Letters By Night

Professor Alanna Reid had made a resolution. She was going to meet this Nox fellow at a place and time of her own choosing, and talk sanely to him. However, she thought it best not to sound overly eager.

Nox,

I would like to have a proper conversation with you, although your tendencies toward evasiveness leave me in doubt of your conversational skills. Meet me at 9:00 in the Three Broomsticks next Saturday.

Alanna

She opened her door to set down the letter, and found herself face to face with Professor Veiker. "Andrew!" she said, and quickly put the letter behind her back.

"A--Alanna," he said nervously, brushing back his fringe from his hazel eyes. "I was wondering...would you join me for a drink or something in Hogsmeade? Saturday?"

Of all days...Alanna tilted her head, looking at him with eyebrows raised.

He twisted his fingers, looking like a schoolboy. "For old times' sake?"

She almost pitied him. Almost.

"I'm sorry Andrew, I can't, I -" She racked her brain for an excuse. "I -- have something to do."

"What?"

She glowered at him. "Don't pry."

"Sorry," he said glumly, then walked off down the corridor.

God, I'm turning into Professor Snape! She didn't really dislike Andrew, she just felt...distanced from him. He had been so clingy and dependant in their relationship...he'd hardly given her time for herself. Of course she'd used the old "It's not you, it's me" routine, but the fact was that this simply wasn't true. He might be too weak to be on his own, but there was no way she was going to be some kind of foster parent to him. Though he had written quite romantic letters...Letters! She suddenly remembered the envelope in her hand, and set it quickly outside the door. Then a thought came to her.

Could it be...Andrew writing these letters? She rummaged around in her bureau and found the two messages from Nox and perused them, brow furrowed and tongue out of the corner of her mouth. This...Nox, his letters were eloquent, but rather less elaborate...still, she couldn't be too sure...

"Astrophysics...Astrology...Astralprojection!" Alanna sat in class the next day, flipping through The Cosmos for the Twenty-first Century. "Here it is, everyone, the Astralprojection spell...let's see..." She glanced up at the for once eager faces of her seventh year advanced class. This was something they had never done before. "Needs...monkshood? Well whatever for? Oh, I see," she said, thinking aloud. "Haven't got any of that..." She set the book down and headed for the door. "I'll be back in a moment," she called to the class, who immediately began chatting.

Drat that disorganisation of mine! she thought, walking swiftly down the stairs. That's all I need to brighten my day, isn't it? Nosferatu. She shivered as she approached the Potions room, and she knocked on the open door and looked in.

Boom!

A potion Snape had been demonstrating in front of the classroom had just exploded in his face. Apparently the knock had surprised him.

His face covered in black soot, he said through clenched teeth without looking at her, "What. Do. You. Want."

The fifth year students started snickering.

"Er...I just needed some monkshood for an astralprojection spell, Professor," she said quietly, afraid to ire him any further.

He glanced up quickly when she spoke, and for a moment she could have sworn he looked embarrassed under the soot. Nah...

"I see you've learned to knock," he said resentfully, glaring at her as he went to retrieve the monkshood. He shoved the herb into her hand without a backward look, the students still trying to stifle their laughter. Alanna left hastily, and she heard Snape say, "Potter! You find this funny? Let's see you do it. Front of the class, now!"

She smirked as she walked back to the Astronomy Tower.

When Alanna returned to her room that evening, the letter was gone. Just inside the door was a torn piece of parchment with a hastily scrawled answer in Nox's handwriting:

Bring no one.

She hadn't intended to anyway. A whiff of something filled her senses; a sort of cologne scent lingered in the air, as though the note had recently been in his hands. She grinned; might as well be a hygienic stalker.

On Saturday morning, the first thing Alanna noticed was the empty space at the staff table. Good, he won't be able to spoil my mood then.

She sat down and was halfway through her breakfast when curiosity got the better of her.

"Professor Dumbledore?"

"Yes?" He smiled benignly at her, chewing a biscuit.

"Where's Nosfer - I mean, where's Professor Snape?"

To Alanna's great surprise, Dumbledore suddenly looked amused. "Er...I'm afraid a potion accident caused a few delayed effects...his extreme cheerfulness prompted Professor Wynne to recommend him to the hospital wing."

Down the table, the Runes Professor, Phoebe Wynne, was watching them. Looking around, she got up and proceeded to Snape's vacated chair. The pretty blonde American dusted off the chair with contempt before sitting down and promptly starting to talk.

"And it just...blew up?"

"Yeah." Alanna laughed and spun around her chair in her quarters. Phoebe was sitting on Alanna's desk, tossing a paperweight up and down. The two had become great friends over the course of the term. "But why'd you send him off? Not that I mind."

Phoebe rolled her eyes. "You should have seen him, Alanna. Bouncing around with this twisted grin on his face. It was terrifying."

Alanna squinted, trying to mentally picture it. "Somehow 'bouncing around' just doesn't register. Anyway, about this Night guy..."

"I don't know if you should go," said Phoebe uncertainly. "I'd have gone with Andrew instead."

Alanna sighed and spun her chair to face the wall. "You can have him, then. I don't know...Nox wouldn't, you know, try anything in the middle of the Three Broomsticks, would he? I mean if he's got any sense."

Phoebe raised her eyebrows. "You mean if he's sane. If he's not a stalker."

"He wouldn't be willing to talk to me if he was a stalker," she said, more to reassure herself than Phoebe.

"Well maybe not. But don't say I didn't warn you." She heaved the paperweight a little too high, and missed as it shattered on the floor.

"Good job, Phoebe. Get there at about eight-thirty, keep an eye on me, eh?"

She nodded sheepishly and cleaned up the shards of broken glass.

Alanna drew her cloak closer as she walked down the main road. It was dark, the path lit by gaslights every few feet, but the village was still full of people. An odd prickling feeling on the back of her neck made her turn around; there was someone a few people behind, in a heavily hooded black robe that looked familiar. Far too familiar...it looked exactly like the people who'd accosted her and Snape in Knockturn Alley.

She shivered, and increased her pace. Perhaps she had just imagined it...she chance a glance behind her; he was still there. Trying desperately not to look like she'd seen him, she walked even faster, beginning to get nervous. The hooded figure followed more closely.

Alanna began to panic as she drew closer to the pub. She felt certain he could hear her heart thumping in her chest as he glided silently and sinisterly behind her, weaving through the crowd with practised ease. The sounds of the crowd milling around the High Street seemed to fade...she burst into the pub.

She looked back...he was standing at the window, his hands pressed against the glass; and then in an inhumanely swift way, he was behind her. She started trembling...

"Nox," whispered the cloaked man, and the candle at a nearby empty table extinguished. She breathed a sigh of relief as he gestured at the table. "Shall we?"

Alanna shot a look across the room at Phoebe who winked. She sat down.

"Don't do that! You could really scare a person."

He got right to the point. "You have questions. Ask them."

"Who are you?" It was the first thing that came to mind. "And why are you stalking me?" Ooh, perhaps a bit too blunt.

"I can't tell you who I am. And it's not stalking so much as...observing."

"Yes, stalking. And why can't you tell me?"

"You seem the type to pick and choose your company."

"But I know my company."

"And you know me. In a manner of speaking."

Alanna's suspicions took hold. "Andrew, I swear..."

Nox laughed coldly. "Veiker? I'm afraid you've misinterpreted, Alanna."

She began to feel flustered. "Again, why are you stalking me?"

"Don't change the subject."

"That is the subject!"

He suddenly looked up (sort of), past Alanna, and pointed over her shoulder. "You have a visitor."

Reluctantly, she turned around. "Andrew...er...hi."

Fury filled his eyes. "Hmm, had something to do, I see," he said, nodding at Nox.

Alanna glanced around at Phoebe, who gave her a bewildered look. She turned back to Andrew. "I don't have to explain anything to you. You know things are over between us, Andrew."

"Mmm, yes," he said calmly, but his hands were clenched and his hazel eyes were flashing. "I wish you the same luck I had," he said caustically to Nox, then exited noisily in a huff.

Nox appeared to stare after him. "What's his problem?"

"I ought to ask you the same. You haven't answered any of my questions."

"Stalker's privilege."

"Not funny. Not funny at all. Tell me, Nox, what exactly are you after?"

"I'd have thought that was obvious."

"I'm a little slow. Enlighten me."

He seemed to be pondering how to phrase it. "Just you."

Alanna sighed. "It takes a bit more than a few letters and a stolen kiss to win me. Perhaps you want to try a different approach," she said, standing up.

"I'll have to burn The Wizard's Guide to Witches, then," he said in sarcastic amusement as she headed for the door.

Phoebe was on her heels the second she left the Three Broomsticks.

"Well? What did he say?"

"Absolutely nothing."