Two Old Friends

Chapter 18

"Despite the hypothetical love story we just came up with ourselves, there," I start, "would you be ready to accept that Rosalyn wouldn't be in your life." Adriana stares at me in shock.

She flutters her eyelids and seems to try and think it out. She closes her mouth, purses her lips, and looks down at the table in thought. She brings her head up to look at me, her eyes still closed, and then opens her mouth and hesitantly looks at the sky before closing her mouth and looking back down. It seems to me that I have her stumped.

"I'm not accusing you of not loving your daughter, I'm simply saying that a part of Rosalyn being who she is is the fact that you and I have had our problems and that you have had a rocky past. There is no problem with fantasizing about a fake world, but as far as I can tell... Rosalyn is your vice. You put everything you could into that girl and I think she is what kept you going even when we had problems. If it weren't for your want to keep her comfortable, then I think you would have left a very long time ago."

"I do love Rosa. But I am also incredibly jealous of her."

"What is there to be jealous of? She's happy and enjoying her life and made a good name for herself. But that's not you, Adri."

"I know that's not me. But that could have been me."

"No, I don't think so. Rosalyn was the illegitimate child of two lustful people who had completely different view points. Her mother was the mother of two at age twenty-one and prone to emotional instability. The man who her mother lived with refused all responsibility when it came to anyone under the age of eighteen in his home. Her motherly figure for her first few years was a house-elf called Birdie. She had that to deal with, that isn't the picture perfect world. But she abandoned it and moved on. She dealt with it in a different way than you did, that's all."

"I just wish I was as smart as she was."

"You're a genius, Adriana." Adriana sneers at me. "You're just a different kind of genius."

~*~

A few weeks had gone by and Adriana and I said nothing to each other. But we got a note from St. Mungo's telling us that Joshua was ready to be brought home. Adriana left without telling me the news and learned what to do for him and everything that I would be able to say here if I knew the full story now. She just came home a few hours later, holding a blue fuzzy blanket bundled with a small child that was fast asleep. All of the awkwardness we felt with one another had gone away when she looked up at me, beaming, and showed me the child.

"Say hello to your son," she ordered with a smile. I looked in the bundle of blanket at a complete loss of what to do. So I said,

"Hello." She laughed. Joshua had started to stir and woke up with a great yawn. He looked up at us and started to laugh. His abnormally large curly black head had veins popping out and his scalp was a blue colour. He was incredibly pale and slightly transparent, but he laughed. In fact, laughing was one of the few things he was good at doing. He wouldn't be able to learn things as quick as other children and he definitely wouldn't be able to communicate as other children. He was severely mentally retarded and there was nothing we could do about it. But just the fact that he could laugh made everything seem alright. Adriana spoke again and I had lost my fear of Adriana leaving.

Adriana took care of Joshua for the most part. She either didn't trust me with him or sensed my lack of will to participate with him. Rosalyn was absolutely ecstatic about having another child in the house. She laughed a lot with him and would hit him around a lot, which would make her laugh, and then just because she was laughing Joshua would start laughing, too. Occasionally, Joshua felt the pain before the humour and would cry and then Rosalyn would start crying too and hug and kiss him. I often watched this exchange while I was around. I rarely did anything about the abuse, though. Adriana often rushed to the room when she heard crying and realized what Rosalyn did and would punish her severely and then round on me for not doing anything.

"Why didn't you do anything?" she demanded when Joshua had a great rug burn on his face. "You're just there watching Rosa do this and won't do anything? Joshua's your son too!"

"I'm not Rosalyn's father, though! I don't have any control over her!" I'd counter. She'd huff and puff and take Joshua away and try to study and soothe him at the same time.

Adriana's study was soon coming to a close, though. June had rolled around and Adriana was in a constant stress because her end of term exam was coming up and she would soon graduate. She'd often stay awake late at night, yakking away about all the money she'd make in the future and be able to put Rosalyn through college and get Joshua extra classes so he'd make a good life for himself. Other nights she'd be up and biting her nails and ramble on about how she might never succeed in any of her attempts to get her own practice going and how she'd be in debt for the rest of her life. I often tried to go to bed before she so I wouldn't have to listen.

Her worries didn't keep her from graduating and her graduating ceremony didn't keep her from dragging me and the children along. Lucius had contacted me a while before this and told me the date of the wedding, which coincidentally, was the date of Adriana's graduation. I told him my priorities with an apology and never spoke to Adriana about Lucius's marriage after that. She must have found the letter because she never asked me but she seemed to have known, also.

So, I was sitting in the auditorium and watched the students wander by. Rosalyn had a grand time clapping and Joshua clapped with her, though it seemed to be a much more complicated action for him. He had to watch her many times before getting the hang of it for himself. He'd look at her and then look at his own hands, as though how to make his work. Now I think back on it, I don't think that Joshua's mind was retarded or his spirit, just his functions. I could tell now that I recollect that he wanted to do what others were doing, he just couldn't get his body to work with his mind. It's rather heart tearing, now I think about it, but I was a selfish prick at the time and the ripe age of twenty and all I wanted to do was figure out what I was to do with my life.

This is also the June I had started to seriously think about leaving the Dark Lord. My actions for him were exhausting on top of Adriana's dramas, the children, and my two jobs. I was lucky to get sleep. On more than one occasion, I mislabelled the vials and would get my potions for Mr. Gergo and the Dark Lord mixed up. These mistakes often made me creep home in awful agony. Adriana pretended to be asleep but I knew that she was awake in my bed waiting for me to come home. I knew this because on those occasions, she'd roll over on her side and rest her chin against the back of my shoulder and her scent would often make me sleep easier. Or perhaps it was the mind numbing after-effects of my punishments. I think the former is more romantic, though.

Anyhow, in the auditorium of Adriana's school, I sat in a chair with Rosalyn on my right and Joshua sitting in a support carrier next to me. Although I tried to keep Rosalyn sitting on the other side of me, she often clambered over my lap, sometimes damaging some very important parts of my body, and would harass Joshua. The pressure of her two year old body would persuade me to move her and to force her to leave the boy alone, not any sense of responsibility, believe you me.

"MAMI!!" Rosalyn screeched when the ceremony had finally started. Adriana beamed over and gave a little wave as I grabbed Rosalyn's coveralls to keep her from flying to Adriana. Rosalyn clapped obnoxiously while Joshua screamed with laughter while the crowd in clapped, and Rosalyn clapped and screamed all through Adriana's name calling and handshaking without a break. Finally, with the last name being some oddball Z-name, the ceremony was over. I grabbed Joshua's carrier and Rosalyn around the waist and under my arm to keep her from getting lost and waited for the crowd to thin before I went to meet Adriana.

I found her standing by a wall, wringing her hands anxiously, and then she gave out a great laugh when she saw the three of us. She practically ran up to me and gave me a great embrace and then wrenched Rosalyn from my arms and kissed her on the cheek. She put her down and took Joshua out of his carrier and held on to him for dear life. The children laughed hysterically and even I had difficulty keeping a straight face.

"I'm an official Defender!" she screamed into my ear while she jumped up and down and hanging around my neck.

"Yes, you are. So let's go so you can be an employed official Defender," I replied. She squealed with glee and kissed her scroll before putting it in her purse that she made me hold onto.

That night, Adriana and I enjoyed some very, very, very wonderful sex. I just figured it ought to be mentioned.

The morning after, on the other hand, was less wonderful. The Dark Mark burned and I was forced to Disapparate from Adriana's naked figure in my bed. I was the only one summoned, which would explain Adriana not waking up.

"Yes, My Lord," I addressed, bowing when I saw him.

"I have a mission for you, it involves Dumbledore's school," he told me. I slowly raised up before meeting his stare.

"Yes?"

"Yes. You are one of my more intellectual followers and you do not have a trace of a record with the Ministry of Magic, do you not?"

"No, My Lord, I do not. Not a mentioning of any misdemeanour at all."

"Very good. That Muggle-Loving fool will know this, then. I need you to fulfil a teaching role and you will tell me the on goings of that school. Preferably, I want you to have an influence over the Defence Against the Dark Arts position and criteria to be taught. You will communicate with Lucius Malfoy who was just given the position, with the help of his family name and money, as Governor of Hogwarts. You will apply, first, and then I will give you further instructions, do you understand?" I nodded.

"Yes, My Lord."

And so I did as he asked and I had a meeting with Albus Dumbledore a week later. I only hoped that my Occlumency would come in helpful.