A/N: A step forward and two steps back. As usual I own nothing really except everything I've created. Thanks once again to Lady Starlight for her work on this chapter.
Chapter 22: A Flicker of Doubt
****************************Hogwarts************************************
November 25, 2015 (Wednesday)
1:25pm
Xander hid a quiet yawn behind his hand as Harriman paced from side to side, his hands waving wildly, as he described the theory behind Patroni, and their effects on Dementors, Lethifolds, and their rumored effectiveness against some vampires. Of course the inability of the current Defense Professor to actually produce a corporal Patronus had already caused the majority of the class to tune him out and attend to other, vital, things.
Xander glanced over to his left as Emilia made a faint, sighing sound and scooted closer, close enough for her to surreptitiously grab his free hand from the table and pull it down to rest in her lap. Her quill was transcribing the talk on its own, much like half of the others in the class, as Xander let two fingers stoke the inside of her thigh. A very quiet purr reached his ears alone as Em let her eyes fall closed.
You know that I could do a touch more if you weren't so bloody loud...Xander whispered and she opened one eye to him, then the other, quickly blinking away half cat-slitted pupils.
I could cast a Silencing Charm, she retorted, I'm game if you are.
Tempting, he replied, as she interlaced her fingers with his in her lap, and pulled their joined hands between her thighs, holding them there with a bare hint of pressure. But the floating objects and random explosions might give it away.
Yeah...honestly, it's damn inconvenient some times. She squeezed his hand and glanced up and right at him, After class, Love...we have hours until dinner, I...need you, she murmured, very softly, and he squeezed her hand in acknowledgement. Their sleeping arrangements might be keeping them sane, but only just.
Emilia glanced over at Rain on her other side, to find her idly drawing Justin's portrait from memory. Em did not remember Justin's eyes being quite as large as Rain had them illustrated, but she only smirked faintly and gave a tiny shake of her head.
"I'm not the one getting diddled in the middle of class," Rain wrote on her parchment, before scratching it out.
"Ha, Ha," appeared on Rain's parchment, "I'm not either, dear. He's a touch better than that, you'd know it." Em looked past Rain and across a small aisle where Elliot sat with Harriet next to him on the next table over, both of them looking rather bored. Harriet was talking to...something or someone under her breath, and Elliot was staring fixedly at a stained bit of stone just above the blackboard. "I think I can get him up to your room, Sis."
"YOU CAN?" she questioned, the words almost illegible in her haste. Rain looked over quickly, her eyes wide, to catch Em's faint smile.
Emilia smirked, pausing as Harriman looked in their direction and opened his mouth, probably to ask her a question and closed it just as quickly, knowing from experience that she most likely already knew whatever he could legitimately ask her. He moved on, and Em glanced back over to Rain, "A touch of the pot calling the kettle black?" Rain stuck her tongue out at her quickly, and Emilia buried a laugh inside a cough. "Yeah, I think I can, though he will have to use a cloak."
"I love you," Rain wrote back before vanishing the words. She tapped her quill against the parchment twice, "Can we do it after class?"
"Xander and I have a date," Emilia wrote back, and Rain sighed, closing her eyes for a beat. "How about tonight?" Emilia offered.
"Rub it in," Rain wrote quickly. She looked over her shoulder towards Harriet, "Do you think that Harriet will mind? I don't give a shit about Cassie, but?"
"No, I doubt she will mind." Emilia crooked an eyebrow, "As long as you shut the curtains."
"You are evil."
"Yes, I am."
An hour later, after an interminable lecture, in which Emilia contented herself with playing with Xander's hair and Harriet started in on a totally different conversation with herself, and Rain daydreamed, a distant bell tolled and the classroom emptied before Harriman could turn from the board to dismiss them. He rolled his eyes after taking in the empty room and started to pack up his materials into an old, battered briefcase.
Xander grinned as he pulled Emilia down the hall, and into a small alcove. He turned them, pressing her back into the wall. She sighed, grinding back against him, feeling the rough stone at her back, and his chest pressing into hers from the front. She glanced down as his hand slipped up the side of her leg, bunching her skirt up as eager fingers started exploring.
Emilia reached up, tangling her fingers in his hair, and pulling his head down to hers, when a faint cough came from near her ear.
"As much as I would love to see Xander naked," Rain murmured, leaning back into the alcove at Em's shoulder, "You are a touch loud, luv...you might attract attention..."
Emilia flushed, and looked down, though she made no attempt to disengage from Xander, "H...how, would you know," Emilia said, trying to keep an even tone.
Rain looked over at Harriet. "Silencing Charm," they said as one. "You forgot, a couple of times last summer," Harriet explained distractedly as she watched something shimmer up near the rafters.
"So...my p...parents heard?" Emilia sputtered.
Rain looked from Harriet, rolling her eyes, "Sis...Xander's parents probably heard in Canton." Harriet nodded in agreement as she skipped across the hall to bend down from the waist to pick up a quill someone had dropped. At least she remembered panties today, Rain muttered to herself.
"Oh...God," Emilia moaned, burying her head in Xander's chest. She looked up as faint chuckles vibrated Xander's chest to give him a glare.
"It's not like they didn't know, Love," he whispered consolingly, holding her to him as he stroked her back through the thin fabric of her uniform blouse.
"But..."
"What's up?" Sirius' voice called from down the hall as he stepped into view along with Lawrence and Justin, the three of them having just escaped Transfiguration.
Emilia looked from around Xander, stepping to one side, to watch as Justin kissed Rain in passing, and leaned on the wall next to her, pulling her back against him comfortably. Harriet watched Sirius as he stopped in the hall, and suddenly focused, stepping over to him, and stopping just inside his personal space. Emilia hid a sudden smile as Sirius only glanced over at her, and then back at his sister and Rain, without moving away from the redhead at all.
Rain opened her mouth and froze as Minerva McGonagall walked past, her eyes examining each of them briefly as she passed. Em moved very slightly away from Xander, and Rain nonchalantly leaned against the wall next to her boyfriend. "Hello, Professor," Em said brightly, cringing internally as she heard herself.
"I am expecting that you are not doing anything, untoward, are you, Miss Potter?" McGonagall asked, looking at each of them again.
"No, Ma'am," Emilia replied, and McGonagall nodded.
"Very well then, I will see all of you tomorrow," she glanced over at Justin, "Mr. Black, I would suggest for your sake that you spend the evening reviewing." She walked off as Rain turned and smacked him on the back of the head.
He looked sheepish as she grabbed his hand in hers, squeezing lightly, "You are soo, studying all night," she murmured. He nodded, still looking down, and she kissed his cheek, "You get an O...I'll make it worth your while." She smiled, leaning into him, and with a brief flicker of her eyes to each side, pressed against him, to elicit a faint groan. She looked down between them, "Maybe later, Hun." She kissed his nose, "If you are a good boy, that is."
"Anyway," Sirius interrupted, with an odd timbre to his voice as he glanced over to Em to find her once more leaning on Xander. He looked back to Rain, as she turned, seemingly having forgiven Justin's apparent academic transgressions as she leaned back against him, "I was actually wondering if I could find someone to duel with," he looked at Lawrence, "Lawrence didn't want to."
"Um, Sirius," Em said, looking back at Xander, "Xan and I..."
"Would love to duel Sirius and I," Harriet put in, interrupting her, and causing a quick flicker of amusement to cross Rain's eyes.
"Great," Sirius replied, smiling, he looked at each of them, "Thirty minutes in the Room of Requirement?"
Emilia just nodded, and Sirius waved, moving off, "Wait, Sirius," Harriet called after him, he stopped and looked back at her as she left the rest of them and caught up to him. "We should...maybe plan?" she asked softly, holding her hands in front of her as she rocked back and forth on her heels.
"Yeah...we probably should," he agreed and led her off, listening tolerantly as she started to stream ideas at him, some of which actually involved actual, possible situations and circumstances.
Rain watched them leave, stepping out of sight and up a set of stairs that she knew led, eventually, to the Room of Requirement. Lawrence left after telling Justin he would see him later, and Rain laughed.
"It's not funny," Em griped half-heartedly.
"It's kinda funny," Rain demurred and Emilia sighed.
"Come on Xander, let's go get changed," Emilia muttered grabbing his hand and pulling him along, headed towards the stairs upward, "You too, Rain, if I'm not, you sure as hell aren't."
*************************Room of Requirement*****************************
3:15 pm
Rain leaned back against the wall of the Room, and looked to each side. She reached under her skirt, not bothering with the pocket pass through, and pulled her wand, to hold it in her hands, low in front of her.
"Sure that you don't want to play?" Em called from one end of the room, she stood loosely with Xander twirling her wand between he fingers like a drummer. She looked down toward her brother and Harriet standing at the other end of the perhaps, hundred yard long space, and then back at the dark-haired girl.
Emilia dug in a cargo pocket of the black pants she had replaced her skirt with, and found a rubber band to tie her hair back. She pulled down on the hem of her matching shirt to pull it to her waistband, smiled across at Sirius, "Ready, Little Brother?" The wrapped hilt of her sword stuck up behind her right shoulder, out of the way of the wand strapped to her thigh.
Sirius glanced over to Harriet, she gave him a faint smile, which he returned, and took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. "Any rules, Big Sister?"
She licked her lips and shrugged, rolling her head on her neck. "I'd really appreciate it, if you didn't maim my fiancé...Mum probably would too in a few years when she wants grandkids..."
"Alright," Sirius smirked, his hand slowly dropping to the wand on his thigh. One finger tapped the rosewood shaft strapped to his leg.
"Are you two done?" Rain said exasperatedly, looking between the siblings. They nodded, going suddenly quiet, as a faint breeze seemed to whisper in the room deep within the castle. Rain flicked her wand-and the room changed.
Instantly the room darkened, becoming dusk, as broken bits of stone cropped up, and a thin fog settled on the air. The temperature dropped and Rain shivered, wrapping her arms around herself and stepping back in a suddenly supplied alcove.
Emilia dove behind a large, broken wall of stone just as a blue Reductor shattered a outcropping to her left, showering her and Xander with gravel. He's already at it, Xander growled.
She nodded, and with a breath, her eyes lit, sending emerald glows sparkling into the dimness. She watched as he fought his own transformation, Let it go, Xan.
But, Harriet...
Trust me...I don't think it will matter.
Xander frowned and let his baser nature slip, eyes vanishing into black voids and his fangs dropping. He nodded to her and vanished in a bound, leaving the cover they were sheltering behind in one bound.
Emilia vanished in a blur to the other side, dodging to a chunk of debris a bit further towards the other end.
Can you feel them? Xander called and she shook her head, knowing he could feel it as if he were standing next to her.
No, Em gritted, disillusioning herself and fading into the dim room. I can't even feel Harriet... A disbelieving flicker shot back to her and she shrugged. Another Reductor shattered the chunk of stone she was behind and she flipped to the side, and far down range a flicker of red hair dove down behind a bookshelf.
Emilia growled, and fired a shimmering black beam back in return, the bookshelf vanished into dust and she growled annoyedly as the dust cleared and nothing and no one was behind it. "Shit," she growled and flipped over the next set of rubble, moving closer to the location of their hidden sniper.
A quick slash of her wand, and a shimmering silver bolt was snapped up into the ceiling and she vanished, reappearing behind Harriet. Harriet rose, leading with her wand to fire off another barrage of spells. Emilia grinned faintly as lifted her wand to line up on the back of her friend and temporary foe.
Only the briefest flicker of movement gained her enough time to tuck into a ball as a wave of force picked her up and slammed her against the wall, ten meters away. She bounded off, and flipped backwards over a slash that would be lethal anywhere else. Her sword filled her hand as she landed and instantly flipped backwards again, desperately looking for space to move.
She barely took a quick breath before she slashed a dozen glowing cables into shards as they flew at her from nowhere.
A pair of glowing emerald orbs shone from the darkness behind a faintly glowing blade. "Nice trick, bro...exactly how did you hide both of you from me?" Emilia asked, flicking her eyes to the side as a flutter of spellfire lit the room. Xander and Harriet had started in on a running battle between the scattered bits of cover.
Sirius looked genuinely puzzled, "I didn't, just me..." He glanced over at Harriet as an explosion showered them both in small bits of gravel that vanished before they hit the floor, and leapt backwards as Emilia took his distraction as an opportunity. He resheathed his sword on the fly and ripped back a pair of Reductors, his wand filling his hand magically.
Emilia dodged one, and batted the second aside with a wand flick, having gone back to her wand as well. Sirius dove under a white-blue beam, not looking back as the wall beyond froze solid and adsorbed a red Stunner bolt into his wand.
He took a breath, and vanished, reappeared and ripped a Stunner at Em's back, vanishing again before she could recover from the block to retaliate. A soft, muttered curse passed her lips, and she vanished, reappearing behind Harriet, and fired at her.
She ducked the Stunner and rolled to the side, flicking her wand at a pair of stone chucks to either side. A pair of grayish stone lions bounded at Emilia, the lead one swiping at her head with glowing obsidian claws. She dropped away, flopping to her back and firing a Reductor straight up, to shatter the lead lion into gravel.
Emilia scissor-kicked back to her feet and dove over the charge of the second, flicking her wand back. A flaming tendril wrapped around its midsection, and she pulled hard. The feline golem fell into two pieces before shattering into a million.
XANDER, she snapped as a chartreuse beam tore into his side, and just for a millisecond, the room changed, into a dark night lit with flames and the random light of spell fire. She gathered herself and charged, SHIFTING, as she moved, her body lengthening, changing, and between one step and another, a black lion leapt at Harriet.
Harriet spun, catching the flicker of darkness in the dim room out of the corner of her eye, as Em's paws touched the stone just behind Xander, and leapt over him, directly at her.
HARRIET, Sirius screamed, and reached for her. A visible tendril of power shot from him, filling her bones, and she flung out a desperate hand unthinkingly. The charging cat slammed into an invisible wall, sending vague ripples through the air.
Sirius gave his wand a complicated flick and a half-dozen silvery cables appeared, wrapping around Xander and tying him down to the floor. Harriet had the presence of mind to fire an Expelliarmus at Xander, disarming him, before she slid to the floor, a slightly shocked expression filling normally vague eyes that were glowing from within with a greenish-silvery glow.
Sirius' eyes narrowed, as he took a breath and SHIFTED, his bones changing, lengthening, as a long, black tail slipped out, and glittering white fangs slipped free. A black male lion, a third again bigger than Emilia flicked his tail, emerald eyes glowing brightly against his fur.
He roared, and charged, meeting Emilia ten feet in the air, and the pair of them crashed to the floor, both already transforming back to human form even as they fell. Emilia batted away a kick that should have broken her neck if it were not for the room's safeties, and snapped a punch in response, sending Sirius spinning to the side.
Harriet cried out, holding her side, and Emilia looked at her and then back at Sirius, lowering her guard just as Sirius' foot spun around to clip her behind the ear. She tumbled away, using the momentum to move even as she drew her wand, "END!" she roared and the room flashed once through a pure white room, before settling on a replica of the Gryffindor Common Room.
She dropped to her knees, panting, and looked over at Xander to find him sitting on the floor looking back at her, his eyes wide.
Harriet was looking between Sirius and her, her lower lip quivering slightly.
Harriet flinched, just slightly, as Sirius walked over to her, the glow fading from his eyes as he moved. He swallowed, stopping two or three steps from her, and he suddenly could not breathe at the look he found in her eyes; the flicker of fear that she directed at him.
"You...alright?" he asked quietly, and she nodded, not looking away from him.
Rain walked in, her wand in her hand, though she really had no idea what she would do if she had to do anything. "I think that, that's enough for today," she announced quietly.
"Yeah," Emilia agreed, pulling Xander to his feet, even as she looked between Sirius and Harriet again. Her heart broke slightly as Harriet nodded mutely. "Harriet...do you want to go grab something to eat?" she asked, knowing that Uncle Ron's legendary appetite had a way of transferring to his sprog at times like this.
Harriet just shook her head, her eyes flickering to Sirius and then back to Emilia. "I...I need to do some work for McGonagall...I'll probably be in the library." She turned and left the Room quickly, not looking back.
Sirius took a single step and froze at Emilia's hand on his arm. "No, Sirius...don't."
Oh...Goddamit...this isn't good, Emilia muttered to herself, as she watched the closed door without really seeing it, reaching out to follow the flicker of multicolored fire that at this moment was sprinting away.
**************************Gryffindor Tower******************************
November 26, 2015
12:30 am
Rain looked over at Harriet, Em having already left to sleep with Xander, and Cassie, gone somewhere as usual. "Are you sure that you are ok with this?" Rain asked, reaching up and pulling at the tail she had put her hair into for sleeping. She looked around the dimly-lit, circular room, "If it makes you uncomfortable..."
Harriet shrugged and sat back against the headboard of her bed, reaching down and petting the large, furry white head resting there. Gaheris looked up at her with just his eyes, before settling back down with a soft huff. Harriet looked up from him, "No, why would I be?" Harriet asked with a genuinely puzzled tone.
Rain took a breath, and plucked at the pajamas she had chosen, I wonder if I should have chosen something...sexier? She questioned herself, worriedly, taking in again, the red flannel pants with Gryffindor down one leg, and an over-sized sweatshirt she had selected to sleep in, her normal sleepwear in the winter in Hogwarts, but not the most alluring outfit she owned. "Because I'm having Justin up...and Em's with-"
"I will be fine," Harriet reassured her again, "I have my puppy with me...and Sirius is safe," she admitted to the other girl, "As long as he is...I can..."
"Har..."
The door opening without any visible cause silenced them both. It closed, and a white flash lit the walls as Privacy Charms established themselves. A ragged mop of blonde hair appeared, followed by the rest of Justin's rather lanky body, already clothed very much like his girlfriend, matching her almost exactly in fact, except his pants were blue.
"Hi, Harriet," Justin said nervously, "Are you..."
She smiled and flicked her wand at the glowing illumination orbs floating about the room, casting the room into shadow broken by the silvery light from the moon, "I'm tired," Harriet announced, climbing under the covers. Gaheris snuggled up to her on the opposite side, as she lay on her side facing Rain's bed.
Rain gave her a brilliant smile, her teeth gleaming in the moonlight before she crawled under the covers, and looked up as Justin looked once more at Harriet, and then crawled under the covers with Rain. He stretched out, lying on his back, smiled as Rain slowly crawled over until she could lie mostly on top of him, resting her head on his shoulder.
Harriet watched, silently, as they cuddled closer together, and after a moment longer, rolled over, cuddling her wolf to her like a huge, sentient stuffed toy.
******************************Ministry of Magic***************************
November 26, 2015
10:20 am
Hermione leaned back in a battered leather chair, tossing aside a black folder of pictures of various suspected Death Eaters and sympathizers, people that had never quite crossed the line to allow them to be pulled in. She sighed and closed her eyes for a moment; taking a breath and opened them again as she let her head fall to her crossed arms on her desk.
She blew a recalcitrant curl from her eyes and looked across the expanse of her desk at several pictures taking up a place of honor in the right-hand corner, standing like obelisks amongst the parchments, folders and other random clutter littering her desk. She smiled at the one of her and Harry, to anyone except them it showed the pair of them dancing at some random event, her in a green dress and him in a tux.
The true picture was more interesting.
She was draped against him, her back to the camera and looking back over her shoulder, her hair falling drenched down her spine, covering the fact that the emerald green bikini bottoms she was wearing were the only thing on her. Harry had his head tucked on her other shoulder, looking over it towards the camera, squinting slightly as his glasses were elsewhere when that picture had been taken of them at the beach house. Her smile turned to a brief grin as she remembered what had happened just after that flash had gone off from the charmed camera...but that picture would have been a bit much, even hidden under a charm, to put on her desk.
The one next to it was an old one, seventeen years old in fact, and her smile slipped slightly as she watched her, Harry, Ron and Luna mugging for the camera. Luna was sitting in Ron's lap, occasionally squirming as he tickled her side, reaching up under the back of her sweatshirt to run cold fingers along her back. Harry and Hermione sat tucked together next to them on the couch, an old tattered one in the Gryffindor common room, with her straddling Harry's lap, and looking back towards the camera again, periodically turning back to snog him, and reaching down with a laugh every time his hand wandered to the hem of her skirt.
Three weeks after that picture, Ron and Luna were believed dead and Harry and Hermione were holding on by a thread in the Hogwarts Hospital Wing.
She sighed and glanced over at the last, a fresh one she had snapped this summer. In it, Emilia was lying under a tree on the grounds of the Hollow, with Xander lying with his head on her stomach. Sirius was sitting to one side, talking to them, and periodically glancing over at Harriet, his eyes cutting back every time she looked back towards him. Rain was sleeping next to them in cat form, soaking up the summer sun on her black fur. None of them had known they were having their picture taken, and were utterly relaxed before returning to school and their nine-month slog.
A soft knock sounded at her door and she looked up away from her children and those that might as well be such, to motion in a tall, thin man with silver hair. She waved at the guest chairs in front of her desk and sat back in her chair to the accompaniment of a quiet squeak from the leather. "Yeah, Gerrik?" Hermione inquired, looking across at Gerrik Blackwand, the current Head of Admissions to the combined Auror and Special Operations Academy hidden away on the Channel.
He looked at her, and tossed a stack of folders on her desk. A sheathe of glossy photos slipped out and Hermione closed her eyes for a beat as the emerald gaze of her daughter blinked back up at her. She leaned forward slowly, opening the rest, finding, as she knew she would, Sirius, Harriet, Xander, Rain...even Abigail.
Hermione took a long breath. "I want to recruit them," he said brusquely. He took her silence as permission to continue. "Your daughter and Lupin's oldest have already expressed interest, but if we can get the rest..."
Hermione shook her head, cutting him off as he opened a folder showing a picture of Sirius and Harriet talking together, from the stamp at the bottom it had been taken at Hogsmeade. A brief flicker of fury crossed her eyes and she took another deep breath. "I am not about to dictate to my children, any of them, what they can or cannot do with their lives."
He shook his head, tapping his finger next to Sirius, "But if you could...suggest it," an eyebrow crooked, "I mean he's an Archmage class wizard...like your daughter and you and your husband," he tapped Harriet, "She's...a combat capable seer...you know how rare those are, the last one that was confirmed was-"
"Her mother," Hermione said flatly, the true origin of Harriet's parentage available at least to those who had the clearance.
"Yes," he said with new enthusiasm, "they normally shut down totally or go insane, and she's already been through two fights that we know of." He pulled out Rain's picture, "Malcolm Kincaid was a legend, almost another Mad-Eye, and the youngest Lupin...she's another metamorph like her mother..."
"No," Hermione growled, "If one or all of them want to join up, I will support them. In fact I would almost expect that all of them will spend at least some time at the academy...However, if they take badges after that, it will be entirely up to them. Not to me, not to Harry, not to Remus or Tonks, not to Dumbledore or Arthur...but to them. Is that understood?"
"But..."
"Is it?"
He nodded grudgingly.
Hermione held his gaze for a moment, "Very well then, if that is all?"
He stood, and nodded his head, scowling slightly. Hermione watched as he left and dropped her head back to the desk after he left.
"Wotcher," Tonks called a beat later, stepping into the office without knocking, and dropping bonelessly into the chair that Blackwand had vacated. She looked back towards the door, "What's up?"
Hermione sighed, and scrubbed her hands over suddenly-tired eyes. "They are trying to recruit the kids."
"Xander and Em are going to go to the academy," Tonks reminded her with a shrug.
"And so is Rain...wherever Em goes, she's there. But they were after Sirius and Harriet...hell even Abby."
Tonks sighed, "It doesn't surprise me, honestly."
"It's our kids, Tonks."
"You weren't here during the grand days of the Bureaucracy. If they can find a way to boost their careers, they will. The kids would be a feather in anyone's hats...Arthur managed to weed a lot of them out, but they are starting to come back."
"It's been bad enough on us..."
"And you don't want them to get hurt," Tonks replied softly, "I know, Hermione-"
"It's not that...well it is, but I know I can't set their lives for them...it's just that they were expecting that I just order the kids into the service or something, like we owed it to them."
Tonks frowned, and stood, "Let's leave, Hermione, I think I'm rather thirsty." Hermione looked at the piles of paper scattered about her desk. Tonks rolled her eyes, "Trust me, it will be here later."
"Alright," Hermione replied, "Let me get my jacket." She reached over and a black dragonhide jacket leapt across the room from a rack. She shrugged it on, shook out her hair from the collar, and let Tonks lead her from the room.
On the desk, just as the lights went out, the tiny version of her in the picture with Harry, Ron and Luna frowned, and dropped her head to Harry's shoulder.
**************************Hogwarts*****************************
November 26, 2015
4:25 pm
Xander's breath formed clouds around his head as he and Emilia slowly paced around the lake, following a well, well-worn trail. Unlike many days, very little wildlife, magical or mundane was in evidence; only humans were daft enough to wander aimlessly in the sub-freezing temperatures of late autumn in the very northern tip of Scotland.
He looked over at her, and frowned as he looked back to their path, not wanting to meet her eyes. Unlike almost every other millisecond of their lives since this summer, where it was possible that is, they were not touching, with a good four feet between them.
Xander shoved his hands deeper in his pockets, and kicked at a stone in his path. Their link was silent, only the faint background 'hum' of their connection letting him know she was still alive...other than the faint scent of vanilla from her hair, and the darker scent of their mixed pheromones wafting to his more than human nose. He swallowed as he glanced over at Emilia out of the corner of his eye to watch her mittened thumb running habitually over the hidden band of her ring.
He took a breath, scenting again his own scent on her; she had at least crawled into bed with him the night before, though with the morning, she had fallen silent, even in class. "What happened, yesterday?"
Emilia looked over at him, and shrugged.
Xander muttered something under his breath, "What happened, Emilia Luna?" he repeated more softly, but somehow more forcefully all the same.
Small hands jammed into the deep pockets of her cloak, which swept the ground behind her, as she looked away, watching the ground. "I lost it, Xander," she said in a small voice. "I lost it...I saw you take that hit...and I lost it..."
"Em..."
"I knew it was Harriet," she whispered painfully, not looking up from her feet, "but I saw you take that hit...and it was the train all over." A soft, choked sob escaped and Xander stepped to her, pulling her against him. She burrowed her way under his cloak, hiding her face from the world behind layers of wool and cotton.
He nodded for a moment, letting her trembling recede, "What happened to Harriet, then?"
"I...I think that the bond partially opened and she only got the power...without the softer side, none of the emotions, the thoughts, and it scared the shit out of her. Sirius has been trying so hard to be 'ready', that he's compartmentalized his feelings for her..."
"What if you had actually gotten through to her..."
"I really don't know...I'd hope that I'd stopped before I really could have hurt her, the room would have protected her from really getting hurt from that attack...but Sirius or I could overpower the wards in there. But...Sirius came in when I went after...his mate..."
"They aren't there yet," Xander objected mildly.
Emilia shook her head as she stepped back, she pulled her mitten off with her teeth and slipped her now uncovered left hand into his right pocket, interlacing his fingers there with hers. She placed the mitten into her pocket with her other hand, and started walking again.
Xander missed a step, staggering slightly as Emilia dropped all of the barriers between them, barriers that, in that instant, he realized she had thrown up unconsciously this morning to...protect him.
"And you are used to that," Emilia went on, leaning into him, "She's not. For you, by now, it's as natural as breathing, you expect to find me there in your head, but she felt his pain, Xander, without the rest of it. Felt the magic without the conscious to control it. It's not like when it starts to establish when our stupid hearts finally beat down our brains, and seal the deal."
"Your folks bonded under duress-"
"Not really," Emilia demurred softly, stopping and turning into him without letting loose of his hand. She looked up into his eyes, across the several inches separating them; "Mum and Dad were working on it since they were eleven, one way or another, yeah the final bit came through a bit of drama, but they, except for that thing with Ginny, were always building to it gradually. Whether it's her powers or some joke of the universe, Harriet was three-quarters of the way there when she came back across. She never had that intervening experience."
"Is that the only reason?"
"That and she loves him and it's scaring the crap out of them." Emilia bit her lip and shrugged, pulling him back towards the castle. Let's go hide somewhere...and just hide together...
You'll think this is squicky... Emilia crooked an eyebrow and Xander shrugged, Your dad showed me a place...well, he showed Sirius, who showed me, but I don't think anyone else knows about it...
I do, Emilia smiled faintly and started them back on the beaten dirt path to the main doors of the castle.
A/N: There it is, next chapter, Crime and Punishment: The darkness returns and the lions' claws start to flex.