CH 209
Alex wasn't in a particularly good mood after the inferius tree failure. She grumbled her way through the festival avoiding every cheerful face and laughing family. The stall keepers were the worst though, always calling out to her in some misplaced attempt to cheer her up from whatever trivial concerns obviously befell ten year old witches, which, even if she wasn't doing certainly illegal Necromancy experiments, was a stupid assumption to make. Obviously, none of the middle aged wizards calling out to her had ever been a ten year old witch in Magical Britain. She dodged past one particularly insistent stall keeper who wanted her to, "turn her frown upside-down," while pointing to a sign that read, 'THE WINTER FESTIVAL MIRROR OF ERISED — [NOT THE REAL ONE] FOUR KNUTS!' (£0.36). So focused was she in getting away from the man that she wasn't paying attention to where she was going.
She ducked around a corner and, suddenly, there he was.
Her eyes widened.
Tall and dignified, all long black and silver robes, emerald green mask, and…
…And coiled fluffy snake.
"Ah. Good afternoon, Heiress Black," Lord Slytherin said, giving her a respectful nod. "L-Lord Slytherin." She dipped into a hasty curtsey, but she also just couldn't tear her eyes away from the fluffy snake which was still coiling around Slytherin's chest and hissing.
"Mmm?" He seemed to realise what had her attention. "Oh, take no notice of her. A gift for Daphne. You're going to protect her from all the nasty things that dare try and hurt her, aren't you?" He sounded highly amused and she realised he was talking to the toy snake. He then hissed something and the snake let out what Alex could only think of a kind of snaky, hissing, laugh.
Alex shivered. Parseltongue. he was Lord Slytherin after all.
Of
course,
Lord Slytherin turned back to her. "Behind the stables in five minutes you will find a trunk. Knock seven times." He then vanished. Not apparating—there was no crack sound—just becoming a shimmer in the air, which then almost instantly become nothing.
Alex blinked.
Five minutes later, she found herself behind the stables and there was indeed a trunk. She knocked seven times, the trunk lid opened, and she climbed inside what seemed to be a well appointed, if rather small, sitting room. Lord Slytherin sat in the far most high back chair, still wrapped in the fluffy snake.
The lid closed behind her.
"What if someone finds the trunk?" she asked.
"They would have to subdue our mule first and then riffle through her pockets." Alex sat down in the chair opposite Lord Slytherin. "Mule?"
Slytherin reached behind him and extracted one can of orange juice and one can of something she'd never seen before. "Luna, in this case." He tossed her the unidentified can. "I believe she wanted to, 'win all the chocolate frog racing races', because 'they all deserve to win.' It's a blessing none of the stands offers pudding as a prize or we'd never get her away from it."
Alex snorted despite herself and inspected the can. "Bubbled water?"
"I thought you might appreciate it."
Alex carefully popped the can and took an experimental sip. "Not bad." "Personally, I can't stand it, but then, I still have my sweet tooth."
Alex felt a pang of loss, but quickly squished it.
Slytherin took a sip of his own and the mask moulded itself around the can in a way that Alex found strangely creepy and awesome at the same time. "So," he began, "I've been hearing snatches of what you've been up to from both yourself and Luna. But Luna also thinks you should be the one to give me the full details because, 'She'll want to tell you in person.'"
Alex hesitated. Then Luna's words from before came back to her and she began to tell Slytherin everything. From the doxies, to their ageing potion adventures, the dementor bone, the successful inferi raising, and the failed quintaped expedition. "Did you consider tying it up first?"
Alex gaped. She then blushed harder than she'd ever blushed before. That would completely solve her training problem.
"In case you can't tell, I'm smiling right now," Slytherin said, and Alex could hear the smile in his voice.
"Anyway," she mumbled, not meeting his maskly gaze, "We then kidnapped that horrible ghost from before and tried out all the ghost rituals in the book I have on him."
"And they worked?"
Alex straightened a bit. "The one's you need work."
"Excellent. Can you slip out of Grimmauld Place three nights from tonight?"
Alex nodded.
"Great. Harry and Daphne will meet you at the local park and escort you to the graveyard where Angelystor resides."
Alex nodded again. She'd be ready. She hesitated. "Ah, Lord Slytherin?"
"Yes?"
"I… that is, my Grandfather, that is, the House of Black…although also me…" Merlin how could giving someone something be this embarrassing? "We wanted to thank you for your offer to help with protecting the Black Library and give you this." She reached into her bag, took out one of the communication mirrors, and handed it to Slytherin. "What is it?" Slytherin asked, sounding curious. He turned it over in his hands.
"It's a communication mirror. I have the other one."
Slytherin whistled. "Wow. You know, the last union of family magic that could make these was hundreds of years ago."
She hadn't known that. "I thought you could use it. You know, if you needed it.
Slytherin placed in on the table in between them. "Thank you, Alexandra. If I have need of it, I will certainly make use of it. Would you mind if I asked a few friends of mine to take a look at it, too? There may well be interesting things to learn from it."
"I guess not." "Right. Then, shall we move on to our main point of business?"
Alex's eyes hardened. "The Black Library."
Slytherin nodded. "Do you know what the fidelius charm is?"
She nodded back. "Luna told me."
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