Uric the Oddball and the Great Goblin Uprising

Chapter 7: Be True

Louis took a bite of his toast, then made a grab for the bulging letter, fancy envelope, and Daily Prophet held in the talons of his owl, Melchior. She wouldn't go away until he fed her the rest of his toast. He did so with a hint of annoyance, but was more engrossed in reading the Prophet and studiously ignoring the letter.

There was nothing new in the news except for reports of upheaval in the Council system in Italy. The Councils were based on the old commune systems of the Renaissance and earlier times. They had a high turnover rate - practically every wizard of note in Italy had served a two-year term at some point in his life. Now the system was failing because of a wizard by the name of Flavius. It was something Louis would have to keep an eye on.

Turning a page, he propped the paper up in front of him to hide his actions from Uric, who was sitting on his left. He regarded the neat handwriting on the outside of the letter with a frown. Using his relatively clean sausage knife, he slit the seal on the outside and slid out a tightly folded sheath of parchment.

Dear Louis,

I hope this letter finds you well. Living with a demon must be hard. Has he eaten any more pudding? I don't know what Uric will do when he finds out. Should we tell him? You would have enjoyed the research.

There was a whole sentence scribbled out then.

Varys and I have been working hard and I think we've finally found the answer (Never mind what I sent last week. That won't work.). We can't do it at Uric's house, so Varys has volunteered his home. He says no one will bother us and he's going to throw a huge party for all of the seventh years to give you and Uric an excuse to come and you're going to have to make sure Uric comes. Don't let Uric suspect anything.

I've copied out our notes from these past weeks so you'll know what we're doing, though Varys says he'll perform the main part of the spell. We'll work out a plan to get Uric in place once you get here.

The rest of the letter was indeed a complicated description of possession and exorcism. Louis skimmed it quickly. He would read it again later - probably in the water closet, since Uric would be sure not to interrupt there.

He replaced the letter, pressing the seal down. It showed a rampant unicorn in gold with two short daggers in the background. Mena certainly didn't own a seal like that. She might have written the letter, but Varys had sealed it for her. Pushing it to one side, he opened the last envelope, which was made of a beautiful cream-coloured paper. He already had some suspicion of what was inside it.

Louis Illiescu

You are cordially invited to a fête at eight o'clock on the thirty-first of August, to be held at the Nachleen Country Home, celebrating the start of Mr. Varys Nachleen's seventh year at Hogwarts. Dress robes required. All attendees are welcome to spend the night. Transportation to Hogwarts coaches will be provided. To notify us of your acceptance of the invitation, please indicate at the bottom of the scroll that you will be attending.

Louis was impressed in spite of himself. Having the RSVP spell on the invitations must have added at least a Galleon to the price of each one. Varys certainly wasn't wasting time.

Now all they had to do was exorcise the demon, make sure it didn't massacre or possess anyone else at the party and get Uric back to his normal state.

He lowered the corner of his paper to look at Uric, who was staring at his own invitation with a puzzled look. The demon even had Uric holding the invitation upside down. Chilled at how easily the demon was imitating his friend, Louis used the paper to shield himself again.

"This will be easy," thought Louis sarcastically, then put the paper down on top of his letters and went back to eating breakfast.

*****

On August 31^st, Mena left her house early to gather one of the key ingredients for their exorcism. She would have to hurry to obtain it and still be at Varys' house by one o'clock so that they could prepare.

Her destination, St. Clements, was one of the few churches in London that she had seen from the inside. Her father attended church irregularly, claiming to be too busy. He was properly reverent when dealing with the Church, but religion itself didn't matter much to him. Mena had been sent to Mass at Easter and Christmas while growing up, but her father had hardly hesitated at sending her to a school to learn to be a witch. Her mother and stepmother had had a different opinion on the matter, but her father's word was law. Mena had been increasingly thankful for that as she dealt with her stepmother's silent and not-so-silent recriminations throughout the summer.

Mena reached the steps of St. Clements and spent a moment staring at the ornate decorations around the door before walking quickly inside. Hurrying down a side aisle, she came to a large stone basin filled with water. Hopefully this was what Varys wanted. Any water in a church had to be holy, right? A quick survey of the area revealed that no one was watching. She pulled out an old flask, filled it with water, then hid it in the pocket of her dress. She was out of the church a few seconds later, running towards Diagon Alley, her ears tuned for cries of horror from the priests. But the cries never came, and she reached The Leaky Cauldron without incident. After entering, she hastily undid the spell that had transfigured her blue dress robes into a common dress, and straightened her hair as best as possible without a mirror.

The Leaky Cauldron was full of lunch-time patrons who had stopped in to have a mug of ale, some soup and bread before returning to their work in the alley or at the nearby Council chambers. Nobody gave her more than a passing glance as she made her way to the fireplace. She was a little nervous about going to Varys' house so early. Of course, it wasn't really the going she minded, since that was where they had been retiring to research demonic possessions. It was the leaving early that bothered her. Soon everyone would know she had been at Varys' house early. They might even think that Varys was courting her!

Mena flushed at the thought, her hand coming up to unconsciously pat her hair down once more. She wouldn't mind if they thought that at all. Mostly because, after a few weeks of working with him, she was sure that Varys was courting her after a fashion.

He paid so much attention to her when they were together. Calling the house elves to bring them snacks almost before she knew she was hungry. Reading through the boring books while giving her more interesting ones - or at least the ones with pictures, gruesome as they were. He had even gone out of his way to introduce her to his father. Mena had always pretended not to be interested in such feminine things as the rules of courtship, but she knew the significance of that move.

And tonight, Varys was making his intentions public. He could have (and probably should have) asked Louis to help with the preparations for the exorcism, but he had asked her and only her.

From her pocket, she pulled a small bag containing her precious supply of Floo Powder and took a pinch. Into the flames it went, turning them a brilliant blue.

"Nachleen Country Home," she said clearly, then stepped into the flames. This was the part of Floo travel she really enjoyed. A wind came from nowhere and ruffled the robes about her legs, and suddenly she was rushing through the ether, the flames of the other fires connected to the Floo network blurring on either side of her. Varys' house was deep in the network, which made the journey there a bit longer than your average Floo trip. Mena reveled in the few extra seconds before she tumbled unceremoniously out of the fire and into the marble entrance hall of the Nachleen Country Home. Immediately, a feather duster was thrust in her face, swishing away the ashes she hated and leaving her sputtering on an errant feather.

"I don't think she had her mouth open while she was Flooing, Crepey, there's no need to dust inside it," said Varys. He had been leaning against the mantelpiece waiting for her. Completely missing the joke, Crepey bowed low to Varys and apologized. Then he returned to his cleaning with twice the speed, leaving Mena standing in a settling cloud of dust when he was finished.

Mena coughed, and was about to complain, when Varys reached out to snag a feather from her hair and accidentally brushed a finger along the side of her cheek. She could feel her face turning red, except for the place where his finger had touched her - that place tingled and burned. The blood was pounding in her ears.

Varys was smiling at her, and she expected him to say something, but he only reached out, took her hand, and led her from the room.

*****

If Mena had been expecting a romantic interlude, she would have been sorely disappointed. They really did spend the hours before the party preparing for the exorcism in a small room that was located deep within the house. The main spell itself was complex, but not terribly difficult for two seventh years - one of whom would have been the best in the school, if not for Uric. Mena had been happy when Varys had mentioned he didn't mind playing second fiddle to someone like Uric. She wasn't quite sure what he meant, but she knew he wasn't jealous anymore, and that made it so much easier to forgive him. Louis should have been proud of her, since he was always encouraging her to let go of things like petty revenge. But instead he was upset. His letters had turned so terse. Perhaps he was the one possessed...

Mena seriously considered that thought for a moment before dismissing it as implausible and slightly frightening. She wouldn't know what to do if something like that happened to Louis.

Varys placed a large candlestick on top of the rune for light that they had etched on the floor. The sound of the metal hitting the cold stone woke her from her thoughts. More than a hundred runes were embedded on the floor of the room, which was devoid of any furnishings. There had been a small chest, but they had removed it earlier. Some of the runes were Viking or Celtic. The rest were archaic Hebrew letters - they had found the most complete version of the exorcism spell in an account of Jewish spell casting.

Only about twenty of the runes were for casting out the demon. The remainder of that job would be up to Uric. (Here, Mena frowned in dismay at the thought of relying on Uric for something like this.) Every other rune was for their protection while performing the exorcism. So was the semi-circular channel they had dug in the floor and filled with Mena's stolen holy water.

Varys positioned another candlestick, then stood up to survey their work with a look of satisfaction on his face. "Now all that's left is to get Uric into the circle tonight. We'll have to disguise it."

"Don't you want to close the circle?" Mena asked.

"No. That would activate the barrier, and probably the exorcism spell as well. We have to wait until Uric is in it."

Mena felt a chill. "Will Uric be able to get out?"

"Yes, once the demon leaves him." He noticed the look on her face. "Don't worry, Mena. This will all go well."

"It had better."

Varys shrugged before surveying the room again. He pulled out his wand and performed a complicated illusion spell. Within seconds, the entire floor was smooth, unmarked stone again.

"We'll just have to remember that the entrance to the circle is in the middle," said Varys. "I set the spell so it will disappear once someone steps in the centre." He turned to her. "Let's go upstairs and freshen up. The guests should be arriving soon." He hesitated for a moment. "Will you greet them with me?" There was an uncertainty about him, and it took her a moment to realize that he was afraid she would say no.

"I will," she said, and didn't protest when he took her hand in his as they left the room.

*****

Uric and Louis arrived at the Nachleen Country Home by Floo a few minutes before eight o'clock. They were attacked by a house-elf with a feather duster as soon as they stepped out of the flames. Uric laughed at the attack and danced about, trying to catch the feathers that were flying through the air.

Louis, who usually would have waited for his friend, strode forward to join the queue of people waiting to enter the main part of the house. He impatiently brushed some lingering soot off of his black dress robes. The only decoration on them was his family crest embroidered in red on either side of the collar like drops of blood. He preferred these robes to the gaudy, silver, green and black confection that his mother had forced on him last year.

"Louis?" a voice whispered in his ear from behind.

Louis suppressed a shudder. "Yes, Uric?"

"Are we queuing according to our opinions on hermeneutics? Because if so, you should go to the front," said Uric.

Louis shook his head, half amused and half upset at what the demon was doing with his friend. He also had no idea what Uric was talking about, but that was normal. He craned his head to see around the queue.

"We're waiting to greet our host and - " Louis felt something tighten inside him as he caught sight of Mena's profile and blonde hair behind Varys. "And our hostess," he finished quietly.

*****

Mena was nervous, but the thrill of excitement and happiness that was running through her was enough to keep her calm and smiling as she stood beside Varys to greet his guests. Her smile grew more genuine as the queue progressed and she began to realize that the girls of Hogwarts were in a state she had never seen them in before: they were jealous of her. At school last year, she had been vaguely aware that the other girls were interested in Varys; that he was "good husband material". But it hadn't occurred to her that she ought to pursue Varys, or that the other girls were so serious in their own pursuit.

The number of covert glares she was receiving, even from girls who had come with their own escorts, was disturbing - but also strangely exhilarating. She, Mena, had the attentions of one the most sought-after boys in school.

"Ian, welcome to my home," Varys was saying to a dirty-blond boy whom Mena recognized as Ian Abascu, Varys' fellow Ravenclaw classmate and Beater for the Ravenclaw team. As a Chaser for the Hufflepuff team, Mena had once broken Ian's nose by using a Quaffle to hit a Bludger back at him during a game. Judging by his low, sweeping bow, he didn't seem to bear her any ill feelings, but his companion - a Gryffindor girl whose name Mena didn't remember - gave her a hard look and a discourteous nod before pulling Ian after her into the main room.

"Louis, my house is yours," she heard Varys say, and turned back to see him greeting Louis with a firm handshake. Louis gave Varys a sharp look, but then broke into a smile that Mena could tell was forced.

"It's a pleasure to be here, Varys," said Louis. He looked grim in his pure black dress robes. "I've heard the Witch Donovan marked the main hearth of your home before she sacrificed herself. Perhaps you could show me later?"

Varys nodded affably. "Of course, though I'm afraid it's not as impressive a mark as it sounds." He turned to greet Uric, who was wearing green dress robes with purple swirls around the sleeves and collar.

"Hello, Mena," said Louis quietly.

She tore her gaze away from Uric, who was hugging Varys, and looked up at Louis' face. "It's going to be all right," she said, though she didn't know which of them she was trying to reassure.

Louis gave her a grim smile. "Of course it will be. Good evening." He passed into the other room.

Mena returned to her greeting duties, which included receiving a bear hug from Uric, but it was harder to remember to smile. Damn Louis for being so gloomy!

*****

An hour later, when even the latest stragglers had arrived at the party, the entrance corridor was silent. The house-elves were occupied with other duties and the party was progressing nicely. Many couples were dancing to the music of a decent quartet of wizards and witches; the rest were enjoying the brambleberry wine and various finger foods.

This all mattered little to the tall, dark-haired woman who tumbled out of the fireplace. Her hair was matted and wild. A long, angry welt ran down her left arm where the sleeve of her once-fine robe was in tatters. She didn't seem to notice it, but instead strained forward as if searching the very air for a presence she would know anywhere. A moment more and she had it.

She wasn't supposed to follow the master. He would be angry when he saw her. Gloriously angry. But she couldn't stay away now that she had found him. She would wait out here in the empty places. Wait for him to leave and then follow him again. That was her purpose and her curse. With a strangled little cry, she vanished into the depths of the house.