(A/N): The aftermath of (most of) Leo's clan finding out that he's fed from Elaine. Had some trouble writing this chapter, so it ended up with me creating a brand new, unplanned character- guess which one it is!

Leo

Oh, I was so dead.

My stupid, traitor of a heart was trying to get me killed- and it was very close to succeeding. It was extremely unfortunate that Greygorry had hit upon exactly the right combination of things to make me get myself in trouble- if he had mentioned me drinking from Brooke, I probably would have been fine, and if he'd leveled a different benchmark for vampire tolerance for Elaine to pass, it wouldn't have been an issue, but no. He had to go straight to Elaine, letting me drink from her- the memory of which, was something that never failed to set my heart racing.

"Look, I-" I had no excuses I could give. "Greygorry did tell me I should drink more human blood to enhance my strength." Said man made a noise deep in the back of his throat.

"Trust me, I regret that now." I huffed out a laugh- mostly so I didn't have to face Lisbet yet.

"Leo." She said, rather pointedly, and I winced.

"Yes, Tante?" She gave me a look that clearly showed that she was trying not to soften at being called, 'Aunt', because she knew I was only doing it in an attempt to get her to react leniently.

"Don't even try it. How did you convince her to let you bite her?" I flushed again, thinking about what was inevitably about to be revealed.

"Lisbet," I started, quietly. "You know me very well- and you've met Elaine. Who do you think did the convincing, there?" Lisbet let out an exasperated sigh, and rolled her eyes, even as Jerremyah spluttered in the background.

"I should've known. You wouldn't suddenly just start drinking from the vein without some significant incentive- and Elaine is, if nothing else, your version of a giant carrot on a stick." I blushed again, and took this opportunity to walk back over to Shari, and accepted my letter back as she offered it to me.

"I- I'm sorry, Tarea Hug-" I cut Jerremyah off.

"Audrey's daughter." He blinked.

"What?" I rolled my eyes at him.

"If you're only going to refer to her by her relationship with one of her parents, you could at least pick the one that didn't beat the shit out of her." Jerremyah just stared at me for a second.

"Leo." Lisbet said, and I thought for a split second, that she was scolding me for correcting Jerremyah- before I realised that it was my language that she had a problem with.

"Sorry. Habit." Which showed just how ridiculous it was that Lisbet was trying to curtail the bad language, but I wasn't going to take the time to remind her of that, right now.

"...Fine." Jerremyah said. "Audrey's daughter, not only let you drink from her- she convinced you to do so?" I shrugged.

"Trust me- I've had to reevaluate my expectations for the better when it comes to Elaine, many, many times." She always surprised me in the best possible way.

"But you didn't- you didn't... lose control?" Danniel asked, sounding almost awed, and I shrugged again.

"She had vervain on her- didn't have to use it, though." The collective silence was deafening.

"I'm sorry- what? You let her have vervain near you?" Jerremyah and asked, and, once again, I shrugged.

"I insisted on it." His eyebrows shot up.

"What- Don't you know how much that- stuff, hurts?!" I cocked an eyebrow at him- he didn't know me very well, did he?

"Even if it hadn't been one of the ingredients that my mother used to poison me- do you really think I didn't test it to check if I thought it would work?" Lisbet rolled her eyes at me, exasperatedly.

"Of course you tried it- speaking of which, where did you even get vervain from?" Ah. Well. About that.

"Our Potions Professor always keeps some in his personal storeroom." Lisbet's eyes narrowed at me, and she crossed her arms over her chest.

"So... you stole it?" I shrugged again.

"Wouldn't be the first time. Got fifty house points and a plaque for it in second year." Lisbet's eyebrows furrowed in clear confusion.

"Do I want to know what you're talking about?" I grinned at her.

"Our Defense Against the Dark Arts professor- who, as it turns out, was a friend of my mother's- used a potion to put the whole school under a trance that made them hang on his every word- and subsequently take on his hatred of half-breeds. The only people who were immune were me, Remus, and Professor McGonagall- because she's an animagus, and the potion only worked on fully human beings. Remus and I were helping her find a cure, and when it came time to gather ingredients for the cure, the only place to get some of them was from Slughorn's storeroom- so, yes, I stole them." I shrugged, trying to look nonchalant. "After we cured everyone, and defeated Maloney, Professor McGonagall made sure that Remus and I got rewarded for our invaluable help." Jerremyah's eyebrows furrowed.

"Who's Remus?" Ah, hell. I couldn't believe I'd done it again- I really needed to just stop opening my mouth.

"Remus is one of my best friends." He cocked an eyebrow at me, clearly waiting for me to elaborate. "And he just so happens to be a werewolf." Jerremyah's gaze darted to Lisbet, and I was forced to remember when she had first met Remus in person, and upon noting that he was a werewolf, she had actually bowed to him. I had thought it was peculiar at the time, but I had never ended up asking her about it.

"Like Minsi." Jerremyah said, and Lisbet shrugged weakly.

"Who's Minsi?" I asked quickly, eager to enact some form of payback.

"A friend of ours." I cocked an eyebrow at him, mimicking his earlier actions. "A werewolf friend of ours." I rolled my eyes at him, crossing my arms over my chest.

"And suddenly, everyone's all tight lipped. When it's my turn, everyone wants answers- but when the tables turn, and it's your turn to share with the class, no one wants to talk." Jerremyah gave me a very dry, frustrated look.

"Minsi is a friend of mine that I met at an ill fated pub, in the twenties." Lisbet started, and I felt my eyebrows shoot up. "She took me in after a raid, and she put up with Jerremyah and Greygorry when they showed up not long after, so you know she's a tough bird. Her pack were devastated a few years ago, and she's been staying with Nuria ever since." Well, that was... a lot.

"Who's Nuria?" Lisbet huffed out a laugh, and waved a hand at Jerremyah, signalling that it was his turn to field this one.

"That one's all yours, Dearest." Jerremyah's face screwed up, like he was half excited that Lisbet had called him, 'Dearest', and half annoyed that she was throwing him under the bus.

"Nuria is my sire- she's positively ancient, but she's basically been a recluse for the past few centuries. Lisbet was jealous at first that my sire was a woman- and then she met Nuria, and saw us interact, and realised that Nuria isn't... interested in... men." Lisbet shot him a sharp look at the unnecessary mention of her being jealous, so I decided to push forward before they started arguing with each other.

"Good for her. Anyway, what did you want to talk to me about, before Greygorry was a- rude person, and I punched him in the face?" Lisbet and Jerremyah shared a look, and Jerremyah rolled his eyes before nodding- and then, he stepped up close to me, in a way that made me nervous.

"Brace yourself." What? And then, he grab my wrist with his left hand, and with his right hand, he pressed on the back of my injured hand- and the strangled noise that wormed its way from between my lips was truly pitiful.

"Hnng- Ow!"Jerremyah flashed me an apologetic look, but kept a hold of my wrist, even as he fished his wand from his pocket- and idly, I noticed that it was made of a red toned wood.

"Now, I'm not a healer, but this had done the trick for us plenty of times- you're going to have to keep your hand steady, until we get some blood into you- got it?" I nodded, and he tapped his wand against the side of my hand, that wasn't injured. "Ferula." Bandages materialized from the end of his wand, and wrapped themselves snugly around my hand, and in between my fingers, splinting my broken metacarpals- as soon as the bandage encased my hand, I felt some of the pain seep out of it- I felt like I could breathe a little easier, now.

"Thanks. That's a lot better." I said, after Jerremyah released my hand. The bandage was secured, and I moved my left hand under my right to support it.

"No more avoiding it." Jerremyah said, and I thought he was talking to me for a second, before Greygorry spoke up from behind me.

"He already broke my neck, what more can he do?" Uh oh. Clearly, they were expecting me to get really, really mad about whatever their news was.

"Oh, Lord... Just spit it out." Jerremyah turned to Lisbet, and waved her forward- something she didn't look happy about. As she passed him, I heard her hiss out, 'Coward.' Her face readjusted as she turned her full attention to me, softer, soothing- cautious.

"Leo... While we were talking to Greygorry in private, he revealed that the reason he was hired to train you during the school year, is because his sire wanted him to spy on you." What?! I spun to face Greygorry, and rushed towards him- but Lisbet put a hand on my chest in order to halt my progress.

"Leo, stop." I started to try to push past her, but she held me fast. "Your hand is broken."

"I can hit him with my left- but that's not- I'm not planning on hitting him- yet. I just want to ask him a question." It depended on his answer, as to whether he got punched or not. Reluctantly, Lisbet let me go.

"...Alright. But... If you need him to get hit, ask me- I'll do it." I nodded distractedly- if Greygorry needed hitting, I wasn't going to think twice, especially when it came to this.

Lisbet let me get up close to him, and I knelt down next to him. His eyes rolled sideways to look at me, and when his gaze met mine, I saw pain there- was that emotional pain, or physical?

"Tell me, Greygorry," He watched me warily. "Am I the only one you've been spying on?" I stared him down, pointedly, and he swallowed thickly.

"If you're asking me what I think you're asking-" I cut him off.

"You know damn well what I'm asking about." He was silent for a beat, and I could feel Lisbet displeasure from behind me at my poor language, but she let me get away with it, for now.

"As far as I know, Sidonie has no idea Dahrya exists." I winced, knowing that, inevitably-

"Who's Dahrya?"

(A/N): Leo, outside the room of requirement: *sticks his hand in bag of vervain*

Leo: 'OUCH!'

Leo: ...

Leo: *sticks hand in bag of vervain, again*

Leo: 'OW! Okay, okay, I think it'll work!'

Ferula is a canon spell, coined 'the bandaging charm'. Among other things, Remus uses it to splint Ron's broken leg, is POA.

Took at least a two hour break in the middle of writing this chapter to work out what everyone's wand is made of. Jerremyah's wand is Red Oak (which is why Leo says it's 'red toned'- I didn't know how else to describe that exact color, 'red toned' was the best I could come up with). This isn't his original wand, but I'm really happy with the the wand specifications I picked for him, in particular.