The Spellcrafters

And thanks to CLS our devine modly being for her excellent tips on dialogue and comma’s.


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Chapter Three, Roommates.

Alex and Max had divided their workload among them a long time ago simply because they had different areas of expertise. Max was infinitely better at Potions and Transformations. Alex was an expert at Charms and Defence against the Dark Arts. They also divided the household chores amongst themselves. The cooking, cleaning and washing that always needed to be done come rain or shine.

Max, although he was an expert at Potions, would burn even water, if you let him within three feet of a stove. Which earned him the right to do the cleaning around the house, it was more then often his Potions lab after all that needed a thorough cleaning, because something nasty exploded in there. Alex did the cooking and the washing, because unless you wanted robes that were so stiff you wouldn't be able to walk around in them, you didn't want Max to show his 'prowess' at washing.

Alex knew that her husband had deliberately botched up his very few attempts at cooking and washing, because he really disliked those duties. As long as she knew, he didn't want to do them. She would be able to get even with him eventually. She was mischievously considering letting him pay, by doing the two and five am feedings of their first three children. No one could make a man do something he didn't want to do as well as a woman.

After the initial shock of having a Demiguise wandering freely about the compound, the Crofts quickly got used to it being around. Alex had taken it upon her to study the creature, thereby allowing Max to continue working on his latest pet project.

Right from the moment the Demiguise had entered her sight, Alex had started making mental notes. The next day she simply wrote them down in a new notebook. Ever since, she carried the thing along and followed the Demiguise wherever it went. This would start early in the morning when Alex would be awakened by the Monitoring Charm she had placed on the creature. She had it set to wake her, as the Demiguise did.

This morning the squeals of the Monitoring Charm woke Alex and a very grumpy, sleep deprived Max at six in the morning. Alex wrote down the time and looked outside to see the sun coming up behind the treetops. She thought there might be a connection and added a comment about looking up a timetable for sunrise and sunset at their exact location.

"Wake up, sleepy," Alex teased her sleep drunk husband, "You wouldn't feel so bad if you would come to bed earlier, you know."

He grunted in response, and turned over onto his other side, pulling the sheets back over him, in an attempt to get a few more minutes of sleep. Alex got dressed; a black pair of pants combined with a white shirt and plum coloured robes. After which she walked barefoot into the kitchen to start a fire and cook their breakfast.

The Demiguise was already in there when she came in. It was nibbling on an apple it had taken from the fruit basket on the counter. Alex looked at the fruit basket and added more apples on the list for this month's shopping expedition.

A half an hour later Max, who really wasn't a morning person, dressed in nothing more than black boxers and a pink fuzzy dressing gown, was polishing off his breakfast with a piece of white bread he was using to soak up every last drop of egg-yoke.

He asked, "Is there any coffee left? I could really use a boost today. I don't seem to be able to concentrate all that well."

"No dear, we used the last beans the day before yesterday," Alex answered, "and you have yourself to blame for feeling lousy. Staying up all hours of the night. If you would get the sleep you needed at night you wouldn't have any troubles getting up in the morning."

She then walked up to the notice board attached to the back of the kitchen door and added 'ten pounds of apples' and ' two pounds of coffee beans' to the shopping list. It was quite the list this month, which meant that the couple would have to go shopping together. There was no way Alex could carry this lot on her own.

Alex restricted their shopping trips to once a month, and usually went alone. She didn't want to attract too much attention. Luckily, a few hundred miles west there was a Muggle general store that stocked almost everything the couple needed. Everything except Potion and Charm ingredients, they needed to get those from Diagon Alley still.

Max had been complaining that his 'Powdered Horn of Unicorn' was running out and some other more sinister ingredients had been depleting as well. Alex was considering doing all her shopping on Diagon Alley this month instead of going to the Muggle store.

"Honey do we still have a few doses of Multi-juice left?" asked Alex while planning?

"I think so dear, I will go check our Potion stores," he replied, while walking into the storage cabinet they used for their Potions. The couple maintained a large quantity of quality Potions for personal use and research purposes.

Max was no Potions Master, unlike the lecturers of his annual research conventions. No, the Potions Masters that were alive today were named Severus Snape, Armadeo Minardi and Eirdine Del Esti. They were the people who were the authority on the most difficult Potions, like the Wolfsbane Potion, the people who wrote books about them. They were the people who got paid fortunes for their services. Well except Severus Snape, people didn't really trust him. Max didn't really know why, but Severus Snape had a dark past, which stuck to him like glue and people didn't react to that very well. Except if they wanted something illegal done.

Max was, however, a better than average brewer of Potions. In the past few years, he had even begun making some Potions of his own invention. The Multi-juice Potion was one of them.

It was a derivative of the Polyjuice Potion but its effects were very different. The Polyjuice Potion was capable of transforming a person's appearance into someone else's for an hour per dose, with the use of some of that person's hair or fingernails.

The Multi-juice Potion gave a person 'human Metamorph' capabilities. It was not yet able to replace the Animagus transformation though, like the Polyjuice Potion you could only change from person to person. One could after using even the smallest dose, which would last for a little under an hour, change hair colour, the colour of ones eyes, ones bone structure, height and so on. You could become a totally different person.

The Crofts had had a lot of use of this Potion, because it enabled them to leave their compound without being recognised. It meant that Max could attend his Potions conventions and that Alex could go shopping without anyone finding out who they were. The largest dose would last a person for a little over a week, and unlike Polyjuice, you didn't have to drink it every hour. No Multi-juice was, all in all, a lot easier to use.

After Alex had cleaned up her kitchen, she went outside to enjoy the morning sun and the Demiguise followed her. She sat down in the middle of the meadow on the blanket she had brought out. After which she started to review the four days, the animal had lived with them.

It seemed to wake every day at about the same time; Alex really thought the sunrise had something to do with that. The animal seemed to be able to feel it even though it couldn't possible see it from the Potions lab, where the animal loved to sleep. Alex really had to get her hands on that Sunrise-Sunset table. Maybe they had something like that at Flourish and Blotts.

The Demiguise seemed to eat just about anything it could get its hands on. Although mostly it just ate fruit and vegetables. Alex smiled and even let out a snicker when she thought about yesterday evening. Max had reached for the last pear that had been in the fruit basket and the Demiguise had grabbed right out in front of him. Max had chased it around the kitchen, in vane because as soon as the creature felt threatened it turned invisible. It had turned up an hour or so later, on top of the kitchen cabinets.

Alex had also noticed that it's pelt-changed colour every so often. She wondered whether that was in response to something and why no one had ever been able to document this before. Alex had recorded the commonly known silvery grey, the amber yellow, a deep and vivid royal blue, a mottled green and a practically screaming crimson red. She was at a loss to tell what the colours meant.

She made an entry into the notebook on what the animal had eaten this morning, an apple and a hard-boiled egg and observed it, while it examined the edges of the meadow. Something on the far edge of the meadow seemed to concern the Demiguise, because it changed colour into a deep, deep grey, its pelt was almost black. It quickly came back to the blanket and started to pull on Alex's arm. Even though she didn't understand, Alex hurried and folded up the blanket and followed it back into the house.

When she looked outside, to see if she could find out what had scared the animal so, Alex saw a large Brown bear storming out from under the huge Red Cedar trees. Brown bears were usually very placid animals but if angered they could very easily kill even a wizard. Suddenly Alex felt very relieved she had followed the Demiguise. Then it hit her; the Demiguise had protected her from harm. Alex had to sit down to process all this.

"Max," she yelled out, "you have to come see this."

"What is it dear?" Alex heard coming from the Potions lab.

"Just come over here already, you'll see," she said with a trembling voice.

When Max walked into the kitchen and stood next to Alex, she pointed to the meadow where the large Brown bear was still thrashing about looking for the prey that had eluded him.

Max asked, "Hun, what happened?"

"The Demiguise saved me! I was sitting on a blanket in the middle of the meadow reading my notes. It must have smelled that bear or something because next thing I know it was pulling my arm in the direction of the door," Alex whispered.

"Darling, you're in shock," he said while he gave her a big hug and led her back to bed.

He made sure she was safely asleep, he had given her a Dreamless Sleep Potion, before he went back into the kitchen to deal with the bear. He still had his Dragon skin lab coat on so he was reasonably protected. He took his wand in hand and opened the door. The bear, which was sniffing the flat patch of grass in the middle of the meadow, looked up and started moving in Max's direction.

Max immediately shouted, "Impedimenta," and effectively froze the ferocious animal. He then uttered in a disappointed tone, "Avada Kedavra."

The Crofts had learned from the people that lived around these parts, that an animal that had a taste of human flesh, needed to be killed before it could kill any more people. Even though the human population around here was scarce, this bear had apparently had had contact with humans before.

Max stripped the carcass of its hide and claws; he pulled out the animal's teeth and then started rummaging around the woods surrounding the meadow looking for firewood; trying to burn off his adrenaline rush he built a large fire to burn the rest of the carcass on. When he had collected a decent amount of firewood on a pile, Max levitated the carcass on. He started the blaze with a simple muttering of 'Incendio' and a swish of his wand. He waited around until there was nothing more of the fire left then a few embers dying out.

Max then took the hide, which he would sell, the claws and teeth, which he could use as Potions ingredients, inside and checked on Alex. He found the Demiguise sitting at the foot of the bed, it's pelt showing a vivid blue colour. To Max it seemed like the Demiguise was watching over Alex.

Max had to go into town to tell the other villagers that the bear was dead. They would then find out who was missing and see if they could save anything. He would take the bear skin with him. He took a reasonable dose of Multi-juice potion changed his features to match those of Mr. Abraham Smalls, his alias when they went shopping in the Muggle town, and wrote a small note to Alex, so she wouldn't worry when she woke up.

Honey,

I am going to the General Store to let everyone in the area know that a rabid bear has been caught and killed. They will probably have better possibilities to find out whom the bear attacked before it came to us. I am taking the hide with me. I will be back as soon as possible and I'll bring back as much groceries as possible in return for the bear hide.

Love Max.

He grabbed hold of the hide and Apparated to a spot about half a mile from the village where the General store was located. They had found out it was a lot safer to walk a bit then to Apparate in any closer. After ten minutes, he walked into town and headed straight for the Mayor's house. He knocked on the door and waited.

The door opened and the Mayor stepped out onto the porch, "Good afternoon Mr. Smalls, what can I help you with today?"

"I think it is the other way around Mayor. What have I done for you today," said Max, showing the Mayor the bear hide, "This animal almost attacked my wife this morning and I was only barely able to shoot it before it got to her. Of course Mr. Mayor you know what that means."

"That animal has tasted human flesh," came from a very impressed Mayor, "Do you have any idea where the animal came from before it arrived at your property?"

"No unfortunately I don't," replied Max.

"I have to start calling people, see who is missing," the Mayor hurriedly said, "We cannot thank you enough Mr. Smalls for shooting the animal and for letting us know as soon as possible. We will use all means to find out who the animal attacked before you, and see if we can provide any help."

The Mayor went back inside his house and the door slammed behind him. In any other situation, Max would be offended, but right now, he understood that time was of the essence. Instead, he walked down to the General store to exchange the bear hide for groceries.

When Max Apparated back home, he found Alex still asleep in the bedroom, the Demiguise curled up beside her. He put the groceries away. He had gotten practically everything they needed according to the notice board in the kitchen. Everything except the Potion ingredients Max required to continue his research. He didn't worry about it because he remembered Alex had planned a shopping trip to Diagon alley tomorrow. He would be able to get all his ingredients there without a problem. Max checked the calendar; tomorrow was the fifth of August.

Alex woke up later that evening, to the smell of fresh apple coming from the kitchen. She folded the covers back and swung her legs out of bed. She walked into the kitchen and saw Max setting the table.

"Aha, now I know what it takes for you to start cooking," said a pleasantly surprised Alex.

"Well no, not really," answered Max, "I cheated, I bought a mincemeat and an apple pie in town, I just put them in the oven to warm them up a bit."

"Ah well, its better then nothing," Alex replied and sat down at the table, "What else did you get in town?"

"Just about everything on our shopping list, but we still have to go to Diagon Alley tomorrow for my Potion Ingredients!"

"That's all right, I have to get a few things myself from Flourish and Blotts, and we really should consider going to Madam Mallakin's to buy some new protective clothing. Your lab coat is starting to fall apart."

"But I like my old one," Max mock-whined.

After which the couple burst out in laughter. The Demiguise walked in to investigate where the noise was coming from and sat down in his usual place, in the far corner of the kitchen. When the egg timer rang Max gathered the mincemeat pie from the oven and turned it off. Alex sliced it into four pieces and put a quarter onto a plate, which she set down in front of the Demiguise. It even let her pet it for a while before it started eating.

Alex returned to her seat and started eating herself. She asked Max to tell her all about what he did with the bear, and what had happened in town. Max told her how he had killed the bear and stripped it. He told her about the Mayor's reaction and how valuable a hide of a Brown bear apparently was, because Max didn't have to pay extra at all for his groceries. On the contrary, the storeowner had given him money upon leaving the store.

The Mayor had even come looking for him, before Max left, to tell him that the bear had most likely killed an old man. That man lived in a cabin upstream from the Croft compound. He had been the only person the Mayor hadn't been able to get a hold of over the phone, which was why they thought it must be him. One of the Villagers would go up there the next morning; to make sure what had happened to the old man.

After eating two slices of scrumptious, warm Cinnamon- Apple pie with delicious whipped cream, Alex withdrew to the library to update her notes. She wrote down everything that had happened that day that involved the Demiguise; including what Max had told her about its protective behaviour when she was asleep. She could now put a meaning to two of the colours the Demiguise used.

The dark, almost black, grey meant imminent danger for the Demiguise and everyone else in the area. Alex still felt honoured the animal hadn't simply turned invisible, to get away from the bear. The vivid blue meant concern maybe even love, but Alex wasn't completely sure yet. She was sure she would figure out the other colours eventually.

When she was finished, Alex urged her husband to come to bed with her. Apparating across continents was no picnic and they would need their rest. Just before falling to sleep, Alex noticed the Demiguise coming into the bedroom and settling on the foot of the bed.

The next morning, the house was in a right mess. Alex and Max were running around like mad. Max had taken some Multi-juice potion yesterday, and he had of course forgotten where he had put the container. The couple could not leave without it, for fear of recognition. After turning the house upside down, and scaring the Demiguise into invisibility a few times, Alex found the container on the bottom shelf of her spice cabinet. She wondered what had possessed her husband to put it there.

They both took a dose that would last a few hours and discussed about where they were going to Apparate to. After bickering about it for a few minutes, they settled on the little courtyard behind the Leaky Cauldron. The couple morphed into their public appearances, Mr. and Mrs. Warren, which seemed to be a well to do couple which most people would leave alone and Apparated.

In the courtyard of the Leaky Cauldron, they opened the wall and stepped into Diagon Alley. The Crofts had left Greenland in the early morning, but due to the time difference, it was all ready noon in Great Britain. The couple split up, Max went in search of his Potion ingredients and Alex got on her way to Flourish and Blotts. They had agreed to meet at two thirty at Gringotts.

Due to the sinister nature of some of his ingredients, Max had to venture into Knockturn Alley. Not one of his favourite places on earth, but he kept his head high and supported an air of arrogance that told everyone who was looking, that he was not a man to be messed with. He strode through the street to a shop that seemed almost uninhabited; the windows were so covered in grime that no daylight could enter the premises. Max opened the door and stepped inside the scarcely illuminated - you only saw a candle or two - apothecary. The door had nudged a bell, which was summoning the shopkeeper.

Max had to wait for quite a while; the owner of the shop was a rather elderly man who apparently couldn't get around very well anymore. Once the man reached Max, he received a list of required products and started scurrying about collecting them. An 'ooh' or an 'ah' could sometimes be heard from his direction as the old man took down dusty containers from filth ridden shelves.

Max had apparently made some rare requests. No matter, after a while the old man had gathered everything Max wanted and was paid for his services. After which Max found himself back on the street. He strode back to Diagon Alley. Alex probably thought he would forget their anniversary but he hadn't. He was going to get her something really nice this year. He knew of a quality jeweller next to Ollivander's and was purposefully heading in that direction.

Alex in the mean time had taken some time to do some window-shopping. She had been to Flourish and Blotts and got the Sunrise-Sunset table and some other books she wanted for her research. She strolled around Diagon Alley and even wandered into a few shops. One of which seemed to be a joke shop, Weasley's Wizard Wheezes, it was run by a set of red-haired twins. They claimed to have invented all their products themselves.

While she was in that store, she had seen people sprout feathers and loose them again within minutes. Alex had jumped about three feet into the air when she first saw a girl sprout feathers right in front of her. She was amazed by the inventiveness of the twins and talked to them for quite some time. Unfortunately, time flew by while she was having fun.

Alex had a stomach-ache from laughing too much when she arrived at Gringotts at two thirty to meet Max. She was carrying a second bag of goodies the twins had recommended; she was dying to try them out on her husband. When Max arrived a few minutes later, they set out for Madam Mallakin's.

Alex practically ran into a young boy with black unruly hair on their way over there. For some reason, he seemed familiar to Alex, but when she turned around to look more closely at him, he had already entered the law offices of Prouse, Hiatt and Wilberforce. It looked like he was accompanied by some more people, three with bright red hair, a man who was starting to turn grey and two young girls, one with flaming red hair and another one with bushy brown hair.

She shook her head and turned back to follow her husband who had stopped walking as well a few doors down, waiting for her to catch up. They walked into the dress shop and entertained themselves with picking out the most oddly coloured robes for eachother. Max finally bought a new pair of Dragon skin protective robes and had them wrapped up. The couple had dinner at The Leaky Cauldron before Apparating home.

When she was getting ready for bed, Alex was still wandering who that young boy was, she was sure she recognised him from somewhere. Raven black messy hair, stringy build, the glasses, .... Something was off though, she thought it was his eyes. In her memory, the eyes were hazel brown, not emerald green.

Chapter Four, Speaking One's Mind.