Avenging Fire

“You’ll be fine. We do this all the time.”

The two Order wizards that would be aparating with Helena looked like the wizarding version of plain clothed American Secret Service officers. Although she didn’t know it at the time, these particular Order wizards were used specifically for two kinds of duties, protection and reconnaissance. They were highly skilled and extraordinarily fast with a wand. Dumbledore explained that although the chances were unlikely, he wanted combat trained Order members to accompany Helena in case a Death Eater or two was squatting in her house waiting for her to return.


Asa Rood, the wizard who attempted to assuage Helena’s nervousness about being aparated, appeared to be in his mid to late 40’s, although with wizards it was sometimes difficult to tell, had handsome features and salt and pepper hair. His partner, who introduced himself only as ‘Subiri,’ was descended from the Maasai and was a tall, dark, slender man who seemed to be carved out of pure, lean muscle. He was the more quiet of the two, preferring to let the outgoing Rood interact with their charges.

Although she had grown up seeing witches and wizards aparating, Helena never had the spine to be aparated herself.

“Are you punching holes through space/time? What happens to your molecular cohesion? Is there any cellular damage? What happens if you miss and materialize inside a stone wall?!” she always asked.

“Jesus, you’re morbid.” Steffen would answer.

When he was alive, Steffen often teasingly offered to aparate her so she could experience it.

“Maybe I’ll just sneak up on you one day and do it.”

“Do it and you’re a dead man!”

He was joking of course. Aparating wasn’t anything to mess about with and aparating someone in an ambush could have disastrous results, like splinching.

The two Order wizards were dressed in ‘Muggle’ clothing so as to not attract attention. The plan was to aparate directly inside Helena’s house to lessen the chance of being spotted. They already knew where her house was because they had been in the group Dumbledore sent to ‘clean and contain’ on the night of Helena’s attack.

“Dr. Nyx, you stand here between us. Link your arms with ours and just relax. Try not to move very much. You’ll experience some disorientation and it may feel like you’re falling. You won’t be so don’t panic. When we reappear, you’ll probably feel a little sick. It’s normal since you’re already nervous. I nearly lost my lunch my first time. The second time won’t be as bad. Just don’t blast us with fire is all we ask.” Rood joked.



“Again, take as much time as you need and bring whatever you want.” Dumbledore reminded Helena as she moved into place between the two wizards. “I shall see you when you return.”

“Are you ready?”

Helena nodded and linked her arms with the two wizards and took a deep breath. She heard a loud crack like thunder and felt a lurch. It was like jerking awake after dreaming of falling. A second or two later, she found herself in her living room with her mind reeling and feeling like she was falling through the floor. The two wizards held her upright as she reflexively tried to regain balance by throwing her arms out and lunging backwards.

“Shit!”


When she had regained her balance, a wave of nausea washed over her as her body reacted to the aparation. She pushed away from the two wizards and hurried towards her bathroom.

“Sorry. I think I’m going to be sick.” she called out from her bathroom.

“Quite alright, Doctor. We’re going to search the house now.”

Helena knelt over her toilet and retched. She didn’t vomit but she remained hunched over until the nausea subsided. After a minute or two, she washed her hands and returned to the living room where the two Order wizards had recongregated after checking all the rooms.

“That was freaky.”

“Don’t feel awkward. Even some witches and wizards aren’t that fond of aparating.”

Helena was a little unnerved from being back inside her house. Especially with the smashed front of her curio cabinet and blood stains providing the evidence that she was very lucky to be alive. A few days of mail were piled on the floor in front of the door’s Post slot. Grabbing the wireless handset, she dialed her parents while she squatted down and gathered up her mail. A handwritten note was mixed in with the junk mail, bills, and professional journals.

Helena

We have your cat. He must have gotten outside that night.

Beulah and Harold Banks


“Hmm, there’s no answer. I wonder if my parents…”

Suddenly there was a loud and frantic pounding on the front door that Helena squatted in front of. Badly startled, she jumped backwards with a scream which brought the two Order wizards running with wands drawn.

“Helena! It’s us! Let us in!” called the voice of her mother, Kaye, from the other side of the door

“It’s alright! It’s just my folks.” she panted, trying to resettle her nerves. “My aunt was supposed to tell them to wait for my call but they must have gone ahead and drove on over.”

She had only managed to crack the door before Ian and Kaye Nyx pushed their way inside and gathered their daughter to them in fierce hug.

“Christ mum, you nearly gave me a coronary! Didn’t Cynthia call you? Why didn’t you just wait until I rang?”

“Six days, Helena! Six days with no word! All we knew was that you were at Hogwarts. You should have sent an owl!” Ian said, trying not to chastise his grown daughter.

Kaye grasped her daughter’s head and closely examined Helena’s nearly healed bruises.

“Oh Ian…look at her!” she choked.

“Mum, I’m fine. Stop.” Helena said, prying her head out of her mother’s hands.

A loud pop sounded from inside the garage and the two Order wizards ran through the house and into the garage before Helena could stop them. A female screech then a zap was heard followed by a thump.


“Oh my god!” Helena said as she rushed to the commotion.

Cynthia Morrow lay on the floor of the garage, unconscious.

“That’s my aunt!”

“Enervate! We apologize, Doctor. All we heard was the sound of an apparation. We didn’t know.”


“Sorry, I should have told you she was coming here. She always pops into the garage.”

When Cynthia came around, she was angrier than a wet hornet and leveled her wand at the two wizards.

“How dare you! Ruffians!”


Helena gently grasped Cynthia’s wand hand and forced it down.


“I’m sorry Cyn. My fault. I forgot to tell them you’d be apparating here. They’re here to guard me.”


“Humph!” Cynthia snorted as she pushed past the wizards and into the house.

After the initial excitement died down, Helena invited the Order wizards to make themselves comfortable while she set about the task of gathering her personal items. Rood and Subiri asked her if she minded if they watched her television.

“We frequently watch Muggle newscasts. Sometimes it provides us with valuable intelligence on Death Eater activity.” Rood explained.



As the sounds of the late morning news wafted out of the living room, Helena motioned for her family to follow her into her bedroom, confident that the two wizards were occupied enough so that they could have a family conference in private.

“Right, spill it young lady! Why leave us hanging?!” Cynthia demanded once they were ensconced in her bedroom.

“I’m sorry! How many times do I have to say it?! The two wizards who attacked me led me to believe the twins were dead so I went to Hogwarts to check on them. Then, come to find out, I’m a Paranormal. I manifested, that’s what it’s called incidentally, right there in the Headmasters office!”


“Dumbledore? He’s a good man.” Ian commented.

Helena cast a solemn look towards her father.

“Don’t be so sure about that, dad. There’s this list, you see. A Death Eater ‘hit list.’ The twins and I are on it! And he knew about it, has known about it, and never said one single word! The twins and I have been sitting ducks all this time! I think it has something to do with Steffen and Mary’s murder. I don’t know though because he’s ridiculously tight lipped and I can’t get a thing out of him!”


“Why didn’t you contact one of us? Dumbledore contacted us initially but we’ve been waiting for days to hear from you! Do you know what that’s done to us?!” Helena’s mother accused.


“I was unconscious for two days, mum! Apparently when we, Paranormals that is, manifest for the first time, it damn near kills us! I was beaten, almost raped, scared to death over the twins, ripped apart and set on fire by my first manifestation, put through the paces by another Paranormal to train me up, SO I’M SORRY THAT I DIDN’T THINK TO SEND A BLOODY SODDING OWL!” Helena shouted in frustration.


As her family watched, Helena picked up a framed photograph off her dresser and hurled it against the wall then squatted down on the floor, covering her face with her hands. For the first time since the attack, she let loose of the emotions she had kept bottled up and began to sob. The action was sufficient to silence her family’s onslaught of guilt questioning.


“Did either of you know that you carried paranormal…genes..I guess?”

“No. We just know that magic tends to run in both sides of our family.”

“Well could you dig around in our genealogy a bit for me dad, because apparently paranormal abilities are related to magical ability. And before I forget, try to find the book ‘Paranormals’ by Gavin Smythe. That’s who’s working with me. I’m going to need a little help sorting this out so read it and give me your take on it.”


“So, what now?” Ian asked softly.


“Dumbledore won’t let me come home. He says the Death Eaters will be looking for me since one of them was killed that night.” she answered, drying her eyes with a tissue.


“You killed a Death Eater?” Cynthia breathed, going very pale.


“No! One accidently killed the other. At any rate, he’s not going to allow me to leave because of that and how I might ‘kill someone with a manifestation.’ He even said he’d force me to stay if I refused. He can’t do that! What about my practice?! It’ll be ruined right along with my professional reputation!”



“You have to be safe though. If the Death Eaters are out to get you, you’re as good as dead if you stay here.” Cynthia said.



“What if I don’t stay here but somewhere else?”


“Such as?”



“I could stay with you, couldn’t I, Cyn?”



“Nigel and I’s door is always open to you, you know that. But think about this, Helena. If Steffen, who was a Spells Master wasn’t able to defend himself and Mary against the Death Eaters, what chance do you think I have?”


“The twins will be safe at Hogwarts until the school term is over. In the meantime, I’ll stay in hotels. I’ll keep moving around. I’ll…”


“Helena, I’ve already lost one of my children and that’s one child too many. I’m only going to say this once, do as the man asks!”



With that, all discussion abruptly ended. There was no arguing the point once Ian spoke, especially when he raised his voice as he had done, so Helena stormed out of her bedroom, defeated and frustrated.

As Ian set about preparing Helena’s house for a lengthy hibernation, the three women gathered Helena’s belongings. It seemed as though she was packing up her entire house but she didn’t care. She even packed up nearly her entire library of professional books and journals.


“Muggle technology doesn’t work in our world, Doctor.” Rood said when he saw Helena collect her laptop computer.

“I know but this has my financial information in it and some confidential notes on my patients at the clinic. Legally I have to keep it with me.”

“Best let me owl that to you as it is. We don’t know what effect reducing it or apparating with it will have on it. I’ll do it as soon as I crack out to home. Kaye, I’ll come by with an owl first thing after. It’ll get to Hogwarts by this evening.” Cynthia said.

Kaye and Cynthia moved on to the kitchen and cleaned out the refrigerator and pantry. Helena was already beginning to feel that her house, the one she had worked so hard into making a comfortable, safe, and happy environment, was all too rapidly slipping through her fingers.

“What’s in there?” she asked her aunt, who was carrying a clinking box.

“I was just going to take this home with me. No use in letting it go to waste.”

She peered in and saw bottles of liquor, wine, and spirits. Helena wasn’t a heavy drinker by any means but her house often became the gathering spot for friends and family so she kept a decent supply of libations on hand. With bad temper, she took the box out of her aunt’s hands and added it to the pile of things she was taking to Hogwarts.

Cynthia raised her eyebrows but declined to comment.

At some point, Ian had slipped out and walked over to the Banks’, Helena’s neighbors, to retrieve Braxley and to make arrangements for he or Helena’s mother to collect Helena’s mail from them once a week.


“Tell the twins their cat is safe and with Granddad and Grandmum.”


“I think that about does it.” Kaye said, looking at the expansive pile of Helena’s belongings.

Dumbledore and told her to bring whatever she wanted, and if she was being forced to stay at Hogwarts, she intended to bring as much as she could to make her quarters comfortable and familiar.

“I’ll do it.” Cynthia snipped when the two Order wizards brought out their wands to reduce Helena’s belongings. She was still miffed over being stunned earlier.

Everything ended up fitting inside a moderate sized box.

“Wait. One more thing.” Helena said as she walked back to her bedroom.

“What are you bringing those for?” Kaye asked when she returned with a case that held two fencing sabres.


“Since I’m going to be trapped, I may as well keep my skill up, even if I have to duel my own shadow.”

Steffen and Helena’s maternal grandfather had been a swordsman and insisted that she and her brother learn the sport. Of course, once Steffen picked up his wand, it was next to impossible to get him to return to the steel. Helena however enjoyed it, both for the challenge as well as the exercise, and had been in fencing clubs all through secondary school and University.


A resigned silence fell across Helena’s family as now everything had been gathered and prepared for apparation.

“We’ll owl your leave of absence paperwork for the clinic.” Ian said softly.

“Fine.” Helena replied with a fair amount of bitterness.

“We’ll close up the rest of the way here.”

“Fine.”

“Don’t you worry. We’re not abandoning you to Hogwarts. I’ll keep all of us in frequent contact.” Cynthia added.

“Fine.”

“Right then. Doctor, are you ready?” Rood asked, picking up the box of her reduced items.

Helena stiffly hugged her family and positioned herself in between the two wizards.

With a crack of sound, they were gone.




True to their word, Helena did not experience the same level of shock during their second apparition back to Hogwarts. Upon arriving, she and the two wizards reported back to Dumbledore with the happy news that all had gone smoothly. Dumbledore summoned a house elf to take Helena’s reduced items to the sub-dungeons and return them to normal size. Helena then thanked the two Order wizards and Dumbledore dismissed them.

“Again I want to apologize for the inconvenience of this all, Dr. Nyx. Truly. I know this all must seem overwhelming.”


Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts, was not exactly Helena Nyx’s favorite person at the moment. To her, he was rather duplicitous and was causing havoc in her life. But, at her father’s request, she was going to have to suck it up and deal with it while she quietly worked out how to regain control of her life.


“Thank you, Headmaster. I’ll cope.”


“Now, if you permit me, I’ll accompany you to your quarters in our sub-dungeons. I assure you that despite the forbidding name, you’ll find your new accommodations very comfortable.”

Dumbledore and Helena made their way from his office, through the corridors, past the dungeons proper, and down the long, twisting spiral stone stairwell leading to the sub-dungeons. When they had passed the Potions classroom, Helena heard Snape’s voice through the closed door. He sounded like he was chastising the class about something.

“Once again, I find myself with a group of students who appear incapable of grasping even the most rudimentary foundations of potion brewing. Pour out these miserable examples and start again!”

Dumbledore chuckled.

“Ah Severus. His patience is not known to be long suffering. Still, he is a highly accomplished and competent Potions Master. We are lucky to have him.”

Helena thought he needed a tranquilizer.

They arrived at a heavy wooden door in a dank and dripping corridor. A perfect location for a proper ghoul, Helena thought ruefully. She knew a lot of the faculty was apprehensive having a pyrokinetic in the castle, so sticking her down in the sub-dungeons was probably a welcome decision as far as they were concerned.


Dumbledore pushed open the door and motioned for Helena to enter. Surprisingly, a nice warm room greeted her. It had a comfortable queen sized bed, desk and chair, full length mirror, mantled fireplace, in front of which were two padded arm chairs and ottomans, occasional table in between, and earth toned area rugs in front of the fireplace, and under the desk.. The bed had been made up with bed sheets, blankets, and a bedspread in neutral colors. An iron and flame chandelier hung from the ceiling and wall torches blazed.


A door off to the side opened onto a spacious bathroom. In a corner was a white marble shower stall with a glass enclosure and in the middle of the bathroom was a large claw footed bathtub. On one side of the room was a white marble vanity and sink with a mirror above and toilet beside it.

One of the first orders of business was to have a soak in that tub.

“I had the elves alter the lighting so that you can control it without magic.” Dumbledore said, pointing to a lever on the wall.

“This place is nicer than my home. Thank you.”

“I’m pleased to hear that. Your comfort here is tantamount considering the unfortunate circumstances. Now, if you’ll excuse me, duty calls.”

After the Headmaster excused himself, Helena set about moving in. She worked through to evening and had nearly had everything put away when a knock sounded at her door. Opening it, she saw a smiling Dumbledore holding a wrapped package.

“This just arrived for you, Doctor, from a rather fatigued owl. It looks to be from your aunt.”

“Oh yes. My laptop. I know it won’t work here, but it has confidential information on my patients at the clinic. I have to keep it in my possession. And Cynthia’s owl is very histrionic. He doesn’t like carrying anything much heavier than a letter. Let me guess, he ‘collapsed’ and rolled over on his back with his legs in the air.”


“As a matter of fact, he did.” Dumbledore chuckled. “I do so enjoy Muggle technology. So ingenious.”

Dumbledore was peering around the room, poorly disguising his curiosity. For his benefit, Helena unwrapped the laptop and opened it so that he could look at it. Adjusting his glasses, Dumbledore turned it over in his hands, peering at the USB ports, keyboard, and inert screen.

“On a few of my trips into the Muggle world, I had an opportunity to fiddle about with one of these. I’m not making any promises, but perhaps Professor Flitwick could spell this so that it might work. Considering that you’re down in the sub-dungeons and as far away from residual magic in the air as is possible, it may be able to function with an enchantment.”

“If that can be done, I would greatly appreciate it, Headmaster. I never realized how much of my life is in this thing until I’m unable to use it.”

“Please Helena, call me Albus.”

“Of course. Albus.”

With his ever present beaming smile, Dumbledore excused himself again to let Helena finish putting her things away.

It was now evening and almost time for dinner in the Great Hall. Helena considered skipping it but decided against it, knowing that Smythe would be back in the morning to resume her training. She washed her hands in her bathroom, looking longingly at the tub and promising herself that tonight after dinner, she’d have a nice long soak with a glass of wine.


As she exited the bathroom, she gave a little start at seeing Severus Snape standing just outside of her doorway with a very determined look on his face. Helena turned back around and silently sighed with a hint of a smirk. She had been expecting this and sure enough, here he was to remind her that she was encroaching on his territory. She prepared herself to, as the twins put it, ‘get Snaped.’


“Professor Snape! How thoughtful of you to look in on me. Won’t you come in?”

Snape stepped in and eyed the inside of the room with annoyance. Bloody hell, was she moving in permanently?! Dumbledore had said habitable, not comfortable. He looked at Helena with displeasure. Crossing his arms and pausing a moment for effect, Snape spoke.

“Dr. Nyx, I would like to remind you of your close proximity to the Potions classroom. I would ask you to be mindful to not disturb my classes. It is difficult enough teaching these students anything without you running about and distracting them. Further, many ingredients in my stores are highly volatile and would cause extensive damage to the dungeons if they ignited therefore you will please refrain from manifesting any fire within 20 feet of the Potions classroom. I trust you can comply with these requests?”

Helena’s sometimes ornery nature tempted her to pointedly ask Snape how the students managed to brew without fire, and wasn’t the classroom even closer to his stores than she? She decided however that this was not the time to poke him with a stick. He was here to put his bluff in.

“Yes, of course, Professor. You’re absolutely right. Thank you for taking the time to remind me. I’ll make myself as scarce as possible.” she said in her best ‘shrink voice.’



Helena suppressed a wry smile. This must be absolute torture for him, she thought. She could tell Snape was very territorial and liked things his way and now here she was, camping out in his space. Helena dealt with people like him frequently. Once they establish their dominance and define their territory, they settle down and are fine unless challenged. Further, you can subtly disarm them by taking the wind out of their sails before they manage to work themselves up into a froth.

Taking one more irritated look around the room and another slightly disapproving look at Helena, Snape inclined his head, and billowed away.


“Well, I’ve now been officially ‘Snaped.’”

-----------------------------------


A/N: Well, now that Helena has moved in and is Severus' neighbor (more or less), things will pick up and get...interesting.