One wish alone have I

This novel is far, far longer than I expected it to be. I am aware that Ivantie has disappeared for 400 pages (a disappearance was intended, but not that long!). I did my best to give you hints in this chapter, but if you still feel lost while reading it, I suggest you reread \"Life is made of choices... so is afterlife\" and \"The execution\" to refresh your memory about the political context in which Antanasia decided to escape with Severus.

Chapter 20
Healing wounds (part 1)

Ivantie smiled even wider when he heard my exclamation and saw my astonished expression. I reached for his face and caressed his features with my fingertips to convince myself that I was not dreaming. In response, he took my hand, pressed it flat against his cheek and murmured a tender, “Kochana”. If you know the feeling of coming back home after a long exile, then you know how I felt, standing before someone from my own kind after so many months.

It struck me how much older he looked. Not that his face was disgraced with any age line nor the rich and warm hazelnut of his hair freckled with grey. It was his eyes. They nested a wisdom and concern I had never seen in there before, and it changed him. He did not look like the carefree spirit I had once known and it gave him a maturity that was not unpleasant to feel at all. Ivantie took me into his arms and pressed me into a tight embrace for several minutes before either of us could speak.

“I have missed you so much, Antanasia,” he murmured next to my ear.

“By Cerridwen! I have missed you, too!” I exclaimed, pulling back to look at him again even though my eyes were blurred with tears. “What are you doing here? How did you get in?”

“The gamekeeper welcomed me at the gates; a certain Professor had warned him of my arrival.”

“You wrote to Dumbledore?” I asked, a bit puzzled.

“I did, though he was not the one who warned the gamekeeper of my arrival,” he mysteriously replied. “Do you want us to sit down? We have much to discuss…”

“Of course! By Merlin, what a careless hostess I make! Come to my quarters, we will be much more comfortable in there.”

“Tasia… old friends do not need to observe any formal etiquette. Besides, hostesses welcoming me half dressed will always meet my approval!” he taunted, showing me that he had not lost one bit of his playfulness.

He followed me outside after I made sure that my potions could be left simmering alone for a couple of hours. I saw him retrieve a luggage bag in the corridor; he handed it to me after we entered my quarters.

“Here,” he said. “I brought a couple of things from your closet in Zaharia; I assumed you missed your old clothes. I picked what I thought were your favourites.”

I thanked him and, blushing with excitement, I opened the bag and plunged both of my hands in the clothes I found there. I quickly found my favourite casual summer outfit, which Ivantie had not forgotten to add to the lot, obviously. It was something I had bought in India: a pair of aquamarine low cut trousers made of many superimposed veils that fell loosely down my legs, and a matching top that left most of my back and torso bare. He had always found me sexy when I wore that; I found it very comfortable.

“Are you hungry? How did you travel here?” I asked, after putting it on and then inviting him to sit on one of the armchairs.

“I Transfigured and flew here; I made it in two nights. I fed before I left earlier this evening, but I would not mind a small glass of potion, if you have one nearby.”

I quickly retrieved a bottle of Blood potion in the lab and set a revolving fire under a small cauldron in my fireplace. While the potion warmed, I recovered a bit more from the shock of his arrival and started getting even more curious.

“What in the name of Merlin brings you here, my friend? I have not heard from you for almost a year, now!”

“Lots of things happened since you left, Tasia,” he began, leaning forward and resting his forearms on his thighs.

“Tell me everything!” I eagerly asked. “From the very beginning!”

“Yes, yes, do not worry!” he giggled. “I am sure you were wondering what was becoming of us since that night in October. First of all, I want you to know how deeply sorry I am that we kept you in the dark like we did. I think Valerica told you that we needed to remain somewhat shielded against the rest of the magical world, not to mention Muggles, of course. Have you received any echo of what happened in Western Europe during recent months?”

“Not a word,” I said, checking the potion’s temperature. “Even the rivers were silent about it.”

“They were not too silent on the continent, believe me! But fortunately, the information about the events that leaked through the Danube only reached those from our kind. I thanked the gods that Lord Voldemort is British! His informers on the continent heard nothing about what happened.”

“Stop beating around the bush, Ivan!” I impatiently prompted, pouring the cauldron’s contents into a goblet and handing it to him. “Tell me what happened!”

“Yes! I am coming to it!” he said, taking a first sip that brought some colour to his cheeks. “After you jumped through that window and made your rescue, Marilena was suffocating with rage, as you can imagine.”

“No need for me to imagine; I heard it very well…” I said, shuddering at the remembrance of her terrible voice resounding above my head.

“She sent me, along with Ivona, Aurek and Istvan, after you to capture you and bring you back alive. You had spoiled the point and impression she wanted to make with her execution; she was not going to miss her chance of making it using you.”

“How very like her,” I murmured ironically, despite renewed shudders.

“I suspected you would make a first stop in a clearing somewhere to check on him, so I kept the others behind at the castle’s doors to discuss the strategy we would use. It was not easy, but I convinced them that you would never go to a Muggle hospital because of their unorthodox methods, and we finally agreed that we would head northwest towards Bistrita and look for you in St Ecaterina’s hospital after we looked for you in the forest. I think I prayed to all the Gods I knew for you to be gone by the time we reached the clearings you and I usually went to. Indeed, in one of them, I got the distinct feeling that you had been there a few minutes before and left. I let the others look around at will and then we left for St Ecaterina’s.

“As you know, we did not find either of you there, and we headed south at once towards Targu Mures. The others were infuriated about our lack of success, but I think they were more afraid of what Marilena and their Sires’ reaction would be if they came back without you. In addition, Ivona could not fly like the rest of us did; she had Transfigured into a lynx and, despite the fact that some of us carried her during certain parts of the journey, she slowed us down considerably, to my relief.”

“I sensed that one of the Zaharia warriors had Transfigured into a lynx indeed… it was approximately an hour after I jumped; you really gave us some extra time!”

“I was in agony Tasia,” he said with emotion, putting the goblet aside and taking my hands in his, “knowing that you were in such danger. I did not know what I would do if we found you together, or what they would do to you. I did not know if you were hurt, if you would have enough time to escape.... I was very confused about whether I approved of your bold actions or not, but one thing was becoming very clear to me: if you did escape, it would be a while before I would see you again. That painful knowledge made me carry a heavy heart over the roads and trees as I led the others to Targu Mures.”

“It must have been painful indeed,” I sadly commented. “It hit me hard, too, when I fully understood this as well. At least, we got to see each other once more…”

“Ah, yes, the roof!” he said, with the beginnings of a smile. “I remember that, too. When we arrived to the hospital, I let the others rush in and bump their noses on the protective spells I assumed you would have put all around you. I tried to anticipate what your escape strategy would be and indeed, the two hundred and fifty years or so that our friendship has lasted made me know you very well. When you Apparated on the roof, some twenty minutes later, I had a very confused heart.”

“Your eyes were so difficult to read…”

“I was incredibly relieved to see that the two of you were ok. So relieved that I felt the urge to run to you and hold you in my arms, and tell you that I did not want you to go away like that after the fight we had had. But then you stepped between him and me, and looked at me in such a fierce way that I was floored. And I decided to let you go and fight for what you believed to be a just cause.”

“So you still believe I was wrong to do that?” I asked, a little defensively.

“No, not at all,” he said, chuckling this time. “If I only began to grasp all the things you wanted me to understand, both in your words and your actions, what was clearer then was the fact that, maybe, your act was not as selfless as you wanted to believe it was. You wanted to save the man as much as the cause he represented, am I right?”

“Yes,” I admitted, blushing slightly, “though I did not see things that way, at the time. What happened after we left the hospital?”

“We all stayed there looking for you. I never told anyone that I had seen you leave, of course, so Istvan, who had heard you Disapparate, searched the hospital vicinity with me while the others finished checking on all the floors. You were probably already far away when we all left. We checked around Targu Mures for an hour or two, and then we came back to Zaharia.”

“Marilena must have been furious when she saw you had not captured us,” I exclaimed, feeling anxious at the very thought of it.

“It was not a pretty sight. Valerica told me that Marilena spent the whole time we were gone lecturing about the broods’ loyalty to her, how she would treat treachery with the highest cruelty should she learn about the smallest trace of it. The minute we entered the meeting room, she questioned us thoroughly about all we had seen and all we had done to prevent your escape. She got particularly irritated with Istvan’s report about how he came so close to where you were while breaking through your protective spells and charms. She barely allowed him enough time to explain; he was drunk dry two minutes later and thrown down the broken window.”

“Had she lost her mind? She killed him only for that? In front of his Sire! How did the elders react? They must have been outraged!”

“If they were, they hid it well. Eliska seemed very upset, mostly sad, but she said nothing, like the rest of the elders. Marilena wanted to make a point and she made it well; they were terrified of her.”

“Still, she did not need to go that far…” I commented disapprovingly.

“I know, but that was not surprising, given Marilena’s temper. They were all linked to her with a blood oath, but she had to reassure herself anyway. And it worked; when she presided over the meeting she organised in Zaharia for Pietr and the four other Russian clans, the elders of Zaharia were all behind her as one.”

“As one? Really?” I asked sceptically.

“There was a black sheep among them, of course, as there always is,” he confirmed with a wink, “and I was surprised that Marilena let her come with the rest. She probably wanted to make a good impression, and showing up without Valerica would have raised doubts about the Clan’s well-being and strength.

“Before the meeting took place, Marilena sent a few patrols on the Clan’s territory to find you, but she abandoned it after a week. She had the firm intention to write to Voldemort and tell him about one of his Death Eaters’ betrayal, but she could not write to him directly (Kerecsen was still the only owner of a formal offer from the Dark Lord, after all), and the Russians’ alliance with Voldemort was not confirmed. She decided to wait until that meeting with the Russian Clan, but hastened things a bit; it took place during the last week of October.

“The news was striking, but not surprising. All the broods of the Russian clans had voted in favor of Voldemort, or at least this is what Pietr claimed, and they had indeed started to train the first warriors that would be sent to England when Voldemort made his request. Pietr first proposed Marilena to write to the Dark Lord and tell him of their Clans’ agreement to help him, but she categorically refused. She had been deprived of her Clan leader status long enough; anything that could have made Pietr appear more powerful than her was not an option to her. They agreed to act as distinct leaders in front of the Dark Lord, but consented to keep each other informed of their mutual intentions and, of course, to unite their forces in battle. Ironically, Marilena’s stubbornness is exactly what made our life easier.”

“Easier? How so?” I curiously asked.

“As soon as the meeting was over, Marilena sent an owl to the Dark Lord, confirming her alliance and telling him about one of his Death Eaters’ betrayal. She wanted to be the first to write him, in case it might be helpful during further negotiations. The thing is, that owl never reached England. It did not even fly past the Austrian border.”

“Who intercepted it?”

“I did.”

“You? What made you fix your opinion so fast about the Clan’s best interests?”

“Many things. After you left, Valerica and I had the occasion to talk together. With all the uproar in the castle after your escape and its aftermath, we had some time alone. For one thing, Valerica told me that her clan would never fight at Voldemort’s side as long as she would be its leader. I agreed with her; being neutral was not possible anymore for me. First of all, my actions during the time we were looking for you spoke for themselves about which side I wished to be in. And there was the fact that Marilena’s behaviour said a lot about what it would feel like to be part of the Clan while under Voldemort’s influence. Valerica reminded me of all the things I had done in collaboration with the Order of the Phoenix, but she did not need to, at that point. My heart already felt more convinced that Marilena’s place was not at the head of the Clan of Zaharia anymore.”

A long pause followed, after which Ivantie continued his fascinating report.

“Valerica took things in hand at the beginning. She sent her spies in other broods (including the other Polish clan) and learned that Marilena’s leadership style was far from making unanimity. Marilena had been right to feel that her reign was threatened; it was, and quite seriously so. But contrary to what she thought, going in the direction of the broods that agreed with Kerecsen’s decision to join the Dark Lord did not secure her reign at all.”

“I guess not, but Kerecsen’s potential as a threat was lowered considerably, no?”

“On that, you are perfectly right. However, it was only in appearance. Kerecsen counted on a privileged allegiance with Voldemort to regain his leadership status… if he even had one, mind you! But now that Marilena had made that decision for the whole Clan, he could not play that card anymore. So as you can guess, he did as he had always done and bowed to his Lady like an obedient dog.”

“Ivan! He would be infuriated if he heard in what manner you speak of him!”

“Oh, yes! And he was indeed, when I repeated those exact words to him,” he explained, with an amused twinkle in his eye. “Following Valerica’s instructions, I went to him before the meeting with the Russians took place and I told him about how other brood leaders were supposedly talking about him, how little respect they had for him given how Marilena had every authority over him. You know Kerecsen: he is a proud cainite. I had expected him to be enraged by the gossips; I got better. He became silent and calculating, all of a sudden. After a long moment of silence, he thanked me for informing him and I took my leave.

“By the time the meeting with the Russians ended, on October 21st, those calculating thoughts of his had simmered for a while and he came knocking at my resting room’s door along with the elders of his brood. We did not speak for long, however; I needed to watch the owls that were leaving the castle in order to intercept Marilena’s letter to the Dark Lord. Fortunately, Valerica joined us after consulting the Great Dragon; she took the negotiations in hand. When I came back with the owl and Marilena’s letter, it only reinforced Kerecsen’s intentions. Its unequivocally self-interested tone gave us one more piece of proof about Marilena’s desire to be the sole benefactor of Voldemort’s generosity should he win the war.”

“What did you decide that night?”

“As you know, Marilena had managed to have most of the elders and all brood and clan leaders take a blood oath with her. With that oath, she had a certain spiritual control over them that bound their loyalty to her. Without the binding of that oath, we assumed that many leaders would rebel against her reign and start thinking for themselves again. Unfortunately, there was only one way for us to free the Clan from that oath’s influence.”

“She had to die,” I gravely concluded.

“Yes,” he confirmed, in a grave tone as well. “Kerecsen was almost frantic about it, and the elders of his clan were close to being the same. He insisted on sending two of his warriors to attempt Marilena’s assassination, thinking that it would bring him revenge for the way she had made a fool of him, and also that it would act as a display of his power and will to the other leaders. His attitude surprised me at first; he had been her most loyal ally for so long! But then I guess that, given Marilena’s leadership style, it had to happen one night or the other….”

“When fear is the only card you play, you are left very helpless after that card is gone.”

“Exactly, and that is what happened to her. The first attempt failed lamentably. One of the warriors got killed; his remains reached Kerecsen’s castle by owl even before the sun rose again. The other got imprisoned. Marilena became very suspicious, of course. She barely let anyone penetrate her apartments past the antechamber after that night. I was posted there and named in charge of the guard shifts, but I could not use it as an advantage. The allegiance of the other inhabitants of the castle were unknown to me, except for two… the usual suspects, as always!”

“Cami and Catalina,” I murmured with a smile.

“They helped me plan the second attempt, which we put in action on the first night of November. Marilena had refused to leave her resting room for over a week and Catalina convinced her to take a stroll in the castle’s gardens just before morning, so she would enjoy the season’s last nights of relative warmth. She brought her cello with her and managed to have Marilena and Floarea (who never left her side) sit on a bench. Behind that bench were the wildest vines of the garden and Cami was hidden nearby, waiting for the right moment to set the vines on Marilena.”

“They wanted to make her share Oriana’s fate? And then let their Sire burn to death? That hardly seems like something those two would be prepared to do!”

“They were not alone in making that plan, Tasia. Marilena was their Sire, but she had become a horrible one, once her interest in them subsided. They told me that your bold actions gave them courage; they, too, wanted to fight for the cause, even if it meant relying on desperate measures. Nevertheless, their intention was never to let Marilena burn to death; it would have been cruel and guards would have found her before her Sun-blocking potion’s effects would subside. One of Kerecsen’s men was hidden with Cami. We only wanted her to be restrained by the vines; she would have been killed as quickly and painlessly as possible.”

“That is not what happened?”

“Unfortunately not,” he sadly said, shaking his head. “Cami made the vines swoop down on Marilena and she got completely entangled. Unfortunately, before Kerecsen’s hit man shot his arrow into Marilena’s heart, Valeriu, who was on guard that night, saw what was happening and thought the hit would come from Catalina. He threw his knife right into her chest and…” he hesitated, unsure if he should tell me the details of our friend’s horrible death.

“Go ahead, spare me nothing. I want to know. Who killed her? Did they free her from the curse, at least?”

“Yes. Another guard used the diversion to free Marilena, who took his sword and decapitated her a second later. Catalina still held her cello and bow in her hands….”

“It was her Sire who did it…” I murmured, trying to reassure him as much as I did for myself. “She cared for her and loved her, in the past. I guess the curse was lifted.”

“To be honest, Tasia, I think Marilena’s gesture was made out of protection and vengeance as much as it was made out of love. She could have left her there; with that knife in her heart. She would not have been able to move and would have been burned the following day. She chose to quicken her death and, in a way, I think it was an honourable gesture.”

“What happened to her?”

“Cami waited until everybody was gone and she buried her body somewhere in the mountains. She went there every night for months and was completely devastated, as you can imagine. She is still upset, but I think she is getting better now. She went back to the garden and took on her chores in springtime without anybody having to ask. She has regained her smile at dinner and even laughs at Vasile’s boring jokes from time to time.”

“Poor Cami… she must have been through horrible times…”

“After that night,” he continued, at the end of a meaningful pause, “our project faced more complicated problems. Marilena refused to leave Zaharia, but she put everybody to the test. Had you been there, you would have brewed a lot of Veritaserum. She conducted many interrogations in attempt to identify those who had planned her assassination; she knew that Catalina had not planned this alone. Cami was the first person she suspected, of course, but she did well during the interrogations and Marilena was soon forced to consider that the threat came from outside of Zaharia, like the previous time. Before she could gather the elders and raise the question, however, she was dead.”

“How did it happen?”

“Against all odds, a cainite from Zaharia came to me with a proposition I could not refuse, given the rather desperate situation we were in, with our two failed attempts that had raised the alarm. It was Niculaie.”

“What?” I interrupted. “Niculaie? After all he had done to Severus? And I mean, according to the latest news before I left, was he not her preferred lover?”

“It may sound surprising to you, and it was for me at the beginning, too,” he explained with a smile. “I even thought he had been sent by Marilena to spy on me, so I was careful at first. But I have had long discussions with him since then, and it does not appear striking to me anymore, not at all. Remember that Niculaie helped the Order of the Phoenix at our side during the seventies. When he behaved the way he did with Severus, it was because he believed him to be a Death Eater spying for Voldemort. He strongly disagreed with Marilena’s decision to form an alliance with the Dark Lord; he knew that he would be a worse leader than she could ever be. So when he came to me that morning, he offered to murder Marilena for us.”

“Just like that?” I exclaimed, astonished.

“Just like that. He said that he had given it a lot of thought since our first attempt, and that no matter how he turned it, the only way to free the Clan from Marilena’s influence was to put an end to her afterlife. In addition, not only did he profoundly disagree with her decision, he also realised that he had always been only a pawn on the chessboard for her. He told me in secret that he had become considerably irritated by her temper and no longer wished to be intimate with her, so he reassured me that his feelings would not be in the way. You know Niculaie; he was a good soldier when he was a man, and he usually knows when the time comes to make sacrifices for the interest of the majority.”

“You are right, Ivan,” I commented. “I have not often seen the tender side of Niculaie; so little in fact that it is easy for me to forget that he has one. I guess the decision was difficult for him to make.”

“I guess it was, but he did not tell me much about it. I think he talked more to Marcela during those times.”

“How did he succeed?”

“He did not waste time. Two mornings later, he managed to get into her coffin. She welcomed him with open arms. For one thing, she needed a lover’s company and she naturally trusted Niculaie above all other guards. She sent all the guards away to her antechamber in order to have some privacy; even Floarea was sent away. He told me he proceeded quickly; as soon as she closed the door behind the guards, he took her into his arms and knocked her unconscious with a Muggle weapon… one that gives an electric shock powerful enough to Stun someone without magic. She was freed from her curse minutes later.”

I lowered my head in respect. Marilena had her deficiencies, but she had broadened the Clan’s territory considerably after Horatiu’s reign and maintained good relations with the surrounding Clans, which had not always been easy. More than that, she was a cainite whose culture and taste were elaborate and diversified. We had found ways to appreciate each other’s company on numerous occasions despite our disagreements.

“What happened to Niculaie?” I asked, after paying her a silent tribute. “Surely he was accused first; they all saw him go in with her.”

“We had thought of that important detail, of course. Shortly after it was done, Niculaie opened one of the windows for Cami and me. We both flew inside and Cami put a Silencing charm on the room. She then hit him with a Killing Curse. It did not kill him, obviously, but he was still unconscious when the guards found him in early afternoon. The ruse was not perfect, but it fooled the guards all the same. They transported Niculaie to the infirmary and he was in convalescence for the rest of the week. Floarea, however… she did not take Marilena’s death well at all, as you can expect. We underestimated the extent her reaction would take, unfortunately. We found her ashes in the garden the following week.”

“Had all this happened when Valerica contacted me?” I gasped, putting a hand over my mouth.

“She sent an owl to Hogwarts the minute she learned about Marilena’s death. The news about the latter was still unknown to the rest of the Clan and we wanted it to remain that way, to avoid any precipitated actions from the other leaders. The castle’s inhabitants naturally obeyed Valerica at first, when she arrived at the castle that night. She was one of the most respected elders of the Clan, and still is, so we all met in the ballroom in the evening at her request to establish who would be Marilena’s successor. We retrieved her will in the castle’s vault and opened it at the meeting. She had named Serban as the next Clan leader…”

“Serban?” I exclaimed in disbelief, remembering that elder who never dared to object to anything during meetings. “What could have possibly made her think that he was qualified for that position? Do not tell me he is the Clan’s leader now!”

“Do not worry, Tasia,” he intervened, amused by my spontaneous reaction, “he refused the position. He had the right to, and he took it. Nobody argued, let me tell you.”

“Then… who?” I asked, trying not to scream what I was secretly hoping.

“Well, as you know, we proceeded to an official vote. Sandor nominated Kerecsen, Dorina nominated Lavinia and Valerica named… me,” he added, with a humble smile that barely hid his satisfaction. “I named her, of course, but she categorically refused her nomination. We were still making the speeches when she left the room to communicate with you. When she came back, we were ready for the vote.”

“And?” I urged.

“A hundred and thirty-six of the hundred and seventy-three elders were there. Kerecsen got thirty-four votes, Lavinia, forty-seven and I, fifty-five. That was for the first round. In the second round--”

“Spare me the details, Ivan!” I excitedly interrupted. “Did you win?”

“Yes, I did,” he said with a calm smile as I leapt from my seat and crushed him into a powerful embrace.

“I knew it!” I exclaimed, in a voice rendered slightly hoarse with emotion. “I knew they would put you where you belonged sooner or later! I am so happy they did! You should have been there far before that night, my sweet!”

“I was not ready, before that,” he murmured, running his large hand up and down my back. “But after the things you said and did… and the long conversations I had with Valerica afterwards, I felt more prepared to give it a try, so I accepted the honour they gave me.”

“Should I bow in front of you, now, my Lord?” I asked, wiping a few tears of joy off my cheeks and giggling through a radiant smile.

“Do not be silly,” he said, leaving light kisses on my nose, cheeks and lips. “There will never be any protocol between you and I. Promise me that.”

“I promise!”

“Good. Do you want to know the rest?” he taunted.

“Yes, tell me! Valerica was probably exulting!”

“Her reaction was not too different from your own! She was proud that her little fledgling had finally decided to do something greater with his afterlife. Now that I look at things at a different angle, I can tell you that I agree. It was about time I did.”

“How did the rest of the Clan react? And the Romanians? The castle’s inhabitants?”

“The castle’s inhabitants were slightly surprised, Marian and Elena in particular. I think they did not see me the way you and Valerica did; they only saw the guard at the front door, and they thought that I had no interest in the position despite my age. But overall, I think people were generally happy that Marilena was not the Lady anymore; they felt ready for an important change. They were anxious to see what kind of Lord I would make. But that was in the castle only. The Romanians in the Clan, who generally did not know that my position at the castle had only been that of a guard and occasional counsellor before, gave me a warm welcome. As for the rest of the Clan, saying that the feelings were mitigated is an understatement.”

“What do you mean?” I asked worrisomely.

“Not two nights after my nomination, Kerecsen challenged my authority in a gathering he organised with all his brood. He claimed that my nomination at the head of the Romanians made me in no way the Lord of the whole Clan, which was technically right, but ridiculous nevertheless. The Zaharia’s Clan Lord or Lady has always been the one at the head of the Romanians since millenniums ago. Electing me to that position automatically implied this, and the elders who voted for me that night were perfectly aware of it. Nevertheless, Sandor soon joined his voice to Kerecsen’s and their broods started to organise secret meetings that did not sound too good. I was forced to send Zaharia’s spies among them; having Hungary and Moldova against me was not a pleasant thing to expect and I wanted to avoid it as much as possible.”

“What about Bulgaria? Eliska’s judgement was generally in favor of our opinions before.”

“Eliska sent owls to Valerica and me after Sandor tried to make her join him and Kerecsen in their endeavour to threaten my position. She assured her that she refused to participate to such a thing and gave me her full support. Elzbieta did the same; her clan would not even have represented a threat to Valerica’s in battle anyway, if she decided to take control of Poland. Anghel in Slovakia hesitated for a few weeks, but he finally decided to join Sandor and Kerecsen.”

“You still had the political and military advantage, then,” I said, estimating the number of people in each clan and brood.

“I did, but I was worried all the same, given Sandor and Kerecsen’s well-known tendency to jump to arms pretty quickly and solve these matters with the use of force.”

“By Cerridwen!” I exclaimed in alarm. “Did they attack Zaharia?”

“No, things are never that simple,” he calmly said, showing me once more that he had indeed matured a lot since our last encounter. “They congregated for a while and made their first attack during a meeting I organised with all the elders in December. As you can imagine, my first concern after seeing to all the obligations that came with my nomination, was to overrule Marilena’s decision about the Clan becoming Voldemort’s ally. With Marilena dead and the bound of the clan leaders’ blood oath vanished, they started to express different opinions on the question. Kerecsen and Sandor fiercely argued in favor of the alliance with Voldemort, and even suggested that we should send our warriors right away in order to be the first to assist him. Eliska, Valerica and Elzbieta started arguing against them obviously, and a long debate began. It went on for hours and at one point, those in favor of Voldemort threatened to leave the meeting and the Clan altogether and turn us in to the Dark Lord.

“That is when I really took things in hand for the first time. I told them that they were fools if they believed the Dark Lord merciful and truly generous. None of them had fought against him during the seventies as I did, so they started to listen to what I had to say. I made them understand that, should the Dark Lord know about our internal disagreements and conflicts, he would only use it to his advantage. They were surprised to learn that Voldemort treated his Death Eaters as inferiors, that he demanded nothing less than worship from them before they could be trusted. The knowledge that an alliance with him was not something that could be broken without paying a very high price seemed to cool off many elders’ ardour. A bit too much, in some cases.”

“What do you mean?”

“Serban suggested that we stay the way we were before the war began in the United Kingdom. He saw only disadvantages in helping humans who were fighting about something that is not our concern.”

“But it is!” I angrily exclaimed. “Severus expressed it very well when he asked for our help on the Order’s behalf!”

“He did,” my friend replied with a certain amusement, “and I even used his own words in reply to Serban’s argument. Even without them, the fact that our close neighbours had made an alliance with Voldemort, and also represented the biggest threat the Clan could face, weighted considerably in the decision we had to make.”

“Was there any decision made that night?” I asked, frowning.

“No, but that is not surprising. You know how it is… people wanted answers, but they did not want a dictator, so they wanted to take time on their side to ponder the matter before we met to debate the question again.”

“Had you not made your position very clear in the matter, on the contrary?”

“Yes, but they all still believed that Marilena’s owl had reached the Dark Lord. I was not going to tell them the contrary; as long as they did believe that you and Severus had been unmasked, you two were safe. Kerecsen knew that the owl had not left our territory, however, but he did not write to the Dark Lord. For one thing, I had his castle constantly watched; any leaving owl was captured and the message it was carrying was opened and checked. I think my warnings had made him understand that it was better for him not to become Voldemort’s ally without more than just his brood behind him.

“Nevertheless, even if Kerecsen did not contact Voldemort, he planned a conspiracy with Sandor. I think that they were bitterly disappointed to learn that I had no intention to join the Dark Lord and expand the Clan’s territory that way. They decided to expand their own instead. In late December, I started to get reports about attacks taking place near the Polish-Moldavian and the Romanian-Hungarian borders. Valerica was not surprised. The Great Dragon had warned her that the eclipse, the fight between light and darkness, would take place beyond our convictions as a Clan. It would eventually have to take place in each and every individual’s personal values and actions.

“Brood and clan leaders started coming to me and confirmed their will to help the Order. It was the case for all of Poland, as you can imagine, and all of Bulgaria. Slovakia remained neutral for a long time, and the elders from those clans even stopped coming to meetings at a certain point. I was glad about the support I got, of course, but the news about it travelled fast and it only triggered more attacks when it reached Kerecsen’s and Sandor’s ears. What had begun as a fight of interests about which side we should take lost its purpose gradually and became a territorial conflict. Before we knew it, we were in the middle of a civil war.”

Severus had been so right; Voldemort knew how to spread discord among people like no other. Our Clan had not known any civil war since 1941 and again, territorial issues had been at the centre of the matter. Marilena had succeeded in maintaining peace between the different clans and broods that formed the Clan of Zaharia, even if they came from very different countries and cultures. Seeing all that being savagely blown away by Voldemort’s influence truly broke my heart.

“How did the conflicts evolve?” I heavily asked.

“The first waves of attack were put to an end with Kerecsen’s capture. He is still in Zaharia’s dungeons as we speak. Most of his brood went under Sandor’s command and the attacks continued. At least, both sides respected the common rule and we were successful in keeping the war secret from the Magical and Muggle worlds; fortunately, they did not hear about it. The Russians did, however, only two months after the attacks began. They started threatening Eliska’s clan and attacked many broods at the Bulgarian borders. They had the time to do a lot of damage before Eliska’s owl reached us and I ordered a part of our troops to move southeast to help her. After the first battle, however, I went to Kiev and alerted the Clan leader there, Andrusha. He had heard of the conflicts, of course, and gave us his support. He felt his territory threatened by the Russian’s decision to help the Dark Lord and wanted to avoid an invasion at all costs.

“With his help, we had controlled the Clan’s rebels by the end of winter. Sandor was replaced as the head of his clan and his rebel warriors were either imprisoned or put under tight surveillance. The relative peace we got did not last, unfortunately. By the end of springtime, Pietr set his troops on us once more; they first made their way through the Ukraine and destroyed a few castles from Andrusha’s Clan before we could stop them at the Romanian border.”

“So much blood was spilled…” I murmured, with a lump in my throat.

“Yes, and each casualty report pained me deeply. War only thrilled me as a boy; it thrilled me much less after I actually fought in one and far less after I became a cainite and had to fight in some more.”

“How many cainites did the Clan lose?”

“Up to this night, nine hundred and twenty-one have been found dead; sixteen more are still missing.”

“By Cerridwen, but this is nearly one sixth of the Clan!” I exclaimed, grabbing his arm in horror.

The Clan of Zaharia counted six thousand two hundred and seventy-one souls when I left Romania. Given the fact that cainites were outnumbered fifteen thousand to one by Muggles and ten thousand to one by the Magical people, it represented an awfully big loss. I guess you understand better, now, why cainites have always made such an effort to keep wars and conflicts unknown to humans of all kind. They make us terribly vulnerable. Generally, however, all parties participate in this effort; it is in everybody’s interest, after all. Nevertheless, for that reason also, wars sometimes lead to very reprehensible behaviours.

“Was there any wave of massive rebirths, Ivan?” I asked with a voice that was rendered hoarse with worry.

“Not yet; the situation is not desperate enough. The conflict is still not over, however. I hope Pietr will not order his people to fill their ranks with new fledglings. I will certainly not do it; with the Ukraine’s help, we are not outnumbered.”

“What are you doing here if the battles are still going on, then?”

“Ah, that is a whole other story, though it is intimately linked with the one I just told you,” he replied, with a new enigmatic twinkle in his eyes. “Two weeks ago, as I was preparing with the elders for an important battle in the Ukraine, one of the guards came to me with news about a strange human who requested to see me. He added that the human apparently did not have any knowledge that I had become the Clan’s leader, from the familiarity in which he had pronounced my name. I left Niculaie in charge of the meeting and went downstairs with a very curious Valerica at my heels.

“He, for it was a man, was pacing up and down the main hall when we walked in. He was still wearing his black cloak and had the hood over his head, so I did not recognise him at first. Valerica, thanks to her ever-vigilant feminine senses and intuition, knew at once who it was.”

“By Morgan, do not tell me…” I murmured in a quiet voice, out of disbelief and hope altogether.

“Yes… Severus was there, soaked wet with rain and, from the look on his face, on the merge of exhaustion and with his tail between his legs. The poor devil did not even have the time to turn towards us and lower his hood; Valerica swooped down on him as soon as she recognised him. She was beside herself with anger and went completely berserk; I have rarely seen her react that way. In addition to my efforts, it took three guards, Cami (who heard the commotion on her way to the garden), and that good old Ernie to keep her from drinking him dry. She had already managed to Kiss him when she finally let go and he was bleeding badly before I closed the bite wounds on his upper neck.”

“Wait, wait, wait!” I nervously interrupted, drinking in each word that escaped his lips, which made a terrible racket in my head. “You say that Severus showed up at Zaharia two weeks ago? What was he doing there? And what did the Great Dragon do to stop Valerica?”

“Just give me a minute and I will explain!” he said, taking both of my hands in his. “First of all, about that old Ernie… Valerica would have probably attacked Severus a second time when we released her, but before she did, the dragon started moving, taking everybody by surprise. She was standing right in front of the orb and he gently pushed it between her shoulder blades. She reluctantly took her eyes off Severus, to whom she was throwing killing glances and a myriad of insults, and looked into the orb. She gasped many times in surprise, but no matter what we said, she never shared the visions she got. It greatly changed her attitude, however; she coldly, but calmly let us accompany Severus to a guest room. He crashed onto the nearest chair and refused the meal Cami offered to bring him.

“He merely said that he understood, from Valerica’s reaction, that we knew of the events he had learned only two nights ago. He informed us that he came to Zaharia to determine what could explain our silence and see if you could come back for the holidays… or longer, because Zaharia was where you belonged. It was obvious that he was still in shock; he was as quiet, passively distant and introverted as he had been after his capture last year.”

“Why did he do this?” I tensely asked.

“He said that he wanted to make it up to you, that he owed it to you after what happened. He added that he did not want you to be away from your kind at a time like this. In explanation for our silence, I told him of the recent months’ events; he listened to everything with empty eyes, and did not utter a single word. After I informed him of the battle that was to take place the following night in the Ukraine, he offered right away to fight at our side. His tone was so unequivocal that I accepted his offer.”

“How did the battle go?” I asked, feeling my cheeks becoming deadly pale.

“I think I prefer to let you see it by yourself… it was quite a sight, believe me,” he gravely said. “Just come into my mind and summon the proper memories.”

I did not argue; I was too eager to know what had happened. I plunged my eyes into his and slipped into his mind easily. Many battle scenes flashed in front of my eyes before I finally found what I was looking for. I saw Niculaie bringing a horse to Severus, who jumped on its back and sat in the saddle. I noted with distress that, though he carried a long sword in a sheath strapped on his back, he was not wearing any protection. Only his black cloak and usual piercing glance. It shone fiercely in the night when he turned to Ivantie at his side.

“Ivantie… promise me that you will repatriate her as soon as possible. And when you see her, tell her--”

“You will tell her all that yourself, my friend,” interrupted Ivantie, who clapped Severus’ shoulder in a firm but comforting way.

A growing roar vanished the shadow of warmth that passed through Severus’ eyes in that instant. The Russians were ready to attack; some of them were already running towards our soldiers. A second later, Severus gave Ivantie a quick nod, masked his face under a Concealment Charm, pressed the sides of his mount and charged the enemy at full speed. Alone.

It was quite a sight indeed! The hooves of Severus’ horse cut through the night’s thick fog and left a vaporous wake behind him. His cloak was billowing with the jerky movements of the animal’s gallop and gave me, at times, the impression that the horse had wings. He took out his blade and grabbed his wand with his free hand, still riding fast and steady towards our opponents… like a man who had nothing to lose.

Their reply came fast; before he reached the first ranks, the Russian warriors threw countless stakes that rained on him like a gigantic and deadly rain cloud. I held my breath and clutched Ivantie’s hands, which were still holding mine. With a large wave of his arm, Severus conjured a reverberating shield that deployed in front of him among explosions of flames. Most of the stakes bounced right back at the Russians and made the first horrible sounds of battle reach my ears through Ivantie’s memories. Some of the stakes had found their target.

Severus fought hard, controlling his mount with a firm hand and throwing brilliant defensive spells; his sword was soon dripping with blood that almost looked black in the pale moonlight. Our warriors joined him shortly after, obviously, and the battle intensified. Sometimes, Ivantie lost track of Severus and I panicked until I could see him again. A nasty spell threw him off his horse, but he kept on fighting with renewed courage. Or was it just rage? From the aggressiveness in the strike of his sword and the meanness of his spells, I wondered what could have transformed the Potions Master into the ferocious warrior I saw through Ivantie’s eyes. I was relieved, however, to see that, though he was ferocious and aggressive, he was not merciless. He observed the ways of my kind and tried to manage, as much as possible, to free the Russian soldiers from their curse when he killed them.

“What made him fight so hard?” I asked, shutting my mind from the horrible and stressful images for a moment.

“Kochana,” Ivantie slowly began, choosing his words. “I have fought in hundreds of battles in dozens of countries and territories. It is common knowledge for any soldier that when your heart, when your soul aches to the point that death becomes a welcome opportunity… death keeps escaping you like wind through your fingers.”

“You think he wanted to die, then?” I articulated, despite my throat that was becoming painfully tight.

“That, I cannot know. I think he expected to die… that he thought he deserved to die, and he found himself feeling quite helpless when things did not happen that way. The battle lasted for a long time; it was almost dawn when the Russians finally retreated. I found him on his knees in the middle of the battlefield, completely out of breath and still clutching to his sword and his wand. He had a few bruises and cuts, a nasty wound in his back and a broken arm, but had no other injury that could not easily be fixed. I brought him his horse and we made our way back to the camp.

“The battles lasted until the beginning of this week; Severus’ skills and knowledge helped us a great deal, I must admit. Pietr asked for a truce, which I granted him. He asked to meet me next month so we can see if negotiations lead us to an agreement. Given his attitude during the past months, I think his offer was genuine. I felt confident to leave Zaharia for a few nights and come here to find you, as it was the longest moment of relative peace we knew since the beginning of the war. Valerica wanted to come with me, of course, but she said she thought preferable to leave us alone and keep an eye on ‘our guest’, as she called Severus. I would have preferred to wait even longer to see you, so I could tell you about a Clan that was not in the middle of territorial wars and make you really proud of me, but I missed you far too much and those feelings won the debate.”

“Oh, Ivantie,” I whispered, while a few tears blurred his face before my eyes, “I have always been proud of you, you know that! What you have done is simply incredible and it increases my respect for you, but it was already very high before.”

“Thanks for saying that, Tasia…” he replied, with a voice that vibrated with emotion, too. “It was so important for me to make you proud, after the conversation we had…”

“Do not mention it; I probably said things I should never have said, because of the anger I felt.”

“No, I think those things needed to be said to wake me up. But I do not want us to dwell on that; it is behind us, now. What I want you to know is that Severus wanted to come with me as well. He thought it was inappropriate for him to stay in Zaharia and accept our hospitality any longer now that he had made his request for you and fought at our side. I had a long conversation with him and convinced him to let me play the emissary for him. He accepted my invitation for him to stay until the end of August if he felt like it.”

“So he is still in Zaharia now,” I concluded uneasily.

“Yes. He is waiting for you,” he softly confirmed.

“Waiting… for me,” I repeated, to make it sink in a little better. “How… how is he? I mean… has he suffered any serious injuries?”

“His battle wounds are healed, except for a sprain in his ankle that is taking longer to heal. He told me he injured it when you escaped from Zaharia, so I guess it remained more fragile. He limps a little when he thinks nobody is looking. Other than that… he does not eat much, if you must know, and he always takes his meals alone in his room, though he did accept my presence a few times. He does not talk much either and spends most of his time in the garden, reading. Cami tried to interest him in a conversation many times while she took care of the garden, but it usually died after a few minutes. Oh, yes! I almost forgot, silly me. He gave me a letter for you.”

Feeling as shocked as if a bucket of cold water was slowly flowing in my back and neck, I watched Ivantie fumble in his pockets as patiently as I could. My fingers tapped restlessly on my knees and betrayed my impatience; they almost snatched the roll of parchment from Ivantie’s hand when he finally found what he was looking for. I startled at the parchment’s touch; it was all crippled!

“I know, it is not in a very good state; I am the one to blame for this. When Severus knew that I was about to leave, he asked me to carry a letter to you for him. I followed him in his bedroom, thinking it would only take a second. I was so wrong… I stayed there, pacing the room until he harshly asked me to sit down. I think it made him even more nervous than he already was. He made a dozen of rough copies; they all ended in a crippled ball on the desk or on the floor. At some point, he had an idea that seemed to inspire him; he bewitched his quill and started to write, much slower. I watched him from the other side of the table and soon understood. From what my senses told me, he was not writing with ink anymore; he was using his own blood.

“He went on and on, writing long messages that seemed to lead him nowhere, and then wrote shorter notes that he threw away with a disgusted or derisive snort, mumbling that he just could not find the right words. After about an hour, his hand was bleeding severely and, in addition to the sight it gave me and the effects it had on me, I started to really get impatient. He was delaying my departure considerably. I let him finish yet another letter and took it away from him before he could shape it into a ball like the others. We argued a little over it, however, before he let me leave, and it got crippled in the process anyway. Sorry about that.”

“No… do not be,” I murmured, deploying the letter before my eyes.

The message was very short, but screamed in genuineness. It was not signed, given the way Ivantie took it away from him, but I recognised Severus’ handwriting at once… and the smell of his blood was unmistakable for any other’s, even nights after it had been shed on the parchment.

“I know my blood reaches you too late because of my own stupidity. Please, forgive me… because I just cannot forgive myself for what I did.”

“He really wrote this?” I asked with a quiet voice, after rereading those two sentences countless times.

“In front of me, Tasia,” he gravely confirmed. “So what do you want to do? Will you accompany me back to Romania?”

“Oh, I do not know, Ivan!” I hesitantly replied, taken by surprise. “I am not ready to forgive him… it will take more than a letter to make me forgive what he did…”

“I know… and he knows, too. But think about it; coming to Zaharia does not obligate you to anything concerning him. Do not tell me that you do not miss the Carpathians… Cami, Valerica, and all the others!”

“I do… terribly… you are right.”

“And besides,” he continued very softly, “how can he give you more than a letter if you stay here all alone and locked into your lab?”

I did not reply, but looked at him very intensely. After a while, we agreed that I would wait until the afternoon to make my decision. Having no spare coffin to offer him, I enlarged my coffin and snuggled up in the comfort and warmth of his arms, like I had done so often before. When I taunted him about behaving himself, he calmly replied that he was not the type of cainite who hunted on another man’s lands. I accepted his good day kiss without saying a word and heard his regular breathing minutes later. I, on the contrary, did not sleep much.

In late afternoon, after we woke up, I gave in to the temptation to be in the company of people of my kind again. Among all the thoughts that had whirled incessantly in my mind all day, I discerned that one of the reasons behind my hesitation was fear. I was scared to face him again. Scared of what he might say… and scared of what I might say… and do. At that point, forgiving him sounded like a degrading display of weakness, as if it would rob me of the legitimate pain I felt, rob me of the precious anger that had kept me together so far. Losing all that was simply terrifying.

I was not the type of cainite who let fear come in the way.

After I Flooed Remus to let him know about my departure, we contacted Dumbledore and asked him to come to Hogwarts, which he did in early evening. Ivantie informed him of the recent events and we all agreed that it was best to let Voldemort believe that the Clan was still wishing to make an alliance with him. We even agreed that Ivantie would eventually meet with the Dark Lord and confirm my statements in person. Ivantie offered to send a few of his warriors to help the Order as soon as the war was over. Albus was enchanted. He accompanied us to the front door and wished us good luck and a good trip before we both Transfigured and took flight. I knew his eyes were glimmering as mischievously as ever as he watched us rise above the school’s grounds until we became only two little dots in the darkening sky.

~*~

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This novel has been nominated for the Multifaced Awards in the Identity - Original Character and Best Snape fic categories. You can vote at http://magical-worlds.us/multifaceted/main.htm (from July 22nd to July 31st). Thanks! :o)

I am sorry for the delay in my posting; one of my invaluable beta\'s PC crashed yesterday morning! Chapter 20, part 2 is in editing right now. For those who are about to dive in HBP, have fun! :o) I\'ll personally wait until I finish this novel, just in case HBP contains something that really clashes with my plot and kills my inspiration! Take care! :o)