about the fact Elaine had said she was giving me some sort of gift and the envelope was empty, I still felt incredibly touched. It was clear to me that Elaine knew how I felt about Leo, even if he didn't- and she thought I was 'exactly what he needed.' The phrase tickled something in the back of my mind, but before I could try to dig to figure out why, Leo came down the stairs and cut a path straight across the kitchen, until he was at my side. "Hey, did you-" He cut me off, which I suppose was to be expected, given the situation.

"Is that Lawrence? Why do you have a letter from Elaine? How long have you two been talking? What do you talk about? Is that why she-" I interrupted him as gently as I could, so I actually had the opportunity to answer some of his questions.

"Only the one letter," I told him, and he instantly relaxed a little, even as his eyebrows remained furrowed. "We talk about you, obviously. All good things, I promise- albeit a bit embarrassing." He winced, but I could tell it was because he was in fact embarrassed, rather than genuinely worried about what we were saying behind his back. "I simply told her about the favor you asked me."

He looked confused for a second, before blood flooded his face. "Lis!" He whined in protest, but he sounded more shocked than angry. After a moment, he collected himself, and brought his hands to his hips. It was a little odd, especially since I don't think I'd ever seen him do that before. "Now the favor she asked me makes a lot more sense."

I blinked- Elaine had asked him a favor? What sort of favor? Considering the last 'favor' he'd asked her, I was understandably a little worried, but he looked slightly smug, not concerned- like he knew he knew something I didn't, and was all too happy to lord it over me, because he'd been embarrassed by my letter. "What- what favor?" He grinned at me.

"She asked me to give you something." He said, and took a hand off his hip to reach behind him. There was a second where I held my breath- not that I needed it anyway- but then nothing happened. When his hand emerged again it was still empty, and I felt my eyebrows furrow before he took a step forward, and threw his arms around me.

It took me a moment to realise exactly what had happened, but when I did, I smiled so wide my cheeks hurt. I wrapped my arms around him and hugged him closer, just the way Elaine had probably intended me to. Her favor- her gift- was getting Leo to hug me. There's no way she could know we'd been hugging most of the day already, but the impact wasn't lessened any because of that. The meaning wasn't lost on me, at all.

Yes, I liked chocolate, and would've appreciated any sort of thank you she could've given me, verbal or otherwise- but she was right. I did appreciate this more. The gift of my kit in my arms was by far the most precious, and Elaine had made it happen. No matter what, I would always be grateful for that.

(A/N): Leo: 'Lisbet and Jerremyah chose to eat with me, for whatever reason,'

Lisbet: *thinks Leo will be incentivized to eat more if he isn't the only one eating*

Jerremyah: "Family dinner! Uh, I mean- Clan dinner!"

Leo: 'but neither of them seemed bothered by the spice level in the slightest.'

Jerremyah: *tends to eat more spicy food than Lisbet, but is absolutely only pretending to not be affected by it*

Lisbet: *has the spice tolerance of a god, and probably doesn't even realise it's hot*

I imagine the meal Herc made to be something like Arroz con Pollo, which isn't traditionally spicy (at least in Colombian cuisine, it's apparently more commonly spicy in Mexico), but it's probably a recipe he got from his mother, or learned from someone in his clan, or something like that. It's a spiced chicken and rice dish that is popular throughout a lot of Latin America, and seems to take anywhere from 40 minutes to 2 and a half hours to cook, so that's perfect for the ambiguous length of time that Leo, Lisbet and Jerremyah's conversation took.

Also, I only mentioned Leo, Lisbet and Jerremyah eating, but that's only because Herc was probably trying the food throughout cooking, and thus didn't feel the need to sit down and have a bowl, and Shari isn't really up for eating human food because she's still A) full from the blood bag, and B) recovering from malnutrition, so probably shouldn't have anything other than blood right now. Greygorry knows his limits, and when his eyes started burning from just the steam coming off it, he decided to tap out. Leo made sure they left a bowl for Jo and Danniel (since Jo is probably familiar with this sort of food, and Leo wants to see if he can haze Danniel with spicy food- spoiler alert, Danniel has a higher spice tolerance than Leo expects.)

I have a theory that since some Arroz con Pollo recipes have alcohol in them (white whine or beer, typically), part of the reason it was so spicy is because Herc added some of the Capsicumel (the spicy mead!) to it. Don't worry, the alcohol cooks off, but even if it didn't, it's not like the vampires (even Leo) can get drunk, so it's fine.