He had missed Raine. God, he had missed her. And here she was-- in person-- sitting across from him. This one visit wasn’t the same as not seeing her at all during the school year. A little bit of Raine was better than no Raine. He considered making a joke about rain and droughts, but decided against it. It wouldn’t have been that funny anyway.

Zel took the last bite of Rover Fancy’s beef, lamb, and guinness stew with regret-- until he realized that he at least had part of the bread bowl left. Most of it had been devoured as he consumed its contents. “You know, everything should be served in bread bowls.” Zel commented, “I’ll mention it to the house elves when we--” he paused, “When I go back to Hogwarts.” They were usually so accommodating. Overly so, it nearly made the werewolf feel guilty. Supposedly, Hogwarts actually paid the house elves that wanted a paycheque. Zel had never asked, it was impolite.

Soon, the bill came and he paid for their food-- refusing to let Raine take the bill. Seeing her was a treat! So what if she had all the riches in the world and could probably buy… He didn’t know. Something that was ridiculously expensive.

“So, you said there was a pumpkin pie place around?” He placed his napkin on the table, “Unless you’re too full. We can go somewhere else if you’d like.”

Ira was far too snug  in her niece’s skin, sat across from the boy with pale skin and wan eyes. The two Almasy women had been in one another’s company so frequently these past months that the mannerisms of youth came without thinking: minor vanities of brushing fingers through red curls, allowing her shoulders to dance with laughter and speech.

All of this while Raine was quietly sleeping in at her manor in East London.

“So,” Zel spoke and Ira tried not to stare, “- you said there was a pumpkin pie place around?” The temptation to covet what lay before you was a significant one but she knew it wasn’t the human she coveted. Only his Otherness. That fact, along with the knowledge that it would surely be hers in time, made it easier to act indifferent.

Gracefully, Ira rose and folded up her napkin in a neat triangle. “I did, didn’t I?” she affected her niece’s thoughtful nose wrinkle. “It’s in Shoreditch. I can apparate us there if you would like, or…” the alternative was patently not a preferable one but Raine’s acclimatisation to muggle transportation made it necessary an option.

“Or we could use the tube. I have a spare Oyster card.” Ira indicated her satchel helpfully, hoping that the boy didn’t have a notable interest in magicless cultures. She glanced outside to check on the weather - it might have been December but London was notorious for not understanding that temperature ran to a schedule. “I’m fine either way.”

During the entire lunch, Raine had seemed… Off in a way that he could not articulate. Zel assumed that she had some sort of news to tell him, and she was trying to figure out how. He was patient, he could wait for her to find her words.

He looked down at Raine’s empty plate. Zel could always eat more-- his appetite had grown enormously since last year, and it showed-- he was less ribs and pokey bits and a bit more filled out. His face, while still pale and fair, was no longer gaunt. It seemed that during the time Raine was away, she had developed an appetite as well. He made sure that he hadn’t dropped anything on the floor-- peeking under the table before finally standing up. His sister worked as a barista *and a bartender), though she also cleared tables as well. It was a pet peeve of hers when customers dropped pieces of bread or napkins on the floor. So, he tried to be considerate.

“I can’t believe you have room for pie.” He joked, “It’s like you’re a totally different person.” Zel clapped Raine on the shoulder as if he had told the funniest joke in the world. “I’d rather not use the tube, if possible.” While Zel was in muggle studies, he didn’t have a particular interest in living like a muggle. Wizarding transportation was much simpler, this much he knew from being around Verity and her family as well as from spending time with his brother and his wife, who was a muggle. “Apparation is fine.”

“I can’t believe you have room for pie.” Ira repressed her flinch of distaste at the hand on her shoulder. “It’s like you’re a totally different person.” He was going to regret both of those things, she thought as she drew her wand with a happy, obliging smile. It was in fact Raine’s wand - inherited from a great aunt in the clan who had passed away shortly after the twin’s death.

A race against time, was in effect, to return it to its owner, although they could easily rely on her niece’s ability to sleep well into the afternoon after a breakfast of red wine and mediterranean fare.

Ira slipped her hands into Zel’s and squeezed it in a friendly gesture. The cadence of Raine's body language - confident, challenging, open to affection -- was cumbersome. “Onwards to pumpkin pie, then...” she remarked in too chipper a tone before they vanished in an instantaneous, quiet POP!

… and then it was darkness. Nothing ominous seemed to flood this lack of light, it was obvious that they had just apparated into the wide space of a cafe that had its doors and windows drawn shut. Their vision began to adjust in moments. From the light seeping in beyond the blinds, Ira saw the outlines of quaint tea shop tables and the subtle glimmer of unlit dollhouse chandeliers hovering above. The space was empty.

Anyone might assume that she had brought them to a closed shop by accident.

“Odd.” Ira moved into shadow wonderingly and turned around on her heels to face her quarry, very much having lost the youthful spring of step. Every click from toe to heel was a promise of death.“This is awkward. I rather expected my assista..ah.”

The silhouette of a shorter man appeared behind Zel’s comparatively chalky form, and he slid a hand quickly across the boy’s throat as a wand came up to be held against his neck. The subtle scent of birchwood and black pepper. Layton[1] always did have delicate taste in cologne. Uncharacteristic. A man of his looks, she always thought, should smell like the air around him.

A clenched, enthralled smile crossed Ira’s... well, Raine’s face. It did not sit right on her, contorted to expressions of pitiless glee as she stared past the Wolf boy. Fleeting, a thought crossed between master and servant. He needed only confirmation to put the guileless child to sleep or an early grave.

 ”Tenebris somnus.[2]”

1.	Ira's personal assistant, Jebediah Layton
2.	Advanced. An immediate sleeping spell that causes its victim to fall into a still slumber.

His stomach lurched, and he reeled into place as they landed, dizzy and disoriented. One of apparation’s side effects for one who was unaccustomed to this method of travel. Zel had not gotten his apparation license yet as he had not been of age during lessons.

But this wasn’t right.

They were supposed to be in a shop. He could feel the little hairs rise in the back of his neck, and a wand was held against his neck. A spicy, perfumed smell assaulted his sense of smell and his nose wrinkled up distastefully. It hit him. This person-- this person was not Raine, but someone impersonating her. Someone who knew her well enough to impersonate her. Raine hadn’t been acting off because there was something wrong; Raine was acting off because it wasn’t her.

And Zel was a fool for not seeing it earlier.

Instinct kicked in, and he sunk his teeth into his captor’s arm before the sleeping spell forced his body to slump to the ground, unconscious.



End