S & L

As they reach the main level of the house, the birds are discovering that they have a new place to explore, and nearly fly right into the two wizards. "We may have to make a play room for them," Malfoy says as he slides their bedroom door closed. Once alone together they are silent, and the silence is surprisingly awkward. "I felt you pass through the barrier when you returned..." Malfoy says softly after several minutes pass, and a smile plays across Snape's lips. "You're getting stronger, your senses are expanding. That is very good." Malfoy nods as if he knows Snape is not telling him something....

Snape finds part of his family in the kitchen prepairing supper, and the other part sitting in the dining room waiting for him. He is warmly greeted, with kisses and pats on the back, and his appetite is stirred by the aroma of the cooking food. He wasn't hungry when he arrived, but now, he is ravenous. "What is that?" he asks Therion, who is crushing chilies, and the wizard flashes a wicked grin. "I hope you like it hot, Severus. It's Szechuan chicken, Master Han gave Remus the recipe this afternoon." He watches Therion, Malfoy and Layne deftly and gracefully working together, Malfoy cutting...

Snape walks the halls of the school in the early morning hours, his mind full of racing thoughts, most of which are difficult to pin down. He knows where most of his allies are; Ginny, Luna, Neville, and Draco are in their safe place. Ginny, Luna and Neville will be waking soon to start their classes. Peeves is patrolling high above the Death Eaters, watching their every move. Minerva is preparing for her first class of the morning. Only Dobby's location is unknown; he has yet to return from his mission.

This concerns Snape greatly, but not quite enough for him to risk asking Kreacher where...

Elsbet takes her wand out of her pocket and slips it behind her ear, lets the robe slip from her shoulders and drapes it over a stone bench nearby, then ties back her hair. No one here will be shocked or surprised to see her as she truly is. She is sure now that the Silhouettes have always known that she is Quendi, they must have always known about her aunt's charm and enchantment, and she realizes now that must have been the reason they took her in the way they did, without her having to go through the Ordeal. They knew. Padfoot...Sirius...must have as well, somehow. All these people who love...

As Elsbet lay sleeping soundly at last, Snape slips quietly out of her bedroom, through the dining room and into the living room. Everyone is asleep. Everyone but Loki and Cambion...He gives them little scratches on their heads and asks them when Andromeda and Ted arrived. Hour'go, Cambion tells him, then Snape looks at the timepiece on the wall. It's later than he though; Dro and Ted must have been awoken by the commotion in the park. On the loveseat to his right are Therion and Malfoy, sound asleep, Malfoy's frosty-maned head on Therion's shoulder; on the couch (far end), are Dro and Ted,...

Once in, he encounters only blackness.

To say that this disturbes him would be an understatement.

All of their hard work...all of the information she risked herself to bring him...the very stability of her mind...he is afraid, for her, for himself, and for all that might have been.

But then, something in the blackness stirs. He sees movement in the apparent distance, and as it approaches, he tries to ready himself for the worst. It's a figure with a human shape, draped in a thin, wispy darkness different from the blackness that surrounds them. And then, when the figure stops before him, it waves...

The cool breeze feels so good on Elsbet's face that she thinks it would feel good all over. So as she runs she strips off the first layer of clothing leaving it where it falls. She doesn't know where she is, but she knows somehow that she is safe. She laughs because she feels good, she feels free, she feels like...like...like she needs to find something. But what? What could she need to find? She doesn't know, and at the moment she doesn't care...she hears someone calling her name, but she doesn't answer. Instead, she hides, covering her mouth so she doesn't giggle as they run passed her hiding...

After the lovely lunch, all the chatting and a little crying, they finally get to the reason Elsbet had wanted to see Remus.

"Ellie," he says in a fatherly tone as everyone settles into the living room, "I don't think that's such a good idea. Severus worked very hard to protect your mind against assault and invasion, I don't think we will be able to get very far." He reaches forward and touches her hand gently. "Besides, Ellie, we don't know what kind of damage we could do." She nods, sits quietly for a moment, then looks up at him. "But what if something has changed? What if there's something...

Dawn.

Dressed and ready, Elsbet kisses Malfoy awake, then gently caresses Therion, smiling as he wakes and realizes he's holding Malfoy's hand. She steps away from the couch as they rise, and walks into the dining room with them. There's a lite breakfast waiting for them; she tells them she thinks it would be nice if they could have brunch with Remus and Tonks today, and they agree, and settle down to eat after they get appropriately dressed.

"You know," Malfoy says, "I would really like to take a walk today, later, after...after we talk to Remus. I'd like to do something about this," he says,...

Snape lays in his bed, alone, urging himself to go back to sleep. He wants to find his feathered friend again, he wants to dream of his Sanctuary and of his Oddbit, and the other extraordinary people he has in his life. The White City is the abode of Life, but his loved ones are truly his Sanctuary. As he relaxes, he slips into the arms of sleep once more and begins to dream, though the dream is more memory than anything else.

He remembers the very first time he held Elsbet in his arms. She was frightened and injured, and when he put his arms around her to comfort her, she seemed to melt against...

She doesn't know what to say, really. She thinks back over the dinners, the holidays, the couple of times she got to visit Fred and George at their shop, and never once had she been asked, "so what's it like being a 'special' Muggle in the Magical world?" or anything of the sort.

Therion dresses, then kneels down beside Malfoy. Are you alright? he asks him, and the fair wizard replies, ask me later, please... then touches Elsbet's face again. "You're afraid of remembering something painful, and we've told you that we will help you work through that when it happens." She nods, but doesn't meet...

Remus fumbles with the hem of the blanket he's wrapped in, and twirls a bit of fringe between his thumb and forefinger. He draws in a deep breath and lets it out slowly. "There's quite a lot you've missed, Layne, and I don't know that I can sit here and tell you everything. I think we should...get dressed and go to my house. You can meet my wife, and we can talk." Layne stares at a small patch of dry grass beside Remus. "He's dead, isn't he, Sirius?" Remus sighs softly. "Let's go to my house and you can have a warm place to sleep, and a decent meal in the morning." Layne does not reply, but...

He heads directly to the house that Therion had secured for Sirius.

The single white lily he placed before the door is still there, but beside it is another flower, a chrysanthemum as white as the lily, and his heart tells him Andromeda has been here. He wonders briefly what will become of this house; if left like this, under its own sorrow, it would continue to break down over time, and 'die'. The plot would be unusable, and the sorrow would spread. But under the sorrow of others' as well? Its degradation will accelerate, unless something is done to stop it. What would stop...or better yet,...

...far better than what Snape will be returning to shortly. Why does he have to go? Ah, but he knows why...he just wishes there was some way to keep Snape here, keep them together.

His thoughts are commanded once again by the beauty astride him. He can't believe his extraordinary fortune; he lost the one he thought was his only true love, and then when he dared let love back in, he lost that one as well. He was afraid to let it blossom once more, but he couldn't help it. Elsbet, Snape, Malfoy, Remus...he has more love now than he could ever have hoped for or dreamed, more than he ever thought...

Beside Snape, Malfoy too falls deeply into the arms of sleep, and together, their minds drift in search of the others they love. They perceive them in the other room, they see Therion's body wrapped protectively around Elsbet's, both also in a sound sleep. Dreaming, perhaps, or...something darker? Darker, Snape senses, and is distressed. A nightmare threatens his lady's sleep, and Therion's bright thoughts of loyal horses and ravens, brave wolves and clever cats keeps that nightmare at bay. Snape and Malfoy embrace these two mentally, and Snape's mere presence banishes the nightmare almost...

As the door slides closed, Malfoy eases Snape back against the wall, kissing him hungrily as he fights with the buttons on his tunic. Snape attempts to help him but Malfoy gently pushes his hands away. "Unless you're going to put those hands on me, Severus, keep them down." Snape says nothing for a moment, but as Malfoy gets him undone nearly down to his trousers, he has to speak. "Not...here....bed, please," Malfoy kisses him again, and as they move over to the bed Snape fumbles with Malfoy's robes. Malfoy gently pushes Snape down onto the bed and wastes no time; his mouth caresses Snape's...

When Snape catches up with his loved ones, he spies a very happy sight: Ted Tonks, seated beside his wife, at the table with them, safe and sound.

He's glad for that.

Several tables away from them are Blood and Sand, a male and female mated pair of Silhouettes who form a Union with Grifter, another of Snape's favorite people. They helped bring Andromeda to safety, so it makes sense that they would have been searching for Ted. But there's no sign of Grifter, and Malfoy is clearly disturbed. Blood and Sand are as well, and after conveying his relief to Ted and the others, he goes immediately to...

Snape pulls himself together and his face takes on that cold, emotionless mask he wears so rarely here; that mask is for the Outside world, not here, where he can show his heart, but he's stinging from the confessions he's given the Old Man. He's never told anyone what he's told Perdurabo, he's barely acknowledged them to himself, and he could have gone the rest of his life having never spoken them. But Remus was right, of course...keeping it all bottled up inside was only doing him harm, and it would have eventually affected the relationships most important to him. He's not about to lose them....