The night of 12 February 2012
Midnight
Home of Athena Marrowbone, London

"Bugger me. Don't move."

Athena Marrowbone got out of bed leaving her guest Vincent Fournier behind. She pulled on a pair of sleeping trousers and a silky robe covered in an oversize skull motif and took up her wand. Someone was knocking on her door in the middle of the night on a Sunday. If it wasn't so late, she'd not have bothered to answer but the hour indicated the possibility of something significant. Normally a Healing emergency came to her via owl or Patronus. The last time someone had banged on her door at this hour it was a drunk ex demanding a weepy audience. Either way, it wasn't a problem that was going to go away on its own.

Athena's house was big and well-decorated like its owner. She made her way through the hallways and down the big staircase, and small lamps on the wall lit themselves along the way. She ran her fingers through her hair as she went, pushing her short blonde curls into place and touching her fingers to the corners of her mouth to tidy up any wayward lipstick. It was a true shame to leave Vincent behind.

When she opened the door she didn't hide a look of irritation but it her expression was quickly washed with surprise.

"Virgil. Waverly?"

Yavin's elfin protege was there on her stoop a head shorter than daughter of Iona and Zora. Athena hadn't seen her in ages, and she was a foot taller and looking a wreck.

Waverly was as surprised as Virgil, and she turned on him.

"What the hell, Virgil," she hissed.

"What are you doing here?" Athena demanded. "It's the middle of the night."

Were they drunk? She'd given Virgil her address at some point as a possible meeting place for an Occlumency lesson, but a midnight visit hadn't been a likely result.

He had thrown a heavy camel jumper over his pyjamas and tucked his trousers into a pair of black leather boots, to make the trip with Waverly. Virgil was relieved that she agreed - Slytherins could be stubborn at best. They had to leave the flat to apparate to the address he dug out from his journal; it was a Sunday night and he hoped Marrowbone was home, or he would have to convince his friend to visit one of Knockturn's underground healers. Anything was better than nothing.

             "What the hell, Virgil."

This was not going to be the last time he heard those words from anyone. Standing on her doorstep, Virgil quickly took in the older woman's appearance by the light that spilled from inside: she was still wearing make-up. "It's the middle of the night," Athena reminded them.

"Oh, is it?" he replied dryly, sighing to himself. Nobody wanted to be here right now! "We have an emergency."

And because this was another Legilimens, Virgil continued by meeting her in the eye: She was attacked by a vampire, in her flat. Can't let anyone know, that's why he got to her in the first place.

Make-up at this hour meant a night out... it also meant the Healer might have guests, and he wasn't going to risk explaining Waverly's situation out loud for some random bloke or witch to overhear. "Please," the wizard pleaded with a serious, unsmiling voice out loud. "I didn't know where else to take her."

Virgil's voice slid into Athena's mind and her stomach knotted. She looked at Waverly for a long moment. Her skin was ashy, she was drained, and her eyes were red, but she was on her own two feet and conscious enough to be as shocked and pissed off as Athena was.

There was no question as to what must be done. With a gesture, Athena gathered the kids into the house.

"Wait for me in the kitchen. It's at the end of the hallway. Wav, drink you a full glass of water before I return."

The Healer's tone was moody and chiding, nothing like the bright, boisterous and indefatigable aire she maintained most of the time. Seeing Virgil again in this context in the shadow of a vampire attack rankled her. Taking him in had been a favor to Morgenthau she'd been happy to oblige, but she hadn't imagined it would happen again. Vampire attacks belonged at St. Mungo's and they needed to be investigated what with the Christmas Eve killing.

Once Virgil and Waverly were in, Athena went upstairs. Vincent was waiting for her on the edge of the bed. He could tell from her face their evening had been cut short.

    "You're kicking me out," he said.

"Aye, get on your way," Athena said and began changing into some more suitable clothes. "No crying, now."

Vince likewise began to dress. "A healing emergency, then? Must be a good one."

Athena nodded and pulled on a tank. "A real stunner. And confidential. Let yourself out the front? Ta."

She gave him a kiss on the cheek before heading back downstairs.

Waverly worked to control the acid panic rising from her gut. There was no way for Virgil to know, but of all the healers in the world...

At Athena's heeding, Waverly slunk inside keeping her eyes down. At the end of the hall, the kitchen lit up. It was big and far brighter than Waverly was prepared for. The bright white subway tile and copper fixtures reflected everything. There was an empty bottle of wine on the table, but otherwise the place was clean.

Waverly slid onto a stool at the tall kitchen island counter and covered her face in her hands.

"She's my mother's healer, V," she said. "She knows me. Fucksake. She's going to tell them."

Athena was probably owling them now. They were going to come crashing in and set the world on fire and in the light of the blaze Hooker would find her. The bargaining began about then, a litany of promises. She'd never seek out a vampire again, she'd never drink again, she'd never smoke again, she'd go to bed early every night, all that she'd do if just maybe survived this mess.

He hadn't realised, until Athena waved them through, that the two witches knew one another. She called her Wav.

Virgil looked around the kitchen when they entered - he was quiet, sleepy eyes taking in little details, the tasteful touches of Athena's domestic surroundings. A home was really just a mind palace manifest, wasn't it? It reflected something inside you. Waverly of course made herself at home in the most perfectly miserable way.

            "She's my mother's healer, V. She knows me. Fucksake. She's going to tell them."

"You don't know that for certain," he replied, giving his wand a little wave so that some cupboards swung open - and a glass floated down, to rest on the kitchen counter. Virgil felt a little more at ease now that the connection was explained.

It was strange, standing here in somebody else's house with Waverly. He filled the glass at the sink before putting it in front of his friend; there had always been something lovely and illusive about her but tonight it was different. Like a glamour had broken, or he was watching her from another point of view.

"Waverly, if she does tell your parents then you have to tell them to..." Virgil hesitated; he was increasingly convinced they were the ones responsible for what happened with Hooker. "... not do whatever it was they did before. You get that right?"

Although he knew other people had different relationships with their families, there was something about Wav's tone that irritated him. "You can't just clam up like you always do. You're not a kid."

He refrained, barely, from asking why she hadn't told them that in the first place. That would have made it sound like her fault instead of their's, or Hooker's.

Waverly took the glass in her hands and stared at it. Little bubbles clung to the inside. She took a sip and wished she didn't have to. It sat in her stomach cold and heavy. Virgil seemed like he was getting testy and Waverly put up a hedge in her mind. She didn't need that shit that from him, but he was entitled. She'd dumped himself into his lap, trailing along blood and violence. He'd got her help and she'd snapped, ungrateful. As much as she tried to hold it in, there was no way to contain this.

Virgil chided her and she spared him a weary glare. He was right and right to say what he did. She was going to have to tell them everything if they find out. Athena was no doubt going to want an explanation as well. Waverly dreaded it; she already felt like an idiot frayed and shredded and come crying back to mummy and daddy. All Waverly had wanted was to live a life on fire, but one mistake that could have been solved by a stack of bangles and she'd failed utterly.

She sat up and had another drink of the water. Athena probably wouldn't be long. Waverly wasn't supposed to be 'clamming up', but she didn't know what else to say to Virgil. It hadn't yet occurred to her to say thank you. Debt stank like rotting food.

Athena arrived in the kitchen to find Virgil and Waverly.  Virgil was standing and she could see now he was fully in his pajamas. Waverly, though, Athena could see even under the coat that she was still dressed. Athena had put on jeans and a long tank top. The tattoos of branches, flowers, insects, and bones went all the way to her shoulders. She carried a large healers' bag which was made up mostly of pockets.

"Keep going," she said first thing to Waverly. Athena hadn't actually seen her friends' daughters in a few years. She'd been gangly but making a good effort at those difficult young teenage years. Thought they'd met on some number of occasions, Athena and Waverly didn't know each other well. To be honest, Athena knew more about Waverly from her parents' stories than anything else. They were proud, she handled Iona's accident with unsettling stoicism and distance, and was now a wild child.

Athena sat on the stool across Waverly and tried to get a look at her face. "Show me the bite, love?"

Waverly hesitated then took off her coat, moved her hair, and turned her head like she'd done for Virgil. Athena clicked her tongue. It was big, angry, and red. Athena didn't reach to touch it, not yet.

"Oh, he's taken a piece of you, hasn't he. When did this happen?"

        Waverly turned back to her half-empty glass. "Tonight. Like a few hours ago."

Athena checked with Virgil even as he asked Waverly the question. "How'd it happen?"

Seemed like yesterday it was Virgil on her table having been rousted about by a vampire in the night, bit in the neck, traumatized. He seemed alright now, but he'd be next on her list

        "He was in my house when I got home," Waverly said flatly, eyes unfocused past the water. "He bit me and broke my hand."

"Your hand? Show me."

Waverly complied and slid her arm across the island. "Virgil fixed it," Waverly said.

Athena took Waverly's hand gently in her own and felt for the bones inside and gently flexed Waverly's fingers.

It was very well done. "You mended it?" she asked Virgil. "What did you use?"

Waverly didn't respond and Virgil didn't push it - what mattered was that she heard him.

When Healer Marrowbone made her entrance once more, all tattoos and brisk manner, he leaned back against the kitchen counter to observe from some distance. The night Athena had treated him, he was barely coherent and his mind had been a black hole; inescapable. Now, he had to remove himself a little from the goings-on, so he wouldn't have to re-experience those memories.

This was a different situation, this was somebody else. Virgil nodded at the older witch as Wav explained how the bite had happened, her delicate hand in Athena's competent ones.

            "You mended it? What did you use?"

"Episkey," he shrugged, fiddling with his wand while he watched the examination. "It wasn't too badly broken, mostly the phalanges." Healing spells were very useful on Mysteries - after all, they couldn't all just pop down to hospital every time an experiment went wrong.

Virgil knew that Waverly wasn't going to start volunteering information - not her style - and he didn't want Athena to have to tease it out question by question. That would be tedious.

"It was a threat," he cleared his throat, with a glance at his friend. "The vampire who did this, he found out that Waverly's mums knew about the bite. That's why we didn't go to St.Mungo's."

Athena sat back and considered a moment. Waverly wasn't saying anything and Virgil's story wasn't making sense. If Waverly's parents know about this, there wasn't a reason Athena could think of that the two kids would be here, at her house at midnight, alone begging a back alley stitch-up.

With a measured breath, Athena reached out with her mind to Waverly. Athena was a Legilimancer of sorts, most concerned and skilled with getting to the root of what someone was feeling, emotions they could be hiding. What she saw made her sit up a little straighter. Waverly, wild, silently screaming and trying to fight her way out of a twisting red cloud.

"Right," Athena said. The young witch was struggling against everything inside her to stay contained.

Waverly, having no sense of Athena's search, finished the water and let the glass drop on the counter with a loud thunk.

The whole story would need to be out, but in the mean time they had to get on with it. Athena stood, and unpacked a bottle of Tell-Tale Tincture, a bottle of Wren R. Vita's Vitality Tonic and some gauze. She came around the island and pulled up the stool on Waverly's left side.

"It's going to be alright," Athena said with a little more of her famous bedside manner plied in the kitchen. "I'm not going to tell the parents, and it's your choice if you want to report. D'you get me?"

Waverly took a deep breath and nodded. At least there was that, Virgil's promise realized that his healer wouldn't summon the roof down on top of them.

"Good lass. We're going to do a couple things. I'll have you drink the Wren R. Vita's to get some color back in ye. I've got a banger warming charm, as well. And I do need to clean out the wound. Make sure the devil didn't leave anything behind. Won't hurt."

She very nearly solicited a confirmation from Virgil, but she stopped at looking up at him. His bite was his business.

Waverly would have gladly let Virgil continue to take lead on telling the story. Waverly felt unprepared to pick apart the pieces of what had happened and string them into some kind of coherent narrative. And even though the threat of Healer Marrowbone telling her parents was gone, Waverly was embarrassed. She'd been reckless, plowing through, just daring a dark fate to fall.

Athena did as she described, step by step. A warming charm Wav didn't know she needed dissipated the chill in her chest and the numbness in her fingers and toes. The vitality drink was gentle magic but fortifying. They had it on hand at home because it was a mainstay of the morning-after her mother's werewolf transformation. And Athena's firm but gentle ministrations on Waverly's neck were comforting.

       "How much did he take, Waverly? Could you tell?" Athena asked matter-of-factly, sure to address the question to the patient.

Waverly uttered a tight, "No."

       "How long did it last, then?"

"No idea. Felt like forever, but could've been fast," Waverly said trying to remember, not daring to close her eyes. Athena was holding the Tell-Tale poultice against her neck.

         "Why was the vampire threatening you? He attacked as what, a warning?" Athena gently prompted.

Waverly lifted her chin and collected the edges starting to fray again. "Um, he was angry that my parents found out about the first bite."  Before the healer could press her, Waverly just kept on talking having taken Virgil's admonishment that she had to grow up and lay it out. "I'd gone to the vampires on purpose a bit ago. I heard that people did that and it ... One of the rules is you can't tell the Ministry and my parents found the bite on my wrist and fucking exploded."

A tear leaked out and Waverly all but pulled it back in. Athena didn't hide her disappointment and confusion. The situation was clear enough now. The consensual feeding or whatever you wanted to call it, it was an open secret. Illegal, but the Ministry didn't ask so long as the vampires stayed in line otherwise. There were some (and Athena would admit she was one of them) who didn't reject the practice outright. A nibble here and there was better than a murder. But it was dangerous.

       "Oh, love, what's in your head?" Athena sighed. Waverly was too young to be taking that risk.

A wave of defiance welled up in Waverly, but she didn't say anything more than sniff.

      "Vampires are dangerous, don't you know that? Ye shouldn't be messing about with their like," Athena continued.

"A lot of people do it," Waverly mumbled looking up with Virgil.

Athena caught the glance.

        "No shit. I've seen about a thousand cases gone wrong," Athena said firmly. Then Athena looked up at Virgil. "And what's your part in all this?"

He slipped on to one of the kitchen stools while he waited, crossing his legs and closing his eyes. He had to shut his eyes because he didn't want to watch the examination, to listen to Athena ask questions for which he already knew the answers. And Virgil needed a moment to himself; those uncomfortable thoughts roused by seeing his own awful memory mirrored in Waverly's present reality.

It wasn't long. Only a minute or two, the equivalent of housekeeping your head. Of taking out the memory, looking at it to reassure oneself that nothing had changed, and putting it back in its place.

            "Oh, love, what's in your head?" the Healer was saying, once he returned to the scene at hand, sitting straight.

Virgil realised that Athena was reprimanding Wav - something he didn't receive when she treated him, probably because Yav was there. And because she actually knew Wav's mum. That reproachful gaze turned on him just then and he bit his bottom lip a little too sharply. "And what's your part in all this?"

"What do you think?" his reply was quick, quicker than his head. "I'm the bad influence, of course." The wizard crossed his arms and glanced at Waverly for a second, blank. A strange feeling stirred in his chest.

It felt a lot like guilt. He addressed Athena.

"I told Waverly about... about where to go, to get bitten." Virgil's second attempt was in a serious, more level voice, the one he used with Yavin. "I told her about the high," his eyes flicked back to Wav for only a second, something like pity in them. "She came to me for help tonight and now we're here."

What he didn't mention was that he had been thinking about going back himself. In retrospect, it sounded stupid, an act of idle desperation. It also made him realise how awful he had been to enable Waverly like that. More than most, he should have known better.

Athena looked at Virgil with a furrowed brow, disappointed and worried. The youthful invincibility of it all. She wanted to smack him upside his head. He could have been killed at his own encounter. His only experience with vampires as far as Athena knew had been an attack and she remembered him clearly on her table: pale, shaken, drained, traumatized. He was fine now, but to go through that and then to introduce Waverly into it? Daft!

"Don't need your salt," she tsked.

    "It's not his fault," Waverly spoke up, raising her voice. "It's not my fault. It's that psycho vampire's fault. It's my parents' fault."

Athena took the poultice off and tossed it onto the table, regarding Waverly like the troublesome witch she was. Waverly wasn't wrong, but she also wasn't right. Dealings with vampires never had a savory outcome; bizarrely Virgil had decided to deal with his by involving Waverly in his fantasy, and Waverly had gone half-cocked straight in no thought for her own safety. All that and Bruce and Zora had done exactly what anyone would expect of them and defended their cub.

Athena could say any of that. She'd never break her vow as a healer. If Bruce and Zora found out about tonight, it wouldn't be from her. She'd heal anyone who needed it. But in her kitchen, she'd not spare them her tongue.

"No, you're right. It's not your fault," she said, walking back from the victim-blaming. "But I hope I don't have to tell you you're blooming idiots for getting as far as you did, and you'd be idiots to ever go back. You're flesh and blood and bone, the lot of ye, and you've only got so much. Would be nice to act like it."

            "You're flesh and blood and bone, the lot of ye, and you've only got so much. Would be nice to act like it."

He sat there patiently listening to Athena  with a carefully vacant expression. They were idiots, lucky idiots. Virgil didn't mind the way she was going on - he preferred it when people spoke their minds straight. Besides, he knew this visit was testing their precariously professional association with one another and he didn't want to push it.

"Consider us told," he replied in a careless voice as he hopped off the stool with a light step, eyes on her face. "And thank you, for tonight. I'm sure Waverly thanks you too, from the bottom of her flesh-and-blood heart."

Virgil glanced at his friend, the slightest lift of a blonde eyebrow. What was she, raised by animals?

"Are we done?" Waverly asked in the space after Virgil fielded Athena's mothering. She was about to explode. She wanted to scream, she wanted to sleep, she wanted to disappear, Apparate and never come back, just sink into the nothingness Terrence Hooker had introduced her to. She didn't have space for gratitude or sense. She felt abjectly misunderstood and man-handled.

"Yeah, Wav, we're done," Athena said defeated, irritated with the kids' surliness.

Waverly didn't wait. She got up and set up her coat and hair.

"You do need to be seen properly at St. Mungo's, though." Athena said trying to cram in before she lost them both to the night. "I want to see you there straight in the morning. I don't have my full kit and your blood needs tested. Furthermore, you have to report this."

Her last instruction was nearly pleading. "There have been deaths, vampire killings. There's nothing to stop that vampire coming for you again, get it?"

      "Oh my god," Waverly muttered, exasperated. "I don't need to know that."

"Where are you going to stay tonight?" Athena called to Waverly's back.

     "Virgil's," Waverly responded on her way out the kitchen said, assuming.