Vector's Challenge

Chapter 21

Professors Vector and Snape had to stop before they entered the Great Hall, in order to catch their breath. "Do you think we should be brazen or should we try to conceal our guilt?" Emmy asked Severus.

He sighed. "I think that if they cannot figure out what happened last night, they have to be deaf, dumb, blind and thick as a brick to boot," he replied. "However, we are including Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors, so, yes, I suppose that we might as well try to conceal it from half of the school."

"Very well." He offered his arm and she took it, and the two marched into the Great Hall together and up to the High Table. Snape sat at Figg's right today, and Vector sat at his right. Dumbledore was not there yet.

At the Gryffindor table, Fred and George Weasley attempted to conceal their glee. They whispered the words of the charm to activate the Coloration Potion. When the potion activated, they drew in their breaths. Both Professor Snape and Professor Vector seemed to be affected. Their hair had turned from black and brown to stripes of Gryffindor red and gold, mingled with Ravenclaw blue and bronze. It was hideously garish, particularly on Professor Vector's long hair, which was hanging wild, free, and uncovered today. "Why did it get her hair?" Fred muttered. He and George looked at each other. "She couldn't have. She couldn't have. He must have drugged or cursed her into it."

Professor Figg said something to Snape and Vector. Vector and Snape stared at each other. Vector brought a handful of her own hair before her eyes, and then let out a banshee scream. "Two hundred points from Gryffindor, Frederick and George Weasley," Snape shouted. "Each," Vector chimed in. Fred and George dived underneath the table. It was bad enough to prank Professor Snape, but pranking the only woman who was willing to marry him would probably result in Snape hitting them with some Unforgiveable Curses. Not to mention the fact that they had just lost four hundred points from Gryffindor.

At this point, Albus Dumbledore entered the Great Hall, accompanied by a wizard in Auror's robes who looked something like a cross between the Arrow Shirt Man and a six-foot, seven-inch tall brick wall. He had the same coloration as Professor Vector - brown hair and eyes, and that very faintly foreign look to his features.

"Oh, shite," Emmy Vector mumbled as she saw her brother Michael with Dumbledore. Snape turned his gaze in the same direction, and turned pale.

Michael Vector stopped dead in his tracks as he saw his baby sister with the same hair color as that Snape. "What's going on, Albus?" he asked.

Dumbledore smiled. "Isn't it cute? They just got engaged yesterday."

"WHAT!" Michael shouted out. Everyone in the Hall turned to look at him. He then dropped down to a whisper between clenched teeth. "My sister got engaged to that supposedly reformed ex-Death Eater? Albus, what were you thinking in allowing it?"

"I did not allow anything," Dumbledore replied. "Your sister is of age. Ask her what is going on."

Michael marched up to the High Table. "Hello, Emmy," he said. He then grabbed Snape by the collar, and hauled him over the table and out through the Great Hall. The resulting commotion gave the Weasley twins a chance to escape. Emmy Vector ran out after her fiancé and her brother, unnoticed by either.

Michael pulled Snape out into the corridor, and ordered him, "Tell me what charm you worked to make my sister fall in love with you, or I'll kill you." Michael had Snape's collar in his left hand, and his wand ready in his right.

Snape thought quickly. "All right," he said, and kissed Michael firmly on the lips. He felt Mike get paralyzed with shock, and thought gleefully; This is almost worth the trouble. Michael Vector's wand slipped out of his nerveless hand, and Snape put his foot on it.

Snape stepped back, cast a Petrificus on Mike, and fastidiously, thoroughly, wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, spluttering to get the awful taste out of his mouth.

Mike sputtered with rage and shock, "You utter pervert! You sodding wanker!"

"All right," Snape said, "Let's discuss this like two civilized men, or rather, one civilized man and one homophobic perpetual adolescent."

"What is there to discuss, you filthy Death Eating bastard? You're after my baby sister. You're going to die."

"Shut it, Michael," Snape said. "Your baby sister is a thirty-year-old widow. I think that she should have some say over who she chooses to marry."

"She can't have chosen you of her own free will. She can't have," Michael said.

"I could and I did," Emmy Vector said coldly. Snape spun around and looked at her. "Although I might not have if I'd known that you were going to make a pass at my brother, Snape. I don't know which to be more appalled by; your morals or your taste."

Snape thought, This is a problem I hadn't thought of. ' It's not a pass, it's assault'--no, that's not the right explanation either. "Would you accept my brains, or lack of them, instead?"

Emmy sighed. Michael looked delighted, and started muttering cheers, but subsided when Emmy glared at him. Emmy took a deep breath. Memories flashed through her head. She saw, in her mind's eye, Brendon at that last party before he died, with his old girlfriend sitting on his lap and kissing him. Brendon dead at the hands of the Death Eaters in their Chicago apartment, a few hours after that last party. Her Uncle Jimmy reprimanding her, 'Why didn't you even ask your husband what he was doing with his old girlfriend on his lap? Maybe she made a pass at him. And you'll never know, because you never asked.' Seeing Severus in the chapel, and talking to him about faith. Severus telling her last night, No quarter and no turning back.

"What exactly were you attempting to do by kissing my brother, Severus?" she carefully and precisely asked.

"I did it because if I used Cruciatus on him, you'd have gotten a bit miffed," Snape flippantly replied.

"Severus," Emmy spat, in a warning tone.

Snape sighed, and replied, "I was attempting to shock him enough so that he'd drop his wand. When we did boggarts in Defense class, for him, it turned into Quentin Crisp cooing 'oh, you big butch thing,' and attempting to kiss him. I've never heard any male scream that high or that loud before or since."

She snorted and coughed, then took another deep breath, and tried to suppress a grin. "You are forgiven. Provisionally. But if I ever catch you kissing someone besides me again, I reserve the right to frigging well have your guts for frigging garters."

She took Snape's arm. "Let's go back to lunch, Severus. Michael, you may join us if you can act like a civilized person, and restrain your overprotective urges. Finite Incantatem."

Michael Vector sat on Dumbledore's left hand during the meal, as far away from his sister and Snape as could reasonably be achieved. After lunch, Dumbledore said, "Michael, I need to speak with your sister and Professor Snape about certain matters for a while. Would you terribly mind waiting here for us?"

Michael nodded. "It seems that things haven't changed much since I left."

Emmy looked around. Millie Bulstrode hadn't left the hall yet. Emmy raised her eyebrows at Dumbledore, and gave a nod in Millie's direction. He nodded back. Emmy walked over to the girl.

"Miss Bulstrode, might I ask you a favor?" Emmy Vector said.

"Certainly, Professor Vector."

"Could you give my brother a walking tour? He hasn't been back here in a number of years, and he might like to see how the old place has changed. The Headmaster and I will see to it that you're excused from your classes."

Millie looked over at Michael Vector. She smiled. "I'd be glad to, Professor Vector."

"Good. If I were you, I'd take him out on the grounds so that he can walk off all that nervous energy."

"He is rather protective, isn't he?" the chit murmured.

Emmy sighed, nodded and rolled her eyes. "Christ, yes. I suppose it's only natural, after all." She paused. "Thank you for your support of Severus and me last night." Millie dipped her head, and Emmy went on. "If anyone from any House gives you any trouble about it, you let Professor Snape or me know, hmm?" She patted Millie on the arm, and Millie nodded again. "Now come on and let me give you a proper introduction to my brother."

Millie followed her over to where Michael Vector was sitting. He got up when the two came over. "Millie, this is my brother, Michael Vector, Ravenclaw 1977. Michael, this is Millicent Bulstrode, the best Arithmancer to study here in fifty years."

Michael raised his eyebrows at the hint about their father in his sister's words, and then even more as he took a good look at Millicent. "And as beautiful as you are intelligent, Miss Bulstrode. My pleasure. It's kind of a young lady like yourself to take the trouble to spend time with an old man like me."

Millie's jaw dropped in disbelief, but the expression on his face was totally serious. She closed her mouth with an audible click. Emmy gave her brother a hard look and raised an eyebrow at him, but he merely shrugged his shoulders.

Emmy and Snape went off with Dumbledore, and left Millie and Mike alone in the Great Hall. "So. Where should I begin?" Millie asked the Auror.

Mike tilted his head back, in thought for a moment. "How about we go outside while the sun is still shining? "

She nodded. "I'll go get my cloak," she said.

He shook his head. "No need, lass." He took his own cloak off. "Duplicatus," he said, and there was a second Auror's cloak lying next to his on the table. He held it up to her briefly, and then with a wave of his wand, shrunk it down to fit her. Then he looked at her. "What's your favorite color?"

Millie bit her lower lip. "Purple," she muttered. "Deep dark purple, almost a black."

Michael grinned. "Purple it is then for the lovely lady." He waved his wand and muttered a few Latin words. The cloak changed colors from blue to purple, with a silver star-shaped clasp at the neck.

The two of them talked Arithmancy all the way out the doors and onto the grounds. Mike then asked Millie about the Defense classes, and got quite worked up about the teachers of the last five years. "Quirrell? The man was half Dark to begin with, even before he got taken over by Voldemort!" he said. Mike was then enraged to find out that Gilderoy Lockhart had been a teacher during Millie's second year. His comments about the feckless Lockhart were positively obscene, although he was quite apologetic to Millie after the words escaped his mouth. At the news that a werewolf had been a teacher during Millie's third year, he said, "Seems like Dumbledore was scraping the bottom of the barrel." When she told him that the fourth-year professor had been a disguised Death Eater, he again used sulfurous language, and had to apologize for it. Millie didn't have the heart to tell him that she had heard much worse in the Slytherin common room. When Mike heard that Arabella Figg was the current Defense professor, he said, "Now he's pulling in the retirees who've been out of it for the past fifteen years!" The Auror finished his tirade with the remarks, "What the bloody frigging devil are they teaching you in these schools? The Ministry will have to do the first five years over for your class when you start with us. We might as well start from scratch!" Then Millie got Mike started on Auror training, and his experiences as an Auror.

They kept on talking and walking around the lake, and then out towards Hagrid's hut, without even noticing it. Suddenly, Millie whipped out her wand, and screamed a warning to Mike of, "Look out!" Something that looked like a Dementor had come out of the forest, and was coming toward them. She aimed her wand at the creature. "Riddikulus," she shouted, thinking that it was a boggart. Her spell had no effect. She clenched her jaw, and tried a different tactic. "Ex-Expecto Patronem!" she shouted. A silvery butterfly appeared, and flew at the Dementor, which batted it aside and continued toward them.

"Hold your fire, girl," Mike said, and then he rushed the Dementor. She gasped in disbelief. The Dementor reached for him. He dodged it. It swiped at him, and grabbed him. It started pulling him toward its face. He grabbed the Dementor by the throat, and she heard a sharp crack. He pulled the thing up off its feet, and then took one hand off the Dementor's throat. He drop-punched the Dementor, and it flew backward about ten feet. It rolled over, and grabbed him by the leg, trying to knock him down. He started bleeding from its claws, but failed to notice. Bulstrode wondered if she could help, but she couldn't think of any more spells, and attempting to physically help probably would not be a good idea. She picked up a large branch from the ground, waiting for a clear shot at the Dementor. She ducked and weaved, trying to follow, but seeing no opportunity to hit the monster without hitting Mike. Mike kicked the Dementor, stomped on it, and it stopped moving. Millie watched in disbelief. She had never known that a Dementor could be killed, but she had no doubt that was what she had seen now.

Mike turned to Millie, and saw her wide eyes and her white face. She took a step back. He looked like a berserker, all covered with ichor and blood, and she thought of the old stories about not being the next thing that a berserker should see. He flinched and started to shake. "Tis' dead," he said. "Dead, dead, dead."

Millie rushed toward him. He attempted to hold her at arms' length, but she held him tighter and closer than that. They patted each other on the back until they calmed down. "You need a keeper, Michael Vector," she told him. "Taking on a Dementor with your bare hands, of all things." And I want that job, she thought. Then she kissed him on the cheek. "Thank you for saving my life," she said.

Mike blushed, and mumbled a reply. He asked her, "Didn't you think that it was stupid, lass?"

"Oh, it was stupid, all right," Millie replied. "But brave and awe-inspiring too."

Mike said, "We'd better get back in and let Dumbledore know what just happened, Millie. This is not a normal situation for Dementors to be wandering about Hogwarts, is it now?"

Millie shook her head. "No. There were some around last year for the Tri-Wizard Tournament, but I thought that the Headmaster got the Ministry to take them all away again."