Darkness Falling

Darkness Falling

*

Feel the Love

*

"Severus," the blond man replied quietly, watching him with pained silver eyes. His arm, too, bore the black skull, as well as the arm of the brunet werewolf standing behind him. "It seems that Minister Fudge has finally become insane."

Now, Severus was wholly standing. "Lucius," he said again, his voice now hardly more than a whisper.

With two long strides, Lucius was at his side, drawing him into a warm, comforting embrace. "We'll live, love," murmured the other Slytherin into his ear. "We will live, and Fudge will pay."

Dumbledore and Lupin watched the two lovers, not saying a word. Lupin raised his eyebrows and glanced sideways to the Headmaster, who replied with a bit sad smile and a shrug. For a long time, nobody said anything.

At last, however, Dumbledore saw it fitting to break the silence. "Remus is going to teach Defence Against Dark Arts, and Lucius is going to be the Charms Professor," he said. "Filius Flitwick has just retired to make room for him."

"You should have told me that when you offered the job to me, Albus. I don't want to be an annoyance to anyone," said Lucius smoothly, snapping his attention away from Severus for a moment.

"You are anything but an annoyance," the Headmaster hastened to assure him. "Filius was going to retire in a few years anyway. The fact that you needed asylum just gave him an excuse to do so earlier."

"If you say so," the blond said, although he did still sound suspicious. Then, however, his attention again returned to Severus. "It's been a long time," he said softly. "A too long time."

"I agree completely," sighed the other Slytherin. Then he glanced at Remus and Dumbledore. "Was there anything else, Albus?" he asked smoothly.

Despite the seriousness of the situation, Albus couldn't help but chuckle. "No, there's nothing else right now," he said, sounding a bit amused. "I take it you'd be willing to show Lucius to his quarters, right? He'll be living in the empty ones next to yours. You know the place, right?"

"I do know," Severus said dryly. "The quarters that are conveniently attached to mine." With this, he grasped Lucius's hand and started to lead him out of the room.

Remus and Dumbledore watched after the two Slytherins with vaguely amused expressions. "Well, you certainly wouldn't have known about those two," Remus murmured. "What does Narcissa say about her husband being with another man?"

"Oddly enough, she approves," replied Dumbledore, raising his eyebrows. "From what I've gathered, it has something to do with Lucius being a half-Veela. The only reason why he doesn't have people falling at his feet on every turn is that because he's male, he has some control over his Veela powers. Unlike Miss Fleur Delacour -- she's only a quarter Veela, and has every male practically drooling after herself."

"But if Lucius is a half-Veela, wouldn't that make Draco a quarter Veela?" asked Remus. "Am I right to assume that he will still be coming to the school?"

"Of course," the Headmaster replied. "Here I can keep you four relatively safe, plus his father is here. And there's no other place Draco could go to, really -- Narcissa will move to live with her relatives in Wales in the end of the summer. She and Lucius will divorce. It's not because of their possible disagreements and especially not because of Lucius and Severus's not-so-secret relationship, I've been told, but because it would be safer to her not to be connected to two part Dark Creatures. Of course they all wish it wasn't so, but they hardly can do anything to the Ministry."

Sighing, Remus nodded. "The Ministry can truly not be denied," he muttered, scratching almost subconsciously the spot on his arm where he held his werewolf ID number, the "death warrant" like he called it having been carved deep into his pale, scarred skin. "I just hope that somebody will stop Fudge before he goes too far on his self-righteous quest."

"Rest assured, he will be stopped," Dumbledore calmed him. "The other Wizarding countries will not allow such madness going on for long."

"Not for long, no," the werewolf said quietly. "But how many of us will he have time to murder before he is stopped for good? How many will die before this holocaust is over? Or will we have to escape from the country to stay alive?"

To these questions, however, not even the ancient wizard had any answers.