“How was your day?”

“What do you have that will create a numbing effect?”

Kalliope smiled, “that bad?”

“I feel like I’ve been trampled by a herd of Hippogriffs.”

“Hmmm… guess Cadmus pushed you a bit too hard today…”

“That’s an understatement.”

“But just think about how long it’s been since you came home to me feeling like this. We’ve finally put some muscle on you, and you’re looking nearly as dark as the natives.”

“I take it you approve.”

“Most definitely.”

“So… something to relieve the extreme agony I’m in…”

“Under the bed, in the basket in the corner.”

“Darling, I’m not sure I can get down to get it, my muscles are screaming and I’m…”

Kalliope placed both hands over her stomach, clearing indicating her pregnant state and practically pouted.

Remus sighed, “if I get stuck on the floor it’s your fault.” He groaned as he sank down to his knees and reached under the bed. But it wasn’t enough. He had to get down on his stomach and inch under the bed to reach the basket he needed.

While Remus was under the bed Kalliope grabbed something off windowsill and tucked it into the folds of her robes.

“Here,” Remus grunted as he managed to get up off the floor to stand on shaking legs. He thrust the basket at Kalliope, “something, anything, just make it quick.”

Kalliope took her time looking through the basket, “hmmm… that’s funny, it’s not in here… perhaps it’s in the chest down by the…”

“I can’t move anymore, I’ll just suffer in pain,” Remus said through gritted teeth.

“Oh, wait,” Kalliope reached into her robes and pulled out a vial of something green, “it’s right here.”

Remus just stared at her blankly. Blinked once. Twice. “I can’t believe you did that to me…”

Kalliope smiled up at him sweetly.

“I’m going to go bunk with the men.”

Kalliope rolled her eyes, “come here and drink this.”

Remus still looked intent on leaving.

“You wouldn’t make your wife beg, would you? I’ll rub your back…”

“You are positively evil,” Remus said as he plucked the vial from Kalliope’s hand and downed the contents quickly.

“There’s a salve I could rub you with it would… oh don’t look at me like that, I’ll get it myself,” Kalliope lightly slapped Remus’ arm as she got up and retrieved the stoneware jar from a low table. “If you’re feeling better tomorrow I need you to do a few things for me.”

“I don’t know, after the way you’ve treated me tonight I might not feel like doing anything for you.”

“If you don’t it’ll only be more work for you later. I need everything up off the floor, I can’t get to anything down there anymore. You should have seen me trying to get my sandals tied this morning.”

“Am I supposed to feel pity for you?”

“Yes.”

“You can hardly expect to receive any pity from me after the way you have treated me tonight.”

Kalliope smiled, “I’d promise to make it up to you but I’m too large and you’re too sore.”

“When did we become an old married couple?”

~~~~~~~~~~~

“Watcha doing?”

“Reading.”

“You still have homework to do?”

“No, I finished it.”

“Then what in the world are you studying for?” Serena looked at her sister as though she had gone mad. “Just because we have our NEWTs this year doesn’t mean you need to start making an effort all of a sudden.”

“I’m not studying, just reading a couple of books that I borrowed from Dad,” Dierna didn’t raise her eyes from the page she was on. But, for some reason she couldn’t bring herself to tell Serena just why the books were so fascinating, even though she knew her twin would be intrigued.

None of them had ever been able to get much information out of the parents about their lives. If it happened before they were born or they were too young to remember it the topic was usually off limits. It was incredibly frustrating, and made such topics all the more appealing. They shared every bit of information they could find out with one another in hopes of discovering some part of the life their parents had led before they were born.

But these books were different. And Dierna wasn’t sure how. She just knew that they were something she wanted to keep all to herself. Besides, she reasoned, Serena has no real love for potions, it’s not like these will really mean anything to her.

“Well, when you’re done immersing yourself in the literary world of potions, Nick wants to hold a team meeting to discuss the openings on the quidditch team. Although I’m sure it’s just a formality. I’m fairly certain he has already planned out who will take William and Kamen’s places.”

“Tell him I’ll be down in a few minutes, I just want to finish this part,” Dierna answered, only half listening.

“Right then,” Serena paused at the door, “you’d let me know if something was bothering you, right?”

“Of course,” Dierna tore her eyes away from the passage on moonstones.

“Just wanted to make sure… you know even with me being a Prefect and all,” she sighed.

“You were my sister before you were a Prefect.”

Serena shrugged, “don’t mind me, I was just being stupid really.”

“Don’t worry about it. If you start acting like a complete prat I’ll let you know. Just don’t let that badge go to your head.”

Serena grinned, “I have no intention of abusing my power, unless you start acting like a brat. Then I’m taking points off.”

“I’ll tell Dad if you do that.”

“You think he’d do anything about it?”

Dierna giggled, “he’d probably take more points off because I bothered him with something so trivial. Why don’t you go down and head off Nick for me, tell him I promise I’ll be down in a few minutes and he can annoy me to death with quidditch tactics then.”

“Will do, but if he decides to shoot the messenger I’m holding you personally responsible.”

~~~~~~~~~~~

“I was under the impression that you had graduated. So I cannot even begin to imagine why you feel the need to come back to torment your mother and I.”

Kamen grinned unrepentantly, although there was a darker emotion lurking in his eyes, “not happy to see me?”

“I like it when he visits!” Olivia rushed to defend her brother from her perch on his lap.

“If you have come round hoping for another loan that you have no intention of repaying…”

“Now Dad, that’s not very nice. You should feel honored to be the financial backing of a pro-quidditch player.”

“Because that was such an excellent career choice,” Severus’ voice dripped with sarcasm.

“Glad you’re finally starting to see things my way.”

“And it appears that you are as dim as ever,” Severus replied.

“Oh stop it you two!” Morgan looked sternly between husband and son, “I wish that for once you’d at least attempt to have a civil conversation.”

“Actually, there is something I’d like to talk to you about,” Kamen looked up at his father, signaling with his eyes that this needed to be a private conversation.

Severus inclined his head in the slightest of nods, “as long as you do not plan on wasting my time.”

Morgan frowned, realizing she was going to be left out of this conversation completely. She didn’t like that. And Severus’ damn sense of honor along with his grossly stubborn nature meant that she’d never be able to weasel it out of him. She didn’t like knowing that her son and husband were keeping secrets from her, especially when her mother’s intuition warned her that it was about something dangerous. She didn’t like it at all.

“I believe my office would be the best place to talk,” Severus said, knowing very well that the further away from Morgan and Olivia this conversation took place, the better.

Kamen lifted Olivia off his lap and stood up. “I’ll stop by sometime this week to watch the munchkin for awhile,” he told his mother as he bent to kiss her cheek. He could tell that she was trying not to be irritated with him and that it wasn’t working very well.

“Do you have to leave now?” Olivia asked as she attached herself to Kamen’s legs.

“Sorry kid, I’ll drop by on Sunday to have lunch with you. Unless you have a previous engagement…”

“Well, I did promise Tristan that I would have lunch with him first…”

“Dear Merlin, she’s already picking up on Dad’s biting wit. Dierna was at least nine before she started doing that. Let’s just hope she won’t acquire his sparkling personality as well.”

Severus narrowed his eyes. He could tell by the way Kamen was forcing his usually normal cheerfulness that something was wrong, very wrong.

“I’ll see you Sunday,” Kamen told Olivia as he detached her from his legs, “see if you can’t stay out of trouble until then.” He forced a smile and ruffled Olivia’s curls before following his father out of the room.

“That was quite the act. One normally doesn’t associate that sort of deceit with a Gryffindor,” Severus said as they walked down the hall.

“I don’t want to talk about it here,” Kamen said through gritted teeth.

The remainder of the walk deeper into the dungeons was made in silence. Except for Severus stopping to take ten points from two Gryffindor 2nd years who were loitering in a stairwell and snapping at a Hufflepuff to watch where he was going.

“Would you care for a drink?” Severus asked once they had reached his office and he made sure that all of his wards were back in place. Now was not the time for interruptions.

Kamen stuffed his hands in his pockets and shook his head no.

“Well, I trust you will not mind if I indulge,” Severus poured a rather liberal amount of Firewhiskey into a tumbler and took a seat behind his desk. It took Kamen several minutes to sit down across from him.

“We’ve talked about what I’ve done for the Brotherhood before,” Kamen finally began. “What I’ve done in hopes of bringing us one step closer to victory…” he stared moodily off into space. “I killed a man once… didn’t want to, but I didn’t have much choice. It was him or me…”

“We have already discussed that incident at length,” Severus interrupted him rather impatiently.

“I know… but it happened again.”

“Did you have a choice?”

“No.”

“What happened?”

“We had learned that a group of Death Eaters had organized a Muggle baiting as some sort of celebration. We decided to break it up… they outnumbered us, but most of them were young, newly initiated Death Eaters… Armand and the others quickly got most of them under control. But I got hit from behind with the Cruciatus… I couldn’t even think of what to do I was in so much pain. As soon as it was lifted I… I killed him… I used the killing curse… I didn’t mean to, it just happened.”

“I would be more worried if you came in here feeling no remorse than if you had killed twenty Death Eaters and knew that you had no taste for killing, even if it was necessary for your own survival.”

“Did you ever get used to it?”

Severus stiffened, he made a point of never mentioning his days as a Death Eater, “no.”

“There’s more,” Kamen said.

Severus waited silently, albeit tensely, for Kamen to continue.

“I knew them.”

Severus sighed, but did not interrupt.

“I knew them Dad, some of them had taken their masks off. They were people that went to Hogwarts. A few from my year, a few older and younger, from all four Houses…”

“Despite common misconceptions Slytherin is not the only House to turn out Death Eaters,” Severus said slowly. He couldn’t count the number of times he had heard Hagrid claim that all the dark wizards came from Slytherin. What irked him the most was that Dumbledore, who knew better, had never once said anything to correct him. Not one of his fellow staff members then or now seemed to care that they promoted a strong bias against the Slytherins. They talked of unity, but seemed to want it for only three Houses.

“I saw my fellow Gryffindors there… heard them talking about how superior they were…” Kamen still couldn’t quite believe it. No Gryffindors were supposed to be Death Eaters… He shook his head. “The point is, I wanted you to hear this from me,” he took a deep breath and looked his father straight in the eye, “the one I killed was a boy named Aquinas.”

“He did not return to school this year, he would have been a 5th year.”

“I’m sorry Dad, I killed one of your Slytherins, I…” Kamen stopped, he propped his elbows up on his father’s desk and buried his face in his hands.

Severus pushed the glass of Firewhiskey across the desk to his son, who downed it more quickly than was prudent. “You did not kill a Slytherin, you did not kill a fellow student,” he finally said, “you killed a Death Eater.”

“That doesn’t make me feel a whole lot better, I still killed him.”

“Do not drink anymore tonight, it will only dull the ache for a few hours, it will not end it.”

“I wish I understood why we are in this whole mess in the first place!”

“I am not sure that there is anyone who can explain that, dead or alive.”

Kamen rose to his feet, “there might be, as long as he’s willing to talk about it…” he paused at the door, “thanks, I appreciate…” he shook his head, “don’t tell Mum about any of this. She has enough to worry about already.”

“I won’t say a word.”

~~~~~~~~~~~

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