E Pluribus Unum

A/N - Hope everyone is having a good new year. Thanks as always to Kate who also did all the corrections to Snark Summer for me \'cause I can\'t rememeber what wood I used in the furniture - doh!

deblovesdragon - Mwa ha ha ha ha ha Um, sorry gotta do something about that, my evil laugh just doesn\'t have the mileage it used to. :)

Ghaeth - Thank you, I do try not to stray to close to Purple. LOL

Droxy - India? E-mail me if you can\'t access the server and I will send you the chapters every morning.

JC - What do you think?


Chapter 25 – Dragon Rising

Minuet hated Arithmancy these days. Since Madam Pince’s death, Professor Vector had become taciturn, angry and sharp. The classes were easy for Min, her quick mind made light work of the heavy equations. However, her teacher’s hostility made what was usually fun for her a terrible burden.

“Turn to page 135 of your textbook please.” Professor Vector rasped out and they all complied. The section was on the Riotous Theory of Conglomerated Nuances and Minuet smiled as she saw it; Professor Leblanc’s explanation of it always made her think of Harry. “What is that smirk, Miss Ravagienne?” The sharp voice jerked her back from her moment’s reverie and she looked up in startlement.

“I was just reading the text, Professor.” She got it calmcalmly enough but didn’t understand the frown on her teacher’s face.

“And what was so funny about it?”

“I was just remembering Professor Leblanc’s explanation of the theorem, Professor.” For some reason, Vector’s face darkened at the other teacher’s name.

“What did she have to say about it that made you laugh?” The voice was low and dangerous and Minuet didn’t understand how she had trod into dangerous territory with so innocuous a comment.

“Well, she invented the theorem while she was trying to figure out dating practices among her fellow students and she said that the theorem described subtleties and nuances because that was what was important between people - the little things.” The look of fury that overtook Vector’s face as she spoke was followed by a look of pain so intense that Minuet gasped in sympathy.

“Get out! All of you! Class dismissed!” Vector screamed at them and they ran from the Arithmancy teacher in a panic, desperate to escape. At the door, Minuet turned to look back and saw a sight that burned itself into her mind. Professor Vector collapsed in a pool of black robes, sobbing desperately.


Minuet marched herself down to the dungeons to check on Draco. She was worried for him as much as she was for Fauna. Fauna was a hollow-eyed shell of her former sweet self, as though the animating force that had driven her had been sucked away. Draco, though, he burned with a fierce guilt and self-hatred that terrified her. She woke every morning expecting that he had slashed his wrists in the night.

She watched him with eagle-eyed sharpness and she had set the Gryffindors on him as well. Harry had explicit orders to guard and watch him and he was taking the task very seriously. Minuet had even gone as far as writing to Lillith to tell her of her concerns. The return letter had been as sensible and affectionate as Minuet had expected of the older girl and a letter for Draco had quickly followed. He had perked up at little since then and Lillith’s letters had come more frequently.

He was sitting in front of the Common Room fireplace when she entered and she watched him for a moment before she crossed to one of the windows. Ever since her first day here, the windows had intrigued her. She pressed her nose to the glass and watched the waving tendrils of kelp and seaweed swaying with the movement of the water. The alien world that she glimpsed through those windows calmed and centered her in a strange way and Harry’s stories of his encounter with the mer-people had added layers and dimensions to her fascination.

She turned back to Draco and went over to where he was sitting. She dropped her books, flopped onto the couch beside him, and sighed hugely. It was enough. Her display of annoyance drew him from his reverie, from whatever place he was going to in his mind these days, and he frowned at her.

“What’s eating you?” His arrogance was comforting to her; a humble Draco just wasn’t Draco, as far as she was concerned.

“Vector blew her top today, went completely mental on us.” Minuet replied imitating Helena’s cosmopolitan world-weary tones and Draco smirked at the mimicry.

“Did we lose points?” Min shook her head in negation.

“Then I don’t care.” Draco muttered. Minuet looked at him with concern.

“She was acting really strange. I just don’t want to lose another member of the faculty.” She remembered Madam Pince’s funeral with stark clarity. She was going to too many funerals lately and she didn’t like it.

“I heard Hagrid and McGonagall talking in the halls a couple of days ago.” Draco ventured, the first unsolicited comment she had heard from him in ages.

“And…?” she prompted.

“They were talking about Pince, about what happened at that faculty meeting.” Minuet was riveted now. Uncle Severus had been in such a rage after that meeting and she was dying to know what had happened.
“Apparently Pince said some horrible things to Professor Snape and Professor Leblanc. Horrible enough that Hagrid had yelled at her.” Minuet’s jaw dropped; Hagrid never yelled, not ever. “Hagrid was angry that only Dumbledore, McGonagall and himself had defended them against Pince’s accusations, whatever they were.”

“But Professor Snape does so much…” She trailed off as she realized what she was about to say.

“They don’t know that, though, do they?” Draco reminded her and she thought about the isolation that had surrounded them over the summer. McGonagall’s visit and Draco’s had been the only ones. Did their Head of House have no other friends?

“No, they don’t.” Her voice was hardly above a whisper and she felt like crying.

“He has Professor Leblanc now, Min, so don’t fret. He doesn’t need anything else.” The flat finality in Draco’s voice cut her heart.

“I do though.” She looked up at him trying to put all her affection, love and trust into her gaze. “I need you.” He met her eyes and she saw the wildness, the grief and the rage all there behind the flat gray of his gaze. There was a moment where their wills clashed, where her desire for him to live fought his overwhelming sense of guilt. Then he released his breath in a long drawn out exhalation that seemed to take his rage with it.
“You’re my friend, Draco, and I need you. I don’t have many friends.” She added with her eyes burning and her lip trembling. Tears spilled down her cheeks in crystal rivulets and Draco’s face softened.

He pulled her into his embrace and hugged her hard enough to bruise before releasing her abruptly.

“Me neither but the ones I do have are pretty good.” He surged to his feet and strode from the room with some of his old confidence. Minuet wiped the faked tears from her eyes and smiled. Her father had always said her ability to cry on command was a gift; at least he was right about that. The young Slytherin sauntered off to deal with her other problem child with renewed vigor. Hopefully she wouldn’t have to pull the tears again though; it was exhausting and lost potency if over-used.