Mark twirled a quill between his fingers as he stared at the fire. “Worst thing you’ve ever done that Snape has NOT found out about…” he finally decided. It was a bit lacking, but the younger years were present, so it would have to do.
Kay rolled her eyes as she stretched her legs out, making herself more comfortable in Salazar’s chair. They had taken to frequenting his rooms ever since they first made their way down here. Now, in the early morning hours they were enjoying themselves without any risk of being caught by the Baron. “Ummm… I don’t know… Snape finds out about everything…”
“What have you gotten away with?”
Kay grinned slowly, “my first year he caught me sneaking out around two in the morning. Some of the older girls had convinced me to make a kitchen run for them… I started crying, I was so scared he was going to thrash me… I think I scared him, thought I was going to have a panic attack or something… that he let me go with a warning… I’ve idolized him ever since…”
Mark grinned, “He let me go with a warning the first time I got in trouble too… I think he does that with most of us.” He realized that the rest of Slytherin House had crowded closer, and he did love an audience, “of course the second time he caught me out of bounds…” he shuddered dramatically, “I thought he was going to pull my bloody ear off. He dragged me by it all the way from the fifth floor down to his office, and that is a lot of stairs.” He tossed the quill aside, “I hate saying this, but I miss having him breathing down our necks.”
“Speak for yourself,” Agrippa snorted.
“I don’t know…” Marcus thought for a minute, “without someone constantly watching us…”
“We’re going to lose our touch,” Posthumous finished.
“The three of you are bloody annoying,” Mark declared. “If any of you ever finish a sentence on your own I may die from shock.”
“I miss Snape,” Brandon Potter said as he flopped down onto the floor at Kay’s feet. No one said anything in response though, because it was a sentiment they all shared. And they all felt powerless because there was nothing they could do to fix it. He wanted to ask Mark to try talking to their Housemaster again, but he didn’t want to. It hadn’t done any good the first time. “Kay, did you bring your bag down with you?”
“Yep,” she groped around on the floor by her side until she found it and then dropped it in Brandon’s lap, “knock yourself out kid.”
Brandon reached for the quill Mark had tossed aside and fished some ink and parchment out of Kay’s bag. He spread the parchment out on the floor in front of him and thought for a moment before dipping the quill into ink. He was done a moment later. “Will you all sign this?” he asked, looking around at his Housemates.
“Let’s see it,” Mark held his hand out for the paper. In Brandon’s untidy, blocky printing it said we miss you Professor Snape. Please come back. “Sure kid, I’ll sign it.” And every single one of the Slytherins did, and Mark slid it under Snape’s office door before he went to bed that night.
Snape found the note in the morning. His face was expressionless while he read it. But he carefully folded it and tucked it into his robes. He thought about it, and Slytherin House, and his own school days there, on and off all day. They weren’t all comforting thoughts. But while he was visiting Morgan before class that morning he decided that even if they were not all happy memories, he was still fond of some of them. If there was one thing the Slytherins had always offered him it had been consistency and order. Those were two things he did appreciate.
~~~~~~~~~~
“It’s far too cold for my tastes…” William rubbed his hands together quickly, hoping the little bit of friction would help. They couldn’t risk a fire and there was only so much warming spells could do. Besides, they didn’t last that long.
Bill Weasley smiled sympathetically as he tried to warm his own fingers. He had known this wouldn’t be a pleasant trip, but he had volunteered for it anyways. He hadn’t wanted to, but their resources were already stretched so thin that there had been no other choice. They desperately needed to start making alliances in the North. But the Death Eaters had already been here. So far the only people they had been able to question were a few villagers from a small wizarding settlement. And the news they had was disheartening. The giants had already agreed to help Voldemort. And these weren’t just the simple minded but towering human-like giants from the Eastern areas of Europe. There were tribes here of more magical beings that dwelled deep in the mountains. Although he had never personally seen any of them it was rumored that some of them could breathe ice to freeze their victims.
The trolls were also abundant here, and they had also joined the Death Eaters. They were a nasty, smelly bunch, who mainly defended themselves by throwing rocks. But it was effective. Deadly so.
Unless they ran into a bit more luck their journey to Midgard would prove fruitless. There were all sorts of rumors and stories about the magical creatures that lived here in the mountains and snow. But they didn’t know which leads to follow and which ones were merely stories and folklore. He rather hoped that the creatures the Death Eaters were looking to recruit were merely stories, and that their hoped for allies turned out to be real.
“Did you hear that?” William suddenly stopped in the middle of the path and pulled his cloak closer about his shoulders. Even though it was mid morning it was dark here. The trees were close together, their branches blocking out almost all of the weak winter light. That little bit of thin light wasn’t enough to pierce through the thick mist that had settled during the night, and it swirled around them eerily as they paused among the trees.
A lone raven called out harshly from their right, but other than that the mountains were silent.
“Maybe it was nothing…” William started to move forward, but Bill caught his arm and stopped him in his tracks.
“No, there was something else, I heard it too…”
They stayed perfectly still for several moments, the only sound was their ragged breathing. The raven cried again and was answered by one of its companions somewhere on their left. Still nothing else. Bill finally took his hand off of William’s arm and nodded silently, motioning for him to continue on.
They hadn’t made it three steps before they found themselves surrounded by a group of cloaked horsemen, at least a dozen spears pointed right at their hearts.
~~~~~~~~~~~
“Can we go somewhere today?” Olivia leaned against Draco’s leg as she looked up at him with pleading blue eyes. Even though it was Saturday and she wasn’t supposed to have lessons with him, she’d taken to following him around on the weekends. And he allowed it because there was no one else to watch her except for House Elves. Viviane had been called back to Egypt for a few days to look over a series of reports, which included a reminder that it was not safe for her to be in Britain. Kamen had obligations both to his quidditch team and to the Brotherhood, and Serena and Dierna had school work to do, which didn’t give them time to entertain a little sister.
“Where do you want to go?” Draco felt the need to ask even though he knew it wouldn’t be possible to take the girl anywhere. It wasn’t safe anymore out there. At least not safe enough. He wondered how long it would be before the Muggles were all aware of their presence. With the way Voldemort was going it shouldn’t take too much longer. And then they would be fighting a even more complicated war. He was smart enough to realize that the majority of people, whether magical or otherwise, were prejudiced and dangerous when their way of life was threatened. They would not take an introduction to the wizarding world kindly. But at least that had not happened yet, they still had only Voldemort to worry about, although that was more than enough.
“I don’t know… can we go to Hogsmeade?” but something in her tone led Draco to believe that this was not a spur of the moment request. He could tell that this was something that Olivia had been planning, and probably for some time now.
“Why?”
Olivia shrugged.
Draco knew there was more to it than that, but he wasn’t going to press the child, “I do not think it is a good idea,” he simply said. “It’s not the safest place to be, and I’m sure your father would not appreciate me taking you off school grounds.” He noticed how his last comment seemed to upset her more than not being allowed to go to Hogsmeade like she had requested. He wondered at that, but said nothing about it. Although he did tuck it away in his mid for future reference. Things were not as they should be, that was obvious enough. He just couldn’t tell how they would unfold as of yet.
Olivia sighed deeply, looking and sounding much too old for her seven years. She was lonely. The only friends she had were the man and woman she met down by the lake. There was no one else at the school for her to play with. And her father now refused to entertain her as he once had, he barely tolerated her presence. “Mr. Malfoy, are you my friend?”
“I’m your tutor child, and apparently I have also become a babysitter.” He noticed how her face fell, “but I don’t mind your presence. In fact, I’m starting to rather enjoy your company,” he ruffled her hair affectionately. It was strange, but the person he felt the most affinity for was this little girl. They were both lonely, and he was beginning to realize that they both needed each other.
True, he had taken to making rounds with Potter at night. They talked to each other, and the animosity from their school years had fallen away. It wasn’t exactly a friendship, but it was close. However, the boy wonder, as always, was loved by everyone. Draco continued to be an outsider. “I should probably get you back to your father before he misses you.”
“He won’t miss me,” Olivia said matter of factly. “He has to stay with Mum, or he has work to do.”
Although Draco hadn’t been paying the closest attention to what Olivia had been prattling on about to him for the last couple of hours, he was suddenly very alert. “When was the last time your father did anything with you?”
Olivia wrinkled up her nose as she thought, unaware of how closely Draco was scrutinizing her. Finally she gave up and merely shrugged her shoulders, “I don’t know, but he’s been really busy,” even when feeling neglected she made sure to defend her father.
Draco cursed under his breath as he vowed to talk to McGonagall about this. She didn’t particularly like him, but she would certainly listen to this. Perhaps they could arrange something so that they could make sure that Olivia was always being watched over, and by more than the family House Elf. There had been far too many times of late that he had found her wandering around the school grounds by herself. The attack had let them know that the school wasn’t completely safe, even if they thought it was. He could only imagine what losing a child on top of everything else would do to Snape.
It appeared that he would have to take a much more active role in all of this than he was planning on. He sighed, it appeared that on their next duty tour he would be asking the-boy-who-lived for some child rearing advice. He was going to be spending a lot more time with Olivia than just tutoring.
~~~~~~~~~~~
Although they were surrounded, Bill stepped in front of William. He had to do something to try to protect the young man. “We haven’t come here to cause trouble. We’re peaceful ambassadors.” He thought about reaching for his wand, but wasn’t sure how much good it would do. After a few tense moments he slowly held his hands out, palms up, showing that he was unarmed. William followed suite.
The leader of the riders started to laugh, and it was a sound that shocked the two apparent captives. It was a woman’s laughter. She lowered her spear and gestured for her companions to do the same. They all lowered their hoods once their weapons were safely stored. And they were all women, mostly fair-haired, and all obviously warriors. “We know that you mean us no harm wizard, otherwise you would not be still alive. If you had belonged to the other group you would have tried to throw attack us by now. I am Reginleif. You shall not come to harm in our company.”
Bill allowed himself to relax, “I was beginning to think that we would never find the Valkyries.”
“Well, you have found us now. Although we found you days ago. We just waited to make ourselves seen, we had to make sure you could be trusted.”
Bill relaxed even further. “I believe we have much to discuss.”
“Indeed we do,” with a quick gesture one of the warriors detached herself from the group to fetch horses for Bill and William. “We must journey to Alfheim, we have already sent runners ahead to alert them of your presence. We are most eager to begin making treaties, as are the followers of Freyr.”
~~~~~~~~~~~
