Vector's Challenge

Chapter 27

Millicent sounds out Emmy about Mike

Snape cleared his throat after looking at the Vector family picture. "Emmy, I think that Miss Bulstrode should serve the rest of her detention with you, and not with Auror Vector. Despite his undoubted courage, he is not a member of the Hogwarts staff, and thus not qualified to supervise a detention."

Emmy looked at the two men. Mike's fists were clenched so tightly that his knuckles were turning white, and he was glaring at Snape. Snape, in turn, had a fine sneer on his face, and his hand was ready on his wand.

Best not to trigger a fight just yet. Particularly not between these two men; I like my quarters in one piece, thank you very much. "Very well then," she said.

"Auror Vector, I need to speak with you privately," Snape said. The two men left, leaving Millie and Emmy in Emmy's study. Emmy let out a hiss of a breath, and muttered, "Toxic testosterone levels."

Millie smirked, and made a noise that could have been interpreted as either a laugh or a cough.

"All right, Miss Bulstrode. Back to work," Emmy said. Millie sat down at the table, and kept working on Arithmancy. Emmy sat down at her desk, and proceeded to work on her graphs for her next meeting with Dumbledore.

"Is your brother married, Professor Vector?" Millie Bulstrode asked Emmy Vector as they worked.

Emmy looked up. "Ha! No, he is not. He's most decidedly single because of family tradition and that he can't find a woman to put up with him."

"So no girlfriends or anything?" Millie couldn't believe her ears, or her luck. That big, strong, tall, dark man is single? Oh, Merlin!

"Yes. He is single, he is not attached in any way, shape or form."

"I-I-I hope this isn't too personal, but he-he-he--"

"He's not interested in men, either, if that's what you're trying to ask," Emmy replied.

Millie let out a breath of relief. "So why is such a dishy Auror like your brother still single?"

Emmy paused for a moment of severe cognitive dissonance. My brother as a dishy Auror. She shook her head to clear it of that appalling concept. I thought that Bulstrode was intelligent. Ah well, no accounting for tastes. "The general perception among most of his female acquaintances is that my brother is the most insufferable prat that they know. One of the great mysteries of my life is why Mike was Sorted into Ravenclaw when he's such a complete example of the perfect Gryffindork."

Millie giggled at this. "I thought that as a Ravenclaw you liked the Gryffindorks, Professor Vector."

"As students, as fellow colleagues, yes, but as a bossy, know-it-all, overbearing older brother, no," Emmy replied.

"But it must be nice to have a caring older brother."

"I suppose. Although I still blame him for the fact that I didn't have a date until I was a seventh-year myself, because of how he terrified all the boys when I was a first-year."

"Oh, boys are idiots, all of them. I think it's better to wait for a real man myself."

Emmy was stunned into silence by that remark, and then the blossoming perception in her mind. I have missed half of the Vector family dynamic all these years. The men don't just find an inappropriate woman and fall in love; they apparently send out some sort of signal that makes inappropriate women fall hard for them. And that is part of why my mother and father are still together.

"Well, Millie, Mike is not the sharpest athame on the altar himself," Emmy cautiously continued. How do I do this, give her a fair picture of him without scaring her away?

"Oh, I know that, Professor Vector," Millie replied. "I know that he's book smart and not people smart." She looked Emmy straight in the eyes as she continued, "But I also know that he's got a heart of fire and a backbone of granite."

"And the fact that he's taller than you are is probably a pleasant change," Emmy continued dryly after an uncomfortable pause.

Millie started to laugh. "Oh, you have absolutely no idea, Professor Vector. He makes me feel dainty and tiny and frail. Me, Bulstrode-the-Troll." She shook her head. "I have never felt this way before around any man. It's absolutely delightful."

"Hmm. Well, if you're having these feelings about him, I had better warn you about some of the Vector family traditions."

"Oh, no. What are these, ma'am?"

"Well, the first one is that Vectors do not divorce. Not ever. If you marry a Vector man, it is for life. The second tradition is that Vector men will abandon their past ties if they believe that to be the right course of action, but they also expect you to do the same for them. And the third Vector tradition is that the eldest sons always wind up making a wildly inappropriate and scandalous marriage."

Millie was looking a bit upset now. "Inappropriate and scandalous? How?" And is my Death Eater family going to matter to him?

Emmy smiled. "Let's wet our whistles and I'll tell you some of my family history, Millie." Emmy got up and poured two glasses of wine. The two women sat down on the couch together.

Emmy leaned back and said, "Ahh, this is more comfortable. Now, let me begin with my great-grandfather Solomon Vector. He was born around 1840 to a Jewish wizarding family in Germany."

"Eighteen-forty? Your great-grandfather? That can't be right." Millie said. The wine was delicious, but it was going to her head fairly quickly. She thought, But still, twenty-five years as a generation means three generations back, seventy-five years from 1960 means 1880s, not 1840s!

"Yes. 1840. He was interested in Arithmancy, and after Durmstrang went to Egypt to go study with the wizards there, where he eventually met and ran off with a fourteen-year old Muslim dancing girl named Fatima, in the year eighteen-eighty."

"He was forty and she was fourteen?" Millie gasped.

"Or fifteen. Something like that. I gather that Great-Grandmother Fatima was never too sure of her own age. She was illegitimate and supported her aged mother and her siblings in whatever way she could. Solomon was impressed by her grit and insisted on marrying her."

Millie thought, And she probably wasn't a pureblood witch, either. That thought didn't bother her as much as it would have a year ago.

Emmy continued, "Their eldest son, Abraham Vector, was born that same year, was privately tutored, and wound up moving to England as a young man, where he worked for Gringotts Bank." She frowned. "Are you aware of the Muggle First World War, and the Muggle attitudes of the time?"

"Yes," Millie replied.

Emmy took a sip and went on. "Abraham was still living in England when the war started. At some point during the war, he met a young witch named Edith Bones, who was born in 1899. They married in 1919."

"Bones? Any relation to Susan?" Millie asked.

"Yes, but I'd have to chart out on paper exactly how. And yes, she was a Hogwarts graduate, and a Hufflepuff."

"Go on," Millie said.

"Abraham's eldest son, Edmund, my father, was born in 1920, and went to Hogwarts. Ravenclaw House, of course. In 1959, he married my mother, Aoife Finnigan, born 1944. My Grandfather Finnigan is a Muggle, and my Grandmother Finnigan is a Squib."

"You're related to Seamus Finnigan?"

"Yes, through my grandfather and his father. This is Hogwarts; everyone's connected somehow."

Millie thought that was very funny, and wound up almost choking on her wine.

"So what's the trend, Bulstrode?" Professor Vector asked as she stared at the ceiling.

Millie took a deep breath. "Vector oldest sons are cradle-snatchers, and they marry girls who are on the wrong side." Like me. He's an Auror and my family is nothing but a bunch of Death Eaters.

She hadn't been aware that she had said that last thought openly until Professor Vector smiled back at her.

"You're probably my brother's ideal woman, Millicent. He's always fancied himself in the role of white knight and dragon-slayer, and I think that some of the friction between him and me has been due to the fact that I've never really wanted that."

Millie was staring back at Emmy in total shock. "You can't possibly be serious," she whispered.

"About what? Him and you, or him and me?"

"Him and me. I-I-I can't believe it. It's n-not possible." I will not cry, I will not cry, I will not cry.

Emmy let out a breath between clenched jaws. "Let's see if I can recall everything he said."

As Emmy talked, Millicent took it in like a desert taking in a rainstorm. I have a chance with him. I actually have a chance. He thinks I'm pretty. He thinks I'm a genius. He wants to save me from joining the Death Eaters. Oh, Merlin. Oh, my God.

Michael Vector and Severus Snape were having quite the argument in Snape's office. "Vector, what the bloody devil are you playing at, flirting with that girl?" Snape spat. "It's disgusting. She's far too young for you."

Mike glared at Snape. "I could say much the same sort of thing about you and my sister, Snape."

"That's entirely different. There's only six years between Emmy and me. Your sister is old enough and experienced enough to know her own mind. Miss Bulstrode is a minor and I stand in loco parentis to her as her Head of House."

Mike retorted, "The same House where she gets called a troll by everyone because she's taller and stronger than the rest? The same House where she has to hide her brains from everybody, lest she be put on Voldemort's A-list for recruiting? The House that is willing to lick Voldemort's boots for him, and bend over and spread them whenever he asks for it?"

"And of course you perfect clever Ravenclaws know all about being the targets of prejudice and evil." Snape retorted.

"My Aunt Dorothy Vector says that at times she's ashamed to be a Slytherin, after seeing what's happened to her House since she left school," Mike shouted.

Snape raised an eyebrow and sneered, "Well, I can see that the House doesn't come up to the standards of someone who's hiding from the world and calling herself a Bride of Christ."

Mike said, "What do you mean calling herself?"

Snape said, "I meant that I'm not a believer, but since you're the one putting a sexual interpretation on what goes on in Slytherin House, I suppose there's no telling what you might be projecting on your aunt's convent."

Mike hissed, "You filthy son-of-a-bitch!" and went for Snape, but the desk was in the way.

Snape retorted, "I'm not the one chasing a sixteen-year-old girl."

Mike tried to hit Snape, but Snape's wards went off and slowed Mike's punch down. Mike's fist made no contact whatsoever with Snape. Snape sneered, "You thought it would be a good idea to practice fisticuffs with me in the office where I deal with emotionally unstable adolescents?"

Mike glared at him. "I'll get Millie out of this snake-pit if it's the last thing I ever do." He turned and headed for the door.

Snape sneered, "I like the sound of that. Last thing you ever do."

Mike turned back around and said, "Are you threatening me?"

Snape said, "I wouldn't threaten a man who can attack a Dementor bare-handed. It would be like installing smoke detectors in Hell."

Mike took one step toward him and said, "You'd know all about Hell, wouldn't you, Snape?"

Snape said, "Mike, shut it. Your sister won't let me kill you, and it's possible that Miss Bulstrode might even have some objections. But I will look out for Miss Bulstrode's best interests, so you had best watch your step."

Mike retorted, as he stood close to the door, "I killed a Dementor for Miss Bulstrode, and I care more about her now than I did then. Watch your step yourself, Snape." Mike tried to slam the door on the way out, but it shut silently. Snape smirked at that final little victory. Then he looked at the clock. Past midnight on a Friday, and Emmy was surely in her cold, lonesome bed already.

End of Chapter 27