Another wedding

Chapter 29: Another wedding

Severus came home to the flat one afternoon unexpectedly to find his wife sitting underneath her loom. Twisted in a way that could only be comfortable to a teenager, she fiddled with little knots connecting the treadles to some moving levers, squinting every so often at a piece of parchment before her. In her concentration, she hadn't yet noticed his entry.

Merlin, she is beautiful. How can she possibly be mine? His blood heated as he watched her silently. The lines of her leg and bum in the Muggle jeans she wore around the house, the bottom curve of her breast where her top had twisted up to reveal it – all his to touch and taste where he would. Giving in to temptation, Severus lowered himself to the floor behind her and touched his wife.

Clunk. "Ow," she said, crawling backwards from under the loom and onto his lap. "You could have said something."

"Are you always so heedless that you wouldn't hear an intruder?" Worry made his voice sound harsher than he meant.

"Are your wards so thin anyone else could have entered without my notice?" Rowan retorted.

"Point taken." Severus slipped his wand from his sleeve and healed the bump she was rubbing, then kissed her.

"Why are you doing this the hard way?" he asked her. "It can't possibly affect the fabric to use magic for this step, can it?"

"Probably not, but I haven't learned any loom tie-up spells."

"I know you took Charms at N.E.W.T. level; I've seen your grades. Does Flitwick teach nothing about crafting new charms?"

"He does, and I liked that part very much, but it is an awful lot of trouble – much more than just doing it by hand," Rowan answered.

"It's not that difficult ... what are you trying to do?"

Rowan showed him the parchment. "Connect the treadles to the lower lams, that's these levers here, wherever you see an X on the grid."

Severus thought a moment. "Didn't you tell me you'd knitted a sock by charming the needles? Is this so different?"

He saw her eyes widen as she caught the idea, then look around the room for something. Severus Summoned her wand and handed it to her. He nodded in satisfaction when she frowned in concentration and murmured the knitting charm. Her grin of pleasure when all the little knots tied themselves at her command was lovely, but distracting. He recalled how concerned he'd been about her.

"You aren't really practicing magic much, are you?"

"Here and there, plus of course the Thestral project."

"I'm worried about your reflexes, and that you've never really learned silent spellcasting. You haven't taken Defense past your fifth year, have you?"

"The curriculum was so scattered, across all those different teachers, it didn't seem worthwhile."

Severus sighed. She had a point, but she was going to need to be able to defend herself. He couldn't always be with her. Silently he looked at his lovely young wife. He was never going to get the D.A.D.A. job, but he did have one captive student. "Tomorrow, we're going to the moor."

"You must learn to concentrate. It is not necessary to pronounce a spell out loud to cast it. If you focus your mind correctly, you can cast any spell silently. This will give you an advantage over your enemy, who will not know what spell to expect."

"Is there a speed advantage as well?" Rowan asked. "I imagine you can think a spell faster than you can say it out loud."

"Yes, exactly. Two points to Ravenclaw."

Rowan snickered. There were no points over summer, and in any case they no longer applied to her. He could give her hundreds of points if he wanted to, with no harm to his precious Slytherin.

Severus had her drill stunning spells and other jinxes useful in wand to wand combat. They practiced out on the moor where they wouldn't damage the flat. Rowan had worried at first that she might hurt her husband, but it quickly became obvious that this wasn't likely. She could cast the spells silently, but with nowhere near the same strength as when she spoke them. He deflected everything she could throw at him efficiently, with no apparent effort and always without speaking. Rowan realized then that he only ever spoke spells aloud when he was demonstrating.

Panting, she flopped down into the soft heather. "If the other Death Eaters are anything like you, I'd better just not get into a fight."

Smiling, he sat beside her and transfigured a leaf into a sunshade.

"Staying out of trouble would be the best course of action, but I am pleased to see that you are improving markedly. Practice around the house – whenever you need to start the stove or Summon the salt, do it silently. You'll have it mastered in no time."

"That's a good idea, I'll try that."

Concentrating all her will, Rowan plucked a dandelion clock and sent it silently levitating towards him, where it stroked down the side of his face. Smiling, he turned and blew it as it hung in front of him. Rowan felt a brush of magic as he blew, then a wind come up, taking all the little wisps away and leaving the stem bare in one breath. "She loves me," he whispered. She did not deny it.

Occlumency lessons were carried out in their living room. They didn't go quite so well as jinxes and counter curses. While Rowan could summon enough annoyance with Severus to throw a creditable jinx at him, she had trouble really wanting to block him from her mind. When he stared into her eyes, she wanted to fall into his deep black gaze and offer him all of herself. The images he pulled from her memory and imagination tended to distract him from the task at hand.

Severus lay back on their bed and pushed his hair out of his eyes, while his heartbeat slowly returned to normal. "I sincerely hope no one else has occasion to practice Legilimency on you, Rowan, if they see what I do. You aren't supposed to want to touch me, let alone ..."

"I'm sure it's just you," Rowan answered, snuggling up under his arm. "I don't think those things about anyone else."

"There isn't anyone else to practice with you except Albus, and I don't care for him to see those images in case you are wrong."

Rowan shuddered. She liked the Headmaster, but not that much. "Um, right. Let's keep trying."

Rowan and Severus stepped out of the sun together into the cool shade of the quiet village church and sat in a pew on the bride's side. There were very few people – Edgar's and Ariadne's parents, and Edgar's uncle and his wife. Although the church was Muggle, they all wore robes. Whether the vicar was also a wizard, or was simply used to people dressing oddly for weddings, Rowan couldn't say.

The ceremony was brief and elegant. After Edgar and Ariadne spoke their vows and exchanged rings, the vicar wrapped the ends of his stole around their joined hands, pronounced them to be husband and wife, and declared: "Whom God has joined together let no one put asunder." At these words, Rowan saw a flare of magic turn thrice around their joined hands, and sensed an echo of the internal ring she had felt at her own marriage. It seemed that this wedding was both religious and magical at once. Rowan wondered again if the vicar were also a wizard, or if this always happened when lives were joined but only wizarding folk could sense it.

Edgar's family helped the other guests Apparate to the farmhouse where there was food and a small wedding cake.

Ariadne and Edgar exclaimed over the lovely blanket Rowan had woven for them for their bed.

"I used some of your own wool, Edgar, from the fleece you gave me after the holidays," Rowan told them, laughing.

"We'll have to send you home with more wool then," Adrian Bracken said. "You should get to make something for yourself," he told her with a smile.

Edgar drew Rowan aside for a moment while Severus conversed politely with Edmond and Adrian about the Hogwarts Thestrals.

"When I got home from the train, my father told me we have someone new staying with us."

Rowan looked at Edgar, eyes wide. He could only mean her mother.

"She's a distant cousin, a squib, and my father and uncle said she was welcome here and could help out on the farm. There are several stages in the parchment making where things need to be done the Muggle way, and she could be a help. There's a shepherd's cottage down the hill a way that's been empty since Eli died two years ago."

Rowan understood. Ariadne would know, of course, or soon would, because the couple would be living in the farmhouse, but the secret should not extend to her parents; Laurel would be keeping out of sight.

"Your family is very kind, Edgar. It sounds like your cousin is lucky to have you," Rowan told him earnestly. "Is she ... happy?"

"I think so; the country seems to suit her. If you come on business some time, you may be able to meet her."

"I'd like that Edgar, thank you."

After they'd all had cake, Edgar proudly brought Rowan and Severus down to the pen to show off the mated pair of Thestrals Hagrid had sent him. At least Rowan assumed they were there, and Edgar wasn't just putting her on. He gave her a small sack of their hair that he had collected to take back with her.

Rowan tested various blends of wool and Thestral hair to see how much she could stretch the limited supply without diluting the magical properties. By the time the summer ended, she had done enough sampling to have her production process worked out. When the school term started at Hogwarts and kept Severus from her during the day, Rowan spun her thread. By the end of October, she had nearly enough to warp her loom. Then, the Ministry fell.

Rowan had not seen Severus for several days. He had been called and he had gone. He had not told her anything that had happened previous times, and he didn't say anything now. He only told her to Floo to his quarters at Hogwarts and stay there until he came for her.

Worry kept Rowan from properly enjoying her opportunity to poke around Severus's private rooms at leisure, and only made her notice the loneliness and cold the more. School was in session, but she felt strange mixing with the students. She spent some pleasant time with Filius Flitwick and Minerva McGonagall, who tried to make her feel comfortable, but mostly she stayed in her husband's quarters and read. And froze. She pulled a blanket around herself more snugly and wondered how she had ever managed years of potions classes in the dungeons wearing short skirts and school robes.

At last she heard the door open, and Severus came in. He looked worn and haggard, but unharmed. Rowan ran to his embrace. When he let go, he took both her hands and said, "Rowan, the Ministry has been subverted, the Dark Lord has placed his people at the head of all offices of the government."

"What happens now?"

"I don't know. There is talk about rounding up all the Muggle-born folk." Rowan gasped and clutched at him.

"Shh," he murmured in her ear. "I believe you are safe with me. The Dark Lord will not withdraw his gift."

"Is there any hope of defeating him?" came Rowan's strangled query from somewhere near his armpit.

"I can't say. Dumbledore has a plan, but he can't share it with me. I believe Potter will not return for his seventh year; Albus will withdraw from the school to work with him in freedom."

"Dumbledore ... leave the school?"

"The Ministry will send Aurors to arrest him on some made up charge. He won't allow himself to be arrested. He has ordered me to do all I can to protect the students and the staff. And you. We believe the Dark Lord will make me Headmaster."

"But everyone will think..."

"Yes," Severus said tiredly. "And you mustn't tell them or show them any differently."

"I can't be seen to love you, can I?"

"Nor I you," he said, pulling her into his embrace. "But I will spend every moment we are alone making sure you know it."

Rowan rested her head on his chest and considered the coming year from the circle of his arms. What would happen with the Dark Lord running the Ministry?

"I don't think I should work on my invisibility fabric any more. If I make the cloaks, they will only help the Dark Lord."

Severus let out a soft breath of relief. "I had meant to suggest the same thing. He does not know about your project, and it is definitely best to keep it that way. The less he remembers you, the better."

Rowan pressed herself into his arms and shook as fear overcame her. So much for all her planning; now she had no work she could safely do, almost no identity anymore. It was terrifying. "Hold me, Severus."

Severus held her, and kissed her, and laid her down on his bed and tried to give her the comfort of his body since she wanted it. He reached for his wand to undress, but she stopped him. Rowan still loved the button ritual. He tolerated this odd quirk in his wife and lay back so she could undress him with her own hands. Buttons undone, coat removed and trousers going the same way, Rowan stopped suddenly. "What," she asked, "are these?"

"What do they look like? They are warm underwear."

"Woolen long johns?"

"Of course. Otherwise, I'd freeze, spending all my time down here," Severus told her.

"That explains the smirk on your face when you told us warming charms would interfere with the potions. You rotter!"

"I would assume any sensible person would take that as an indication that they should dress warmly."

"That's fine for the boys, but what are the girls going to do with those stupid uniform skirts, hmmm?"

"I did not set the uniform, and what my female students wear under their skirts is not something I should be thinking too closely about, is it?"

"Hmmmm," Rowan growled at him, unable to find a good answer. She returned to undressing her husband, but at the back of her mind, she was ticking over the possibilities.

Thanks to Juno Magic for tenderly betaing this chapter. Only one more to go!