The Banebrewer

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

By Love's Light

Friday 26 June - Friday 10 July 1992

Old Basford, Nottingham.

Thou'rt the music of my heart,
Harp of joy, o cruit mo chruidh,
Moon of guidance by night -
Strength and light thou'rt to me.

- Scottish Folk Song: "Eriskay Love Lilt"

Rated PG-13 for sexual references, both criminal and conjugal.

There was another crash as they raced back down the stairs. David started wailing in the nursery, and Ariadne went in to comfort him.

"Stay there," Remus told her, "and keep your wand drawn. I hope it's just Joe having an accident... but if we have intruders..."

David did not quieten easily; Ariadne tried to relax, but she knew that he was responding to her own taut nerves. Remus must have reached the lounge by now, and he was being greeted by a third crash, and by the high-pitched voices of strangers.

"Mummy, what's happening?" Elizabeth was sitting up in bed.

"Hush, Daddy's looking after it." Ariadne tried to sound convincing as she tucked in Elizabeth's blankets, but all her instincts were to lock the bairns in their room and then race to assist Remus with whatever was happening downstairs. There was a fourth crash, and a babble of voices, Remus's among them. Ariadne realised that Remus did not sound at all angry, or even wary, and she cautiously allowed herself to breathe again. Some strange man had certainly broken into their house, but it sounded as if Remus were in control of the situation.

After another minute, David had calmed down, Elizabeth had been convinced to lie down, and Remus was again climbing the stairs.

"It's all right," he said. "You can come down now."

"Remus, what's happening?"

"We have visitors. Come and see."

She followed him back downstairs. Joe was standing by the fireplace, surrounded by a swarming mass of children, and seated on their sofa...

Ariadne's heart thudded to a full stop, as her world crashed like a broomstick that shatters in full flight.

"Veleta!"

* * * * * * *

Ariadne was glad to have the sofa to take her weight - and glad of the strong Charm-work with which Remus had repaired it over the years. She knew the people around her were speaking, but she did not register what they said, or what was so odd about it. The woman sitting at hugging distance from her, holding a brown-eyed baby in her lap and looking even more astonished than Ariadne herself, was unquestionably Veleta, and quite as large as life. Time was frozen for a long minute, as Ariadne recognised that she had no idea what should happen next. How had Veleta escaped? Would the Macnairs come here to hunt her down? Why... how was Joe talking?

Finally Ariadne found her voice and said, "Welcome home, Veleta."

Veleta launched herself rather cautiously into Ariadne's embrace, as if she had not been entirely certain of her welcome here. Ariadne knew at once that the woman whom Veleta was hugging was not really herself. Veleta had no memory of the Ariadne whom she had known at Hogwarts.

A little boy with huge chocolate-brown eyes was about to grab at a wooden quoit, one of a set that had somehow become scattered about the carpet. Remus sprang after the boy and swept him off his feet. Suddenly Ariadne found herself thinking clearly and realised far too fast what the child had nearly done. That was a two-way Portkey, set to transport the unwary straight back to Macnair Castle.

Joe tapped at the quoits with his wand, and whispered, "Finite Incantatem." He did it five times, once for each quoit.

"Joe," said Ariadne, "you can speak."

"Yes," said Veleta, "he has been speaking ever since he brought us the Portkeys."

It seemed the wrong time to ask for explanations, but Veleta's daughter Mary was very happy to do the explaining. "Your friend Sarah used to keep the co-ordinates to our room in Foss written down on her desk, so of course Joe knew them. This evening he turned his quoits into two-way Portkeys and brought them to us. He saw that we had house-elves guarding us, but he just Stunned them, and he gave the first Portkey to me, and the second to Peter, and the third to Andrew... Yes, of course I kept on Locospecting my mother after I arrived here. I had to know if something happened to her! Then Joe stopped to pick up something on the table... What was it, Joe?"

Joe brought out a small Runic dictionary that once - nearly seven years ago - Remus had tried to use as a Portkey to transport Veleta's children.

"And then Mum wouldn't take the next Portkey."

"Of course not," said Veleta. "I didn't want to leave Robert in Foss, not even with Joe. That's when Joe started talking, explaining that Robert was too young to travel alone because he might drop the Portkey in transit, so he would bring Robert after Susan and I were safely on our way. While he was arguing about this, Toady appeared in the room, breathing threats and murder, so we knew that Walden Macnair was on his way. Joe almost shoved me onto the fourth Portkey, and I had arrived here before I had time to think about leaving Robert behind. But Joe brought him before I really had time to worry about it."

It would not take Uncle Macnair long to work out where his captives had fled. Ariadne was not wanting to mention in front of the bairns that nobody was safe yet.

Before she could arrange her thoughts, Remus said, "We'll have to call in the Aurors."

"No," said Veleta. "Please... I don't want..."

"Veleta," said Remus gently, "the Macnairs will guess that you've come here. They could Apparate to our front gate at any minute. We need to prevent a counter-kidnap."

Veleta shuddered visibly.

Suddenly Ariadne was inspired. "Veleta, are the Macnairs knowing where your grandmother lives?"

"My...? They've never asked me anything about her, but I suppose everyone knows where to find the famous Professor Vablatsky."

"Not everybody," said Ariadne. "It's not widely known that she sold her house in Guildford. She's living in Galway now, and her house there is Unplottable."

"C-co-ordinates?" asked Joe. His voice sounded very strange, far deeper than Ariadne remembered.

"She told us," said Remus, and he began to re-set the Portkeys.

Mary took the first one without asking any questions, although it was obvious she was suppressing a thousand. Peter took the second with only a moment of hesitation, and Remus took Andrew on the third. As Joe picked up Robert to travel on the fourth, Ariadne happened to glance out of the window; she saw in the shadow of the oak tree a face that looked suspiciously like Humphrey Macnair's.

Veleta saw it too. She froze for a moment, then clutched baby Susan more closely and grabbed for the last Portkey.

Ariadne did not look out of the window again; giving the smallest encouragement to Cousin Humphrey's attention would be a bad move. She ignored the hammering at her front door. She ignored it until a strange - and very south-of-England - voice shouted, "Open up! This is the law!"

She threw a Transparens at the door first, to make sure it really was an Auror outside.

"Cassius Proudfoot," the Auror introduced himself. "We've traced several unauthorised Portkeys to this address..."

She let him in. Auror Proudfoot was still taking the details of Ariadne's statement when Remus and Joe returned. He took separate statements from each of them, remarking, "You've certainly worked hard at agreeing on your story."

Joe ignored this. "Must we go to trial?" he asked.

"Miss Vablatsky has suffered a very long ordeal," Remus finished Joe's thought. "She can't be expected to stand up in court and make detailed statements about her tormenters, only to have her every word torn apart by the defending barrister."

"No, she doesn't have to do that," agreed Auror Proudfoot. "But if she chooses not to testify, we don't have a case. The people whom you are accusing - very respectable people, I might add - would have to be left unrestrained."

"Safety," protested Remus. "We don't believe the Vablatsky family is safe - or our family, either - as long as the Macnair family is free."

"The Aurors can help you set up securities around your property. We can also take a general statement from Miss Vablatsky that she does not wish to live in the Macnair household, or to associate with the Macnair family. In the light of other allegations made by Miss Vablatsky's friends, that would be moderately convincing evidence. We can even issue a warning to the Macnair family that they fall under immediate suspicion if any accident befalls any of the Vablatskys. But, in the long term, the only protection for any of you lies in a formal prosecution."

To be fair, Auror Proudfoot spent the next hour making himself useful. He helped Remus mark out a hedge of protective charms around their house, together with intruder alarms and some mild repelling hexes. He showed them how to authorise access to their personal friends, and to certain people whose names they did not know, such as the postman and the milkman (as if Remus had not already known all that!). They let him show them in all the intricate detail, because the longer he spent helping them defend themselves, the better it would be impressed on his mind that they were being presented with a real threat.

It was fully dark by the time Auror Proudfoot left them alone to explain to each other.

"That man t-tries to be helpful," said Joe. "He's the same Auror who... when my brother was murdered... had to be there, and tried to help us. But he said he couldn't p-prosecute... the murderer... because they needed more definite evidence."

"Oh... are you knowing who killed Benjy?" asked Ariadne.

"Titus Nott."

Somehow, Ariadne was not at all surprised to learn that respectable Mr Nott had been a Death Eater. Hoping to coax Joe into talking, she prompted, "Then that's why you've had such a hard time - because you were knowing, yet nobody listened to you."

"Yes, at first," said Joe. "I was, um, shocked... when Benjy d-died. In the summer holidays I became... a little better... but very angry. The Aurors wouldn't p-punish Mr Nott, so I'd d-do it myself. So I went up to him..."

"What, you tried to tackle a Death Eater by yourself!" exclaimed Remus.

"I thought I c-could... I was fifteen..." Suddenly Joe had no trouble finding his words. With the memory blazed all over his face, he launched into full narrative. "I burst into his office at Gringotts and tried to put the Cruciatus on him. It didn't work, of course. He just laughed, and put his own curse on me. I found that I could not speak. The hex affected my memory too, and everything around me seemed like a d-dream."

"So it was all a spell," said Ariadne. "But why did nobody guess that you were hexed?"

"It looked too similar to my ordinary trauma symptoms, I suppose," said Joe. "Mr Nott was clever. But the hex wore off after seven years. After that, I was just... I think the word is... malingering. That was partly for survival; if Titus Nott knew I had recovered, he'd hex me again, or perhaps kill me. But I also realised there were advantages to being a person whom everyone ignored. The Macnairs had no idea who I was, and they never bothered to Ban me."

Remus frowned. "But weren't you in Regelinda's Potions class for five years?"

Joe broke into a rare grin. "Yes, I was. But the Macnairs don't recognise people who can't be useful to them. I used to pass Regelinda her Potions ingredients at Hogwarts, and she never seemed to know my name. Soon after we left school, she stopped me in Diagon Alley to ask the time - that must have been before her family knew about her boyfriend and kept her confined to the castle. Anyway, I indicated that I couldn't speak and showed her my watch, but she still didn't connect me with the mute boy from Hogwarts - she didn't recognise me at all. It never crossed her mind that I knew Veleta. When I regained my senses, I had to keep it that way... which meant never letting Veleta Locospect anything that would be worth reporting to the Macnairs... which meant never letting my guard down even among my closest friends."

"Joe... how stalwart... to maintain that charade for such a very long time..."

"As I've said, it was a matter of life and death. Even now, I'd rather not place myself in front of Mr Nott's attention. The most frightening time was when I had to take a delivery of Butterbeer right into Macnair Castle. Humphrey Macnair authorised me to bring it in by Floo, and I came to no harm at all. So I knew for sure that they had forgotten to Ban me."

"So if you were knowing that you could enter safely... why did you not take a Portkey to Veleta a year ago, when we first broke the constraining spell?"

"I'd like to ask you the same question," said Joe. "Ariadne, why didn't you tell me that you had broken the spell? I've wasted fifteen months, thinking that the children couldn't be Portkeyed. If I had known that you had already done the difficult part, that all you needed was someone who hadn't been Banned to take them a Portkey..."

Ariadne exchanged a glance with Remus. If only they had known that Joe could make a difference... if only they had bothered to keep his information up to date...

"I'd probably have told you about our trip to Foss if I'd not had to leave Britain the next day," she said. "I've been suspecting for three or four years that your silence was not... quite what it was seeming to be. But, Joe, I'd no way of knowing what game you were really playing, or how much you were really capable of helping; and I was believing you Banned."

Joe looked slightly nonplussed. "I didn't pretend that well, did I? I thought I gave you a clue, Remus. I did beat you at chess. When the hex really was controlling me, I always lost."

Remus replaced his long-lost dictionary in the bookcase. "There's something else I don't understand," he said. "Why did Veleta have a crystal ball in her room? She wasn't a Seer, was she?"

"That was all for show," said Joe. "The Macnairs wanted outsiders to think she was some kind of Diviner... to hide that she was really a Locospector, I suppose. Mary told me that the crystal was actually broken."

* * * * * * *

The intruder alarm blasted through their house twice over the next week, indicating that an unauthorised person had tried to open the front gate, and once Ariadne thought she caught a glimpse of Uncle Macnair standing by their hedge. After that, there was no sign of any Macnairs anywhere near 24, Spurge Street. Auror Proudfoot, or perhaps Madam Bones, must have given them due warning.

Veleta needed to make the complicated Floo journey across the Irish Sea to St Mungo's three or four times a week so that the Healers could begin the delicate work of restoring her memory. Joe always accompanied her. After the first week, he flitted from the Lupins' house to live with the Vablatskys.

"He's been very kind," Veleta told Ariadne through the Floo. "The children think he's brilliant. Yesterday he bought half a dozen second-hand Comets, and he's teaching us all to fly them. Almost everyone has been kinder than the Macnair family. Granny has been wonderful. I just wish... I remembered her as my grandmother. I have so many new friends, and - from my point of view - no old ones at all."

"It has to be very disorienting for you," Ariadne agreed.

"The most disorienting thing of all," said Veleta, "is to feel safe. To wake in the morning in a strange place, yet to find my children are still here with me. To walk through the house, and know that it isn't booby-trapped. To walk through the village, and know that the Muggles around me aren't interested in reporting my every movement to an enemy. To go to bed at night, confident that I'll be alone in the bed until morning. It's so strange to feel that we've arrived at the place where the Macnairs cannot follow us."

It was disorienting for Ariadne too. She had not known what a crippling burden was weighing down her life until the day it had lifted. She no longer had to push away dark thoughts of what might be happening to Veleta, and it was astonishing how much energy those terrors had absorbed; her step was lighter, and she found herself smiling, or even singing, for no reason.

"Mummy 'appy now," said Elizabeth.

"You're seeming more contented nowadays," commented Mamma. "I'm thinking you're glad that Remus has finally found a job."

It was not worth mentioning to Mamma that the "job" was only a week of supply teaching. Remus had an interview appointment on Saturday, so perhaps he would be fully employed by September. Healer Smethwyck had returned to work this week, so perhaps there would soon be a part-time job for herself as well.

"What are you brewing?" asked her mother. "It's smelling very aromatic."

"It's Wolfsbane Potion, but it's smelling a great deal better than it's tasting. I had to modify the original formula to make the flavour even tolerable."

"To speak of your Wolfsbane formula," said Mamma, who was never comfortable discussing werewolves directly, "it's just been published again. It really confused poor Severus. He Flooed me yesterday to ask why the formula would state, ‘Do not substitute monkshood for wolfsbane.' When I began to explain that they are not at all the same thing, he was very surprised, for he'd always thought they were synonyms. He said he'd consult with Professor Sprout about that. But we're knowing what she'll tell him..."

* * * * * * *

On Friday evening Ariadne doused the fire under the cauldron and measured Remus's dose of Wolfsbane Potion into a goblet. It only had to last until Tuesday, so she had over-catered; it seemed strange to be brewing for only one person. She carried the goblet to the sofa, where Remus was waiting.

"Ariadne," he said, "is this really the life you want?"

The question surprised her. "Of course it is. What are you wishing different?"

"I don't know." He drank without meeting her eye. "You've had a difficult year, first hounded out of Britain, then returning to find your professional life in ruins and the Macnairs still on the warpath. I sometimes wonder if I'll ever be able to give you the kind of life that... that someone like you ought to have. You deserve a normal life."

It was extraordinary that, after so long, he could yet suggest that he was her liability. "A life with a few problems is a normal life," she said, taking the empty goblet out of his hands. "But being married to you has helped."

"What?"

"If it were not for you, the Macnairs would have killed me by now, and Veleta would be yet in their clutches. I'd not have survived on the Continent without you, and perhaps not even distributed Wolfsbane Potion in Britain." She turned his question around. "Are you not wishing for a normal life? Living with me has brought you one danger after another."

This was obviously a new idea to him. "You? Do you think you bring danger to me?"

"Of course I do. Werewolves and Aurors and Macnairs and angry Muggle officials and even my cousin Severus... You've hardly had a minute of security since the day you promised to support my ridiculous idealism." She leaned against him. His arms wrapped automatically around her, without his noticing, but she was very aware of his body heat.

"I didn't notice the extra dangers," he said. "I always have so many of my own that I don't pay any attention to a few more."

"So we're both dangerous people."

"So we're..." He stopped, and stared at her full in the face. "Have you manipulated this conversation? We were supposed to be talking about how we could make your life more normal... more like what you would have with a safe and normal husband."

She returned his gaze steadily. "Are you asking whether we should be more cautious in future? I'm expecting that would be a very boring life. Normal husbands have nothing interesting to talk about; Hazel and Letitia are completely disenchanted with theirs. And Mercy and Felicity tell me that their husbands are... protective. Men like that would never let me chase werewolves all over Europe; they'd maybe not even let me brew poisons like the Wolfsbane Potion. But Ivor was always willing to do whatever was needing to be done. I know he ended up dead, but Hestia never regretted having married him. Remus, would you rather I were less dangerous... less idealistic... less of a scientist?"

"No, of course not." He paused to kiss her for a while.

He was making her too comfortable, and his touch was too dizzying; if he had any more serious questions, she would not be able to think clearly to answer.

"But something is bothering you," he said. "The evening Veleta came home... I saw you frowning over some letter. I meant to ask you about it, but we became busy."

"Compared with having Veleta home again, it cannot have been anything very important." She cast her mind back. "That's right, several small annoyances arose on that day. Then Veleta came home, and I remembered again what counts as a real problem."

"So are you going to tell me about your small annoyances?"

She was about to say that they were trivial, but it seemed churlish to cheat Remus of the opportunity to play the White Knight and solve one or two of her problems, so she relented and told him. "This one will test your sense of humour, Remus. I'm knowing it's very bad timing... but... I received a job offer... which I refused."

"What was it, working in the Butterbeer factory?"

She settled her head back on his shoulder. "It was for Professor Jigger. He's wanting me to scrub and measure for him again, and he promised me a Mastership within twelve months into the bargain."

"I'm glad you refused. Our children definitely do not need a mother who works for Professor Jigger."

"What bothered me was the feeling that... that Professor Jigger was trying to buy me."

His hand on her hair stopped in mid-stroke. She pulled away to look at him, and discovered he had been pulling out her pins.

"I'm knowing that he asked me for fly agaric extract, and Madam Patil has told me... worse. Between us we have evidence that he... well, that some people are dying because of what Professor Jigger is willing to sell to other people. If I were knowing this much about a stranger, I'd be asking the Aurors to conduct an investigation. But it's seeming spiteful to create trouble for my old mentor... the man to whom I owe my journeyship, to say nothing of the first publication of the Wolfsbane formula."

"He's very successfully created your feeling of obligation to him," said Remus dryly.

"He has. I'm knowing he's manipulating me... but he has a point. I'd not be an apothecary but for him. I am knowing, really, that it's my duty to expose him, before he assists in a murder."

"Of course it's a distasteful task," said Remus. "I'll help you with it. We'll Floo Madam Patil tomorrow and collect together all the evidence, and then ask Kingsley what we should all do next."

She sighed. "You're right of course. Right about what we have to do, and right about its being distasteful. Veleta gave me the excuse to procrastinate, but now... Anyway, on the same day, Severus Flooed to ask me about aconites. It came up in the conversation that Harry Potter has been ill..."

Remus stiffened beside her.

"... I'm sorry; I was meaning to tell you. I've heard since that Harry is out of the hospital wing and safely home with his family. But that was another worry for that day. Anyway, directly connected with Harry's accident, Severus also told me... well, it's in the Daily Prophet, and I've been meaning to show you ever since... Accio..."

A paper in the bookcase flapped feebly, then lay still.

"Accio, newspaper," said Remus, and the page sailed across the room into his hand. Ariadne pointed to the advertisement.

Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher for noted secondary school. Send résumé and cover owl to A. Dumbledore, Headmaster, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Equal Being Opportunity Employer.

"I'm knowing it appears every year... but... did you ever think of applying?"

It was clear from the look on his face that he never had thought of it.

"I'm knowing it's a risk... that there's some kind of jinx on the Defence post; unless we can discover how to break the curse, the job will only last a year..."

"A year of full employment? That strikes me as a rather good bargain, compared with the two-day contracts that I've been working lately. But, Ariadne..." His fingers combed gently through her hair; he did not seem to know that he was once more pulling out her pins. "... Would you be willing to pack up our lives again so soon, and make a new home on the other side of the country?"

She laughed. "Of course I would! Are you asking me if I'm wishing to live in Scotland?"

"I didn't know you had any feelings at all on the subject. Are you really homesick for Scotland?"

"Sometimes." It was a feeling that had crept up on her during their travels. She had not realised until the day they returned to Nottingham that she thought of England as the second-best place in the world.

He pulled out the last pin, and her hair tumbled down her back. "Then I'll apply, and if Professor Dumbledore invites us to Hogwarts, we'll break the curse together."

"That was also the day when I found out that... I was not pregnant."

He was puzzled. "You haven't been pregnant for twelve months."

"That is maybe why it bothered me. Matthew is twenty months older than Elizabeth, who is twenty months older than David, so when we reached David's first birthday... and there was no baby... I let myself become more upset than I should. Then Veleta came home, and I remembered again how small a problem it really was."

"Do you want to have another baby?"

"I've always thought we'd have four children. It's seeming a good number... except on the daft days when I'm wanting twelve. I do know that it's terrible timing, when we've no Galleons in Gringotts. I have not grown up, have I? I'm the same age now that you were when we were married, and I'm yet assuming that everything can be done without money. Anyway, I'm just saying that that's what was bothering me that day."

"If you want a baby..." His fingers combed through her hair again, then came to rest on her cheek. Although his touch was light, her heartbeat quickened. "We haven't wasted much time. But it usually requires two of us."

The light in his eyes brought her blood rushing warmly to her cheeks. "If it's to happen this month, it's needing to be tonight."

"I've no other plans for tonight," he said, and kissed her again.