“What do you mean he has moved?” the Dark Lord’s voice was icy cold.
Vanth arched a delicate eyebrow, “I mean that we located the traitor and he is no longer where he once was.”
Voldemort tapped long, white, skeletal fingers on the arm of his chair in irritation as he stared the death demon down, “find him again, and do the job right this time. I want him destroyed.”
“It shall be done,” Charun promised.
“It should have been done by now,” the Dark Lord said frigidly, “he is not able to walk freely, he is a hunted man. That should have made him decidedly easy to catch.”
“Remember who you are speaking to,” Charun warned in a low voice, his ugliness even more pronounced as his face was distorted with anger. “We are the bringers of death. Anger us and it shall be your blood on our hands, not theirs.”
The Death Eaters in the room instantly pulled their wands, training them on the winged creatures.
Voldemort gave a sharp bark of laughter, “I am not concerned about your loyalty. As you see I have ways of enforcing it.”
Vanth ruffled her wings irritably, “Charun and I are here and remain so because it is what we wish. However, if we ever choose to leave, you shall not be able to do anything to stop us. Come Charun, we have ourselves a traitor to find,” she turned towards the door, ignoring the wands still aimed at her.
Voldemort smiled, looking particularly pleased with himself, “look for him at Hogwarts. It is likely that Snape will try to give him refuge.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Can I help you with something?” Morgan asked as she looked up from the papers on her desk.
“Yes, I was looking for my wife, but I cannot seem to find her among all this clutter,” Severus sneered. He looked around his wife’s office, distaste clearly written on his face. She had books and papers scattered everywhere, on the floor and precariously stacked in leaning vertical towers, but next to nothing in her filing cabinets and on the shelves that lined the walls. He could also see at least four pairs of shoes scattered throughout the room, along with a few lone ones. No wonder she was always complaining about them going missing.
Morgan came around her desk and grabbed the front of her husband’s robes to drag him down to her level for a kiss, “have you found her yet?” she asked cheekily when they finally came up for air.
“I’m not sure, perhaps I should search some more,” he wrapped one arm around her waist and tangled a hand in her hair as he drew her back in, “if you want anymore than that,” he whispered silkily, “you’ll have to clean this mess up a bit first.”
“That’s not fair! This is my office and I am allowed to keep it in any condition that I deem is appropriate,” she placed her hands on her hips and glared up at her husband.
Severus mechanically moved her out of the way and seated himself in her desk chair, “this is disgusting,” he told her as his eyes swept over the room from this new vantage point, “however do you get any work done in here?”
Morgan sniffed, “some of us don’t mind a bit of clutter.”
“This is not ‘a bit of clutter’, this is a disaster area. It looks like the sort of wreckage Peeves would leave behind.”
Morgan walked over to her desk and picked up one of the scattered books form in and placed in on the shelf next to her. “There, are you happy now?”
Severus grabbed her around the waist and pulled her into his lap where he held her, alternating between scolding and kissing her. Morgan endured the former with good grace and thoroughly enjoyed the latter, especially when he started growling all sorts of promises into her ear.
“You know, when you leave your door unlocked unsuspecting students can get in.”
“And you have the unique talent of showing up precisely when your presence is least wanted.”
Dierna grinned unrepentantly,” I just have one question and then I’ll let you two get back to whatever it was you were doing.” She tried to ignore the fact that her parents both looked a bit rumpled. “I think I figured out a way to use the lacewing flies in that sleeping solution by using a different base. Do you mind if I use the classroom to try it?”
Severus frowned, “just make sure you leave everything as you found it and make sure that you can account for anything that you remove from my personal stores.”
“Thanks Dad! I’ll make sure to lock the door on the way out,” she grinned cheekily at her parents before dashing out of the room. Now she just needed to find an extra pair of hands as her father’s were currently occupied elsewhere. She tried not to think about that.
She decided to try the library first as it was on her way down to the dungeons. “Where’s my sister?” she flung her arms around Nick’s neck from behind.
Nick detached her and turned around in his chair, “our helping Professor Longbottom with something in one of the greenhouses. I wasn’t really listening when she told me about it.”
“Well, do you want to help me then?”
“Do I have the option of refusing?”
“Nope.”
“Then I guess I will.”
Dierna made impatient noises as Nick packed up his belongings and practically pushed him out of the library.
“Are we anxious for a reason?” Nick asked as he was pushed along.
“I want to try something are you are walking too slow.”
Nick allowed himself to be dragged along and waited patiently to one side as Dierna set up her cauldron and set about preparing different ingredients. “Why exactly do you need me?”
“I need to add the Hellebore and Dracena Marginata root at the same time while stirring counterclockwise. I don’t have that many hands.”
“Understandable.” Nick poured in the essence of Hellebore at Dierna’s instructions and watched while she picked up the vial of lacewing flies and tipped a few into the cauldron. It instantly turned an angry looking red.
“That’s not good…” Dierna mumbled as she tried to fix it.
She swore as it quickly became much worse after the addition of Chimera blood and exploded.
Dierna had enough presence of mind to shut her eyes and raise her arms to cover her face, however her robes were soaked with the botched experiment. She lowered her arms and looked over at Nick, who was untouched, but looking at her in a very unsettling manner. “Alright, I guess that won’t work, maybe if we try…”
“Dammit Dierna, that stuff is eating through your robes!”
Dierna’s eyes grew large and she looked down to see that Nick was right. She stood there frozen.
Nick, however, took action. He quickly divested Dierna of her robes, and seeing that it had gone through to her shirt, tore that off as well, “sorry doll, but this has to come off too,” he unhooked her bra and flung it to the floor before checking to see if anything had gotten on his hands.
“Hey, are you ok?” he took Dierna by the shoulders and gave her a little shake.
Dierna, who had enough sense to cross her arms over her chest, took a long, shuddering breath, “yeah, I don’t think any of it got on my skin.”
“You need me to look?”
Dierna’s eyes widened even more.
Nick gave her a lopsided grin, “you could always close your eyes and pretend I’m Madam Pomphrey.”
“I’d smack you if I weren’t half naked.”
Nick’s grin faded, “I suppose I should do something about that, although you did get to keep your skirt on.” He unbuttoned his shirt, intending to give it to Dierna to put on, but it fell to the floor before he could offer it to her.
The shock of what had happened had just caught up with Dierna and her legs gave out on her. Nick was just able to catch her, but they both ended up sitting in a heap on the floor.
“Hey… you’re alright… stop shaking,” Nick pulled Dierna into a tight hug, a bit awkward with the way they were sitting on the floor and since they were both missing their shirts.
“I’m sorry…” Dierna sniffled.
“Shhhh… you have nothing to be sorry for. You ruined a school uniform, that’s it. Come on now, we’ve both talked about burning them once we graduate anyways, you just got a head start.”
Dierna gave him a watery smile, “thanks Nick, Merlin only knows what would have happened if you hadn’t been here.”
“I know… I would never have gotten to see you naked.”
Dierna couldn’t help but giggle as she realized exactly how they looked, sitting there on the floor, half naked.
“So… exactly how much of this can I tell the guys? And can I leave out the fact that you spilled acid on your robes?”
Dierna rolled her eyes, “we may have to edit this story a bit when we tell Serena about it.”
Nick grinned, “probably shouldn’t tell her that I got a good look at your chest.”
Dierna snorted, “you can tell her how much better endowed she is than me and you can tell her how you saved me,” she gave him a sisterly kiss on the cheek and wrapped her arms around him, leaning her head on his shoulder. She had only been like that for a few seconds when the sound of shattering glass filled the room.
Dierna and Nick instantly let go of each other and looked up to see the remains of several bottles littering the floor and a very angry Potions Master standing in the doorway. Dierna swore under her breath, “he is really going to kill us and ask questions later this time.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~
