Olivia gave Morgan a look that spoke of pure suffering, “do I have to keep going?”
“Yes.”
She sighed heavily, “I guess it wasn’t too bad today. I like Eva.”
“I sincerely hope that you address her as Mrs. O’Hara and not as Eva.”
“She said I could call her Eva.”
Morgan smiled gently, “I suppose that’s fine then, but do not let your father catch you calling her by her given name.”
“Why?”
“Because he wouldn’t find it very respectful.”
“Oh.”
“Would you like to have some tea with me?”
“Can Tristan have some too?”
“Of course.”
“Ok,” Olivia ran to her bedroom to retrieve the stuffed rabbit, which she set between her and her mother on the couch.
Morgan poured hardly more than a teaspoon of tea into Olivia’s cup and then filed the rest with milk. It didn’t matter that she couldn’t taste the tea, knowing that it was there and drinking it from the fine china cup made Olivia feel very grown up. “How does Tristan take his tea?” Morgan asked as she reached for a second cup once Olivia’s was in front of her.
“Lots of sugar.”
“Any cream?”
“No, just sugar, nothing else,” Olivia took the cup from her mother before she could add any tea to it and filled it to the brim with sugar cubes. Bu the time she set it down in front of Tristan it was several sugar cubes lighter.
“Tristan will be up all night if he eats all that sugar,” Morgan remarked dryly.
“I’ll help him eat it.”
“I’m sure you will,” Morgan relieved the cup of several sugar cubes every time Olivia’s attention was diverted.
Morgan was listening to a very detailed, and highly amusing, account of Olivia’s day when Severus returned from his classes. He sank into an armchair close by and closed his eyes. The only sign that he was still awake was the way his mouth would twitch in amusement every so often as Olivia finished her narrative.
Severus opened his eyes and motioned Olivia over to him once she had run out of things to say, which had taken quite awhile. He pulled a small silver key out of one of the pockets in his robes, “open the cabinet behind my desk and bring what is inside over here.”
Olivia took the key, looking at it with wide eyes, and hurried across the room to open the specified cabinet. After a bit of fumbling with the key she managed to get the cabinet opened and squealed with delight as she withdrew her toy cauldron. She had begun to give up any hope of ever seeing it again. She raced back to her parents, clutching it to her chest.
Severus plucked the cauldron out of her grasp and set it on the table in front of him. He positioned Olivia so that she was standing right in front of him and grasped her small chin in his large hand so that he could keep her attention fixed on him and not the cauldron, “it will remain in that cabinet, which I will keep unlocked. You are only to take it out when I give you permission to do so and you will only be allowed to use it when I have enough free time to keep both of my eyes firmly fixed on you. If you break anymore rules regarding the use of that cauldron you will never see it again. Is that understood?”
“Can I play with it now?”
“Olivia…” Severus’ voice carried a warning tone.
“I won’t break anymore rules,” Olivia promised, looking very sincere and as angelic as possible.
“No you cannot play with it now. Perhaps tomorrow.”
Seeing that her first choice of activity was not a possibility Olivia settled for crawling into Severus’ lap instead.
Severus sighed, “you never wait for an invitation, do you?
“I don’t need one.”
“That is debatable.”
“Sev, be nice,” Morgan admonished him.
Severus glared back at her, but obligingly wrapped his arms around Olivia as she made herself more comfortable.
Morgan finished her tea in silence as Severus stared rather moodily into the fire, “I think she’s asleep,” she said as she returned her cup and its saucer to the table.
Severus shifted Olivia in his arms, but decided that for the moment she could stay where she was since she was asleep, “I had a letter from Eric today.”
Morgan’s eyes slid shut, “it terrifies me every time he writes you. I am so afraid that he will have some horrible news.”
Severus returned his gaze to the fire. “Kerth Morgester…”
“He has that tattoo of the snake that wraps around his arm, is an auror for the Ministry now… he was a Ravenclaw in my year,” Morgan clarified.
Severus nodded, “he disappeared last week.”
“No one just disappears Severus, say what you mean,” there were tears in Morgan’s voice.
“Eric cannot find him in any of his mirrors, he is gone.”
Morgan sniffed, “how?”
“I do not know the details, he was getting information for the Order from inside the Ministry.”
“How many more Sev? How many more are going to die before this is over?”
“Too many.”
“Who’s going to die?”
Severus and Morgan’s eyes flew to Olivia who was now wide awake.
“Who’s going to die?” the little girl repeated her question.
Morgan pulled herself together first, “we’re fighting a war honey, a lot of innocent people may die.”
“Why?”
“Because there are bad people out there that want to hurt people and take over, and they don’t care if they have to kill people to do that.”
“Is it the same people that killed my other parents?”
“Yes.”
“I don’t want anyone else to die,” Olivia said softly, “will they try to hurt me too?”
“I will not let them anywhere near you,” Severus swore as he tightened his arms around Olivia, but his eyes were on Morgan.
“Do they want to hurt you?”
Morgan and Severus shared a long look, trying to decide exactly what and how much to tell the girl. Finally it was Severus that answered her, “yes they do. They want to hurt your mother, but most especially they want to hurt me.” It took all of his self control not to rub his left forearm. The dark mark was now as dark as it had been when he first received it.
“No one can hurt you Daddy,” Olivia said with confidence, “you’re too big and strong and scary. You’ll beat them.”
Morgan had to quickly leave the room so that Olivia wouldn’t hear her sobs. She knew that more lives would be lost and she couldn’t shake the feeling that the hand of death would touch her family this time.
Severus sat very still as Olivia fell back asleep in his arms. If thinking him capable of defeating any foe meant that she was oblivious to the desperate state of things he was happy to let her think so.
~~~~~~~~~~~
“That lesson was wicked,” Serena gushed as they left Defense against the Dark Arts and made their way up to one of the towers on the west side of the school.
“I’m still not quite sure why that means we have to go and practice it on our own,” Nick muttered.
Dierna punched him in the arm, “that’s just because you think that any time not spent playing Quidditch of snogging my sister is wasted.”
“Brat!” Nick pinched Dierna.
“Stop it!” Serena put her hands on her hips and turned to face her twin and boyfriend, “you’re my two favorite people and I don’t want to have to take the time to replace you if you decide to kill each other.”
“Yes ma’am,” Nick promptly responded.
Dierna snorted, “looks like someone is completely whipped,” however she did say it quiet enough so that Serena wouldn’t hear her.
Nick gave her hair a tug, “keep up the attitude and I’ll make sure that Stefan whips you.”
Dierna stuck her tongue out at him, “too bad I have him wrapped around my little finger, he’ll believe my side of the story and will never even listen to yours.”
“We’ll just see about that,” Nick tugged another curl, “I think I’ll have to write him a letter, tell him that you’re just begging for a good spanking.”
Dierna shoved him, just hard enough to cause him to lose his footing, but luckily he caught himself on the railing before he went down the stairs.
“You nearly sent me down these stairs you little wench!” Nick glared at Dierna, who smiled back at him sweetly. A little too sweetly. “I really am going to send Stefan that letter, first chance I get.
“Your empty threats don’t scare me Nicolas Alexander Wood.”
“If you two are quite finished…?” Serena turned to glare at the mockingly. She fingered the Prefect badge pinned to her robes, “if you keep bickering I’ll be forced to take points from you.”
Dierna snorted, “yeah… I’d like to see you try.”
“You two are totally whacked in the head, I hope you realize that,” Nick pushed past them on the stairs to throw open the trap door to the top of the tower. “My dad says that this used to be the Astronomy tower, but then something happened up here last time they fought Voldemort and they relocated the Astronomy classes to the other side of the school.”
Serena scrambled up through the trapdoor after Nick, “how long have you known this?!”
Nick shrugged, “I don’t know… awhile.”
“And you didn’t tell us?!” Dierna demanded indignantly.
“Hey, I figured you already knew. Your parents are teachers here after all.”
“Yeah, but they never tell us anything,” Serena countered.
“Did your dad tell you why they stopped using this tower?” Dierna asked.
Nick shook his head, “he won’t talk about it. But he had already graduated when it happened.”
Dierna kicked a stray pebble across the tower floor, “no one tells us anything. Don’t they realize that we are fighting a war against the same enemy they fought last time and we could use some of the information they have?!”
Serena snorted, “no, they’re so busy trying to protect us that they’re leaving us in the dark.”
“We didn’t come up here to complain about what we don’t know,” Nick said quietly.
Serena sighed, “you’re right.”
All three took positions around the tower top so that they formed a triangle, “think happy thoughts girls,” Nick said as he brandished his wand, “Expecto Patronum!” a bit of silvery mist came out the end of his wand, but that was it.
The girls were both met with similar results. However, the longer they went on the worse their results seemed to get. Finally, in a fit of frustration, Dierna threw her wand to the ground where it rolled, clattering across the stones. Not looking at Serena or Nick she bent to retrieve it and then headed towards the stairs, “I’m going to bed, you can keep practicing.”
“That was… weird,” Nick finally said.
Serena sighed, “she gets really angry about Mum and Dad never telling us anything about the last war. Especially since she spends so much time with Dad doing that independent study and all… she feels betrayed.”
“What about you?”
Serena shrugged, “I don’t know… it is frustrating…”
“You know, there is more than one way to get the answers you want…”
“What are you suggesting?”
“First chance we get we start springing questions on professors and hoping they answer.”
“I suppose that’ll have to work,” Serena said, although she wasn’t sure how much information they would get that way.
“Hey, what’s that?” Nick pointed down by the lake.
Serena squinted to see in the poor light, “it’s Professor Aagensen, but she’s with other people.”
“Looks like a man and a woman, but they’re not any of the professors.”
“Well, if they’re with Professor Aagensen it must be ok. Right?”
~~~~~~~~~~
