“Have a good year Ginny,” said Monicola, hugging her tightly. “Keep your guard up, alright?”
Ginny nodded, smiling fondly. She moved on to say good bye to her brothers, Hermione, and Harry. Everyone waved as Ginny and her parents walked through the barrier leading to platform 9¾. They all waited for Arthur and Molly by a bench not too far away.
“So, it is still a ‘no’ to the teaching job, am I right?” asked Lupin, standing next to Monicola. She stared at her boots, smiling, showing off her fangs.
“You would go bothering me about that,” she mumbled. Instead of answer his question, Monicola looked around at their group. “Where’s your girlfriend?”
Lupin scratched his head nervously. He had completely forgotten Tonks wasn’t there. “She, um, had to work.”
Monicola touched his arm gently. “I’m happy you’ve found love, Lupin.”
“So am I,” he replied, smiling.
“And I’m also happy that you haven’t let my spell affect you. In fact, I don’t think you ever did.”
Lupin shrugged. “Well at first I was a bit like Sirius only I could control myself a bit better. But then I realized what a nasty attitude you could have especially when you got annoyed and I saw you for who you really were. Back then it had nothing to do with the spell within. You were just really mean.”
“Thanks, Lupin, you make me feel good about myself all the time,” she said sarcastically.
“No problem.”
***
Monicola stood at the Weasley’s front door, smiling and giving hugs and saying that she would write when she could. Hermione said that since she, Harry, and Ron would be roaming about so much, she would send Monicola letters instead of giving her a permanent address.
Charlie was the last to say good bye. He took her by the waist, dipped her low and kissed her on the lips.
“Charlie, I thought the jinx wore off,” she said breathlessly as they straightened up.
“It did,” said Charlie, smirking. He kissed her on the cheek gently. “I’ll write.”
George and Fred started laughing immediately. Monicola smiled sheepishly at Charlie. She Apparated quickly to avoid embarrassing herself more by blushing so furiously.
At home, she breathed in the lonely smell of her neighborhood, the dementors’ fog still quite thick. It was dark in the house and very hot as she had left the black curtains closed while she was gone. She walked to her bedroom, reminding herself to do something about the way the hardwood floors creaked. When she turned on the light she saw a face she was not happy to see but her heart jumped excitedly anyway.
“What on earth have you done to your hair?” Hawk asked, stepping toward her and running his cold fingers through the red streaks.
“How the hell did you get in?” she asked, purposely dropping one of her bags on his foot. She hadn’t seen him in a year and a half years but the sight of him still got her angry and thrilled at the same time.
“You always avoid the questions I ask with one of your own.”
“And you never answer mine.”
Hawk sighed and sat on the bed. “I was trying to get you comfortable around me, you know. Every time I see you I have to give you news that you end up not liking.”
“So it’s more news from Greece then?” she asked, going to her wardrobe to hang up her cloak and to put away the clothes in her luggage.
“Of course,” remarked Hawk. “What other news would I bring? And I’ll tell you this much, you won’t like it, as I’ve said.”
“Just tell me.”
“Alright fine, you asked for it.” He took a deep breath and then went on tentatively. “Father and I were talking one day, about you. He was saying how much he loved taking care of your soul back in the day. It always had something smart to say and it often argued with mine…”
Monicola’s eyes moved to the cloudy orb resting on the floor in the back of her wardrobe haphazardly covered by books and an old T-shirt.
“He liked that electricity between our souls and he thought that our personalities would be amazing if they were put together,” he went on, squeezing his hands together, waiting for the angry screaming. “Well, as you can imagine, this was very…odd to hear so I asked him what he meant and he declared that we should have a child.”
Hawk waited his ears perked, ready for what came next.
“IS HE MAD!?” hollered Monicola, shaking with rage. “HAS HE LOST HIS MIND IN HIS OLD AGE? DOES HE HONESTLY THINK THAT I OF ALL PEOPLE WOULD BE PERFECTLY ALRIGHT WITH GETTING PREGANT?”
“I knew you’d take it this way,” he conceded, standing up to be in front of her. “I swear, I tried to talk him out of it but you know how he gets. Sometimes he abuses his power and no one confronts him about it.”
Monicola was biting her tongue, trying to keep down the level of her voice. She did not want to give her neighbors another reason to call that damn Muggle contractor to tear down her house. “So you tried to talk him out of it, did you? I doubt it. All you want to do is””
“I swear! It wasn’t like that! He kept on pushing the fact that the Clan of the Waning Wings is one of the only clans that can produce offspring. I tried as hard as I could without getting killed and he’s still angry with me for trying to disobey him.”
“So you think since you don’t want to die at the hand of an old vampire, you can break into my home and seduce me into bearing a child for you? You’re about as insane as Father is!”
Hawk attempted to put his hands on her shoulders but she shrugged him off. “Tell me what I’m supposed to do instead?”
“Tell him that we tried and found out that you shot blanks!”
“I’m not telling him that!” he exclaimed, completely appalled by what he just heard.
“Oh don’t go worrying about your reputation,” she contended. “Father will probably sympathize with you; tell you it happens to the best of vampires.”
“But you know first-hand that I don’t.”
“Unfortunately,” Monicola mumbled.
Hawk snapped his fingers as if to say “Eureka!” “I know what’s bothering you. You’re worried about that curse you put on that boy decades ago.”
“You heard me?” inquired Monicola, incredulous. “I thought you were…”
“I wasn’t unconscious, I was concussed. I heard everything.”
“What does the curse have to do with anything anyway?”
Hawk sighed, sad that his little student had ignored so much of what he taught her. “Don’t you remember that when woman of the Clan of the Waning Wings put a curse on someone, they run the risk of having the curse backfire on their children?”
“I know how it goes, thanks,” she retorted. “That boy died not too long ago. There is no risk of anything backfiring as the curse worked on him. You cannot imagine how responsible I feel…it just came out, like you said it would.”
“It’s a natural reflex our clan has when we’re angry or in distress. I really wouldn’t go about blaming yourself…”
“Oh then I should blame you for teaching it to me?”
“No, you can’t blame it on me either. I wasn’t under the impression that whoever was unfortunate enough to have that curse thrown would see the Veil at all.”
Monicola wasn’t listening. It just dawned on her completely how very responsible she was for Sirius’ death. Sure he could have fallen in without her help but she gave it that extra boost, gave Lestrange’s wand that extra push.
“Oh, don’t start crying, love!” Hawk exclaimed, pulling her into an embrace. “Will it make you feel better if I say, ‘yes it was my fault that boy died’?”
“He had a name,” she snapped, pushing him away again. “It was Sirius Black.”
***
Monicola had been forced to go to Greece. The All-Father demanded that he talk to her in person. Hawk went with her.
They both were scolded like children only instead of being sent to their rooms they were threatened with immediate and painful death if they did not obey his wishes. Monicola left his presence fighting back tears. It had been quite a while since she had seen him but she had never been frightened by him like this since the day she met him.
Hawk handed her a handkerchief which she blew her nose in and handed back all the while giving him a blood-chilling glare.
“I want to think you planned this but after that it’s very difficult to do so,” she told him.
Hawk, who was looking incredibly miserable, replied, “If I had, I think I’d be more excited about this but I’m truly not. I know you’ll never forgive me for this even though I had nothing to do with it…I’m not even sure I have the emotional energy to do the task…”
“Oh, shut up!” Monicola snapped. “I know you better than anyone and I’m sure you will have no trouble rising to the occasion.”
Nothing To Do With the Spell Within by moonlite90
Chapter Notes: Well I've made it to the end. Hope you guys enjoyed it all.