Mirror, Mirror

Mirror, Mirror
Chapter 4.
Thanks for the review, Purrfus, sweetie! Neichan is great, though it would be nice if Thralls was updated, wah! I’m still ruminating on the Angel/Lucius cookie you just had to share.

~*~

Slammed against the wall Severus snarled, but Giles had his wrists pinned to the rough stone, his thighs wedged between Severus’ so he couldn’t castrate the man like he wanted. Bloody frustrating and his glare promised immediate retribution once he was free.

Giles smiled grimly, shaking his head. “Enough of this, Severus. You told me to leave, made sure I had no choice but to leave, so you’ve no right to throw a tantrum now. My word, I’ll be gone as soon as Riley is well. The least you can manage is basic civility.”

“Civility?” The word dripped poisonous from Severus’ lips. “I cured your lycanthropy and you couldn’t wait to leave! I’ll be civil to your backside on its way out the door!”

“You got me sacked!” Giles shouted back, finally giving in to the anger he’d carried for years. “I tried, damn you, and you reported me to the Ministry, so don’t start crying the wounded party now!”

Severus huffed. “How was I to know you’d actually go? Never could get rid of you before!”

“You idiot,” Giles murmured with no little affection, releasing his wrists so he could frame the other man’s angular face, force those shining black eyes to meet his own. “You may have brewed salvation, but the Ministry did not care. Once a werewolf, always a werewolf. You told me to leave, to quit your life, and I had no choice because no one but Dumbledore would hire me.” He kissed that sharp nose, those hard lips. “I could not live as Remus Lupin.” Kissed until Severus finally moved against him, kissed back. “Could not live in this world with you not wanting me in it.”

Briefly freeing his mouth Severus ripped at the buttons of Giles’ shirt, squirming against the hands burrowing beneath his robes to clutch at his buttocks. “I had not realized I’d brewed an obedience potion with that cure. I shall have to, ah!” Maybe Giles still had a little of his old werewolf strength, tearing the Potion Master’s robes from his shoulders. “Do not think this in any way speaks of forgiveness,” Severus panted, blushing slightly as Giles lustfully stared at the pale slim body he’d finally uncovered.

Tossing the cumbersome robes aside Giles spun Severus to face the wall. “Sev, shut up.” The man didn’t listen, of course, he never had, but Giles didn’t mind hearing Severus scream his name.

~*~

“Cygnus,” his grandmother acknowledged, ignoring his wince at hearing his birth name and muttered, “It’s Riley.” A gesture and his restraints slithered out of sight beneath the mattress. Riley slowly sat up, putting his back against the headboard. Still didn’t know where he was, but since Nana was here and not Mom then he had to be somewhere in Europe. “I have not seen you since you somehow managed to make graduation from the Salem Institute. Not that your mother would share any part of your life as she hasn’t spoken to me for the last twelve years.” Her tone implied that was somehow Riley’s fault, which he supposed it was. Everything between his Mom and Nana was ultimately his fault.

“Mom didn’t want me going to Hogwarts,” Riley grumbled at his sheets. Absently he straightened them over his lap, nervously smoothing out the wrinkles. He could count on one hand the number of times he had seen his grandmother in person and the one that stood out was after Mom returned his Hogwarts’ letter with a copy of his acceptance to Salem. He’d heard the screaming all the way out in the barn.

“Yes, and I can see how well that decision turned out. So concerned about protecting you she neglected to raise you as a proper wizard! My only grandson, only heir to the McGonagall legacy, bound to a no account vampire! Your mother didn’t even screw up this badly with your father!” Nana shouted, hands clenching into white knuckled fists about the rungs at the foot of his bed. Riley did not look up but to study her from beneath lowered lashes, watching her visible struggle to regain her composure. Over her shoulder he thought he saw movement, but no one came in and he knew better than to open his mouth. Growing up with his mother had taught him to respect the McGonagall temper. The way his head was ringing he could do without any more added hexes. He’d never been told who his father was but obviously he wasn’t as vile as the undead and Riley added that to the small collection of facts he had about the man.

Nana smoothed the line of her bodice, composure restored though the color still rode high in her cheeks. “Rupert tells me you are living with him, unemployed and dating a Muggle, that Buffy girl. Honestly, Cygnus. Is this what you learned at your American school? Your mother made just as many foolish, wrong headed decisions as you seem to have and look where she is! I would ask how you could let yourself get into a situation like this but I really expected nothing better given your derelict upbringing. I tried to curtail the influence of your father’s blood in your character, but your mother insisted on sabotaging all my efforts.”

The words, while harshly felt, were nothing he had not heard before. Since he had first met the woman when he was six and she had found fault with his broom technique Minerva McGonagall had been a continual source of pain and frustration. Weak and deplorable were her common verdicts on his behavior; predictably mediocre on his school performance. Riley didn’t know what he’d done to disappoint her but he’d known his whole life without being told that she blamed him for losing her daughter. When he was younger he’d imagined being accepted by the only family he had beyond Mom. Had done his best in school to impress the old woman who scared him with her harsh voice and judging eyes. He’d left Salem with Honors and somehow still came up lacking.

So he had gone out and found his own family in the Initiative. Not that he’d had much luck with that one either.

When Riley didn’t look up Minerva blew out her breath. “I did have some hopes for you, boy, but I don’t know what else I can say to you.”

“Then how about shutting up?” Angel snarled as he suddenly appeared over Nana’s shoulder. “I don’t know about Riley, but I’ve listened to enough of your sanctimonious bile.”

Minerva McGonagall was not a woman to be intimidated by mere words, however, and she turned to face him head on. “Mister Angel, I thought Madame Pomfrey gave implicit instruction for you to vacate the infirmary. You are no longer needed here.”

“It’s just Angel and that is my mate,” the vampire’s finger jabbed in Riley’s direction, who blinked at them both stupidly, “so the only person that needs to be here is me. All the rest of you can just get out.”

A dark haired guy Riley didn’t recognize edged around the curtain as Angel aggressively claimed the space on Riley’s left. Nana’s hand was inching towards her sleeve where she likely kept her wand but her head turned slightly in the stranger’s direction. God, just how many people had heard his grandmother go off on him for his behavior? “Headmistress, Angel does have a valid point. He’d not going to hurt Mr. Finn . . .”

“No,” Nana’s head shake was curt. “This mockery of a bonding has gone on long enough. Mister Angel shall keep a safe distance and Cygnus will remain in isolation until the enchantment is broken.”

“Then we’re leaving.” Angel grabbed a startled Riley by the arm, meaning to haul him bodily from the bed. “Say bye-bye to grandma, sweetheart.”

Sweetheart?

Nana moved to whip out her wand but Riley was actually faster. Pressing his palms together he muttered the necessary word and quickly pulled his hands apart. It was a neat trick, drawing his wand out of his hand, and one he guessed they didn’t teach at Hogwarts if the locals’ expressions were anything to go by. He didn’t hesitate aiming at his grandmother though he kept the stranger in his sights. Everyone froze and Riley tiredly shook his head.

“Nana, please get out and take your friend with you. Mister Giles may have told you I am presently unemployed but I was a fully trained Auror, so trust me that I can handle one vampire.” When she still hesitated Riley snatched up a pillow and threw it at her, transfiguring it into a honking duck mid flight. He was a McGonagall, after all. The stranger left, Nana at his heels when Riley picked up another pillow, intent plain. Once they were gone he spelled the curtains closed, tossed up a silencing charm and collapsed back onto the bed, dropping the pillow over his face. Could his life get any worse?

The bed dipped with added weight, but Riley did not react to Angel sitting next to him. The man wasn’t trying to assault him so he figured the guy was still in control of his libido. He did not think about what they’d done, though he didn’t remember anything after. What had happened after Angel had sucked him off in Giles’ bathroom?

“Sooo,” Angel awkwardly began, “you keep a wand in your hand?”

Okay, that wasn’t the first question Riley expected after finding out someone was a card carrying wizard and he dragged the pillow down far enough to stare over at the vampire. Angel gave a quizzical smile back, prompting Riley to answer. “Not really, no, but it looks weird if I pull it out of my nose.” That got him a chuckle and Riley relaxed back into his remaining pillows. The bed certainly had enough of them. “How much did you hear, earlier?”

“Most of it,” Angel honestly answered. “I was tuned for your voice so it took me a minute to realize the harridan was talking to you.” Brown eyes did not flinch from his own, openly curious and daring him to refute what’d been said. “Cygnus?”

“My mother’s choice, not mine,” Riley grimaced. “Not that unusual a name for a wizard, actually. Cygnus Rilius McGonagall. Finn is another family name. My mother’s name is Turan and my father supposedly had an interest in astrology, so there you go.”

It took Angel a moment, but he made the connection. “Turan, a love goddess represented by a black swan.” He nodded, acknowledging the cleverness of his mother. “Your father’s passed on?”

Riley shrugged, staring at the too white curtains and giving the only satisfactory answer he’d found after waiting over two decades for a man who never came. “My mother mourns him.” He darted a quick look at the other man, but Angel’s face didn’t say anything. “She never talks about him. I don’t know if he died or cheated on her, but she moved to America and changed her last name so it had to be bad, right?”

He hated sounding like a little boy and started to jerk upright, suddenly feeling defenseless, but Angel just calmly said, “I’m sure she had very good reasons.” Riley nodded, relaxing and going back to playing with the pillow he was still clutching to his chest like a damn teddy. Another quick glance reassured him Angel wasn’t laughing at him, though, so he kept kneading the soft pillow. “So how does a wizard join the, what did that scrawny redhead call us? Muggle military?”

“Who says I did?” Riley grinned. “Did you ever hear of the Marine rank of ‘agent’? The American Ministry was interested in investigating the demon populations so they commissioned the Initiative. I was an Auror, wizard law enforcement. Never really met any Muggles before Sunnydale.” He laughed at himself. “Didn’t know they came in the Slayer variety.”

Angel’s smile was a little self-flagellating on its own. “Buffy Summers is a unique individual.”

“Yeah, she is,” Riley agreed. “Though most of the time I feel a little out of this wizard’s league.”

Again he waited on Angel, hands unconsciously stilling on the pillow. What an interesting color of white the ceiling was. Fingers touched his hair. “Slayers are born, did you know that?” Riley shook his head, Angel swinging in and out of view. “Becoming one isn’t random chance. They all come from specific lines that the Watchers monitor. Being a Slayer requires a certain personality type and trust me, they all have it from birth.”

“The emotional detachment.”

“Yes. Buffy may truly believe she wants love, but she’s not really wired for it, if you get my drift.”

“She likes being in love, the pursuit.” He’d come to this realization weeks ago and he turned those same critical eyes on the vampire sitting too close. Angel was under a spell, however, so answered Riley’s unspoken questions guilelessly. “Anyone figure out what spell this is?”

Angel allowed the sudden subject change, probably not wanting to talk about his ex any more than Riley did. “Not exactly, but they think it’s a marriage bond of sorts. Apparently, wizards aren’t just happy with arranged marriages. They think it requires equal give and take until the final act of consummation. Everything else is still being debated.” Such as the need for physical contact on Angel’s part, but Riley was more occupied by what the other man had said.

Slowly the blond sat up, crossing his long legs Indian style. “Hold up. You just said EQUAL give and take. You sucked me off so you want to explain EXACTLY how I gave back?” he hissed. Angry heat rose in his cheeks, spine stiffening. “My mouth tastes like a gutter because you stuck your dick in it?! Merlin’s left nut, have you completely lost your mind? Did my grandmother watch? Oh fuck, did my grandmother watch?!”

“Riley, Riley, just calm down!” Angel surged forward to grab him, but Riley held him off with his pillow, eyebrow cocked in warning. That’s right, buddy, test me and eat duck that eyebrow warned. Angel settled back onto his edge of mattress. “My anatomy did not go anywhere near yours!”

“Explain,” Riley snapped.

The brunette squirmed. “Okay, but bear in mind, it wasn’t my idea. They all said since I’d, you know, then you needed to do the same. They said it. So I, ah, filled a cup.”

Riley’s eyes got wider and his face paler with practically every word uttered. He hugged his squarish teddy. This was, this was some alternate dimension, a hellish nightmare where his Nana instructed some undead guy to whack off and then feed him his spunk. Hellish. Nightmare. No way was this really happening to him. Any minute he was going to wake up to Buffy trying her hardest to crack his pelvis fucking him into the mattress.

He hid his head in his teddy.

Silence filled their small world. Then, “Riley? Look, I’m not sorry for what I did. You had collapsed at Giles’ house. You were running a fever and wouldn’t wake up. Between leaving you in a coma and jerking off into a cup? What would you have liked me to have done?”

What indeed? A tug on the pillow slowly pulled it away and Riley let it go. “You’re right,” he mumbled, scavenging for the remains of his dignity. “Sorry for freaking out like a girl.”

Angel looked inordinately pleased, shifting a little closer. “Under these circumstances I think you’ve earned a pass on any girly behavior. So tell me, what’s it like growing up as a wizard?” He tried to put on his most interested face, but Riley didn’t miss that he’d put the pillow safely out of reach and his hand was creeping for his closest foot. No sooner spoken of and it looked like the blowjob was starting to wear off.

~*~

The letter arrived tied to the leg of a vaguely familiar owl. Untying the missive he fed the bird a treat before sending it on its way. Quickly written and brief, he read it over several times returning to his desk. What the letter said, it was unbelievable.

‘Cousin,
While there are a great many things we disagree on and I have questioned many of the choices you have made in your life, I could not in good conscience deny you what I have just learned this night. Headmistress McGonagall’s young grandson Cygnus is visiting Hogwarts. He shall not be here long. He attended the Salem Institute and looks no older than Draco. In truth he looks much like his mother. He even has her changeable green eyes.’

The note was unsigned, but Lucius had no trouble recognizing his older cousin’s hand. Her news was staggering, stirring a confusion of emotions he could not even begin to understand. McGonagall, that interfering harridan. Her grandson, Cygnus, the swan constellation that shared the heavens with Draco. Could it be mere coincidence?

Silk ghosted across his shoulders, falling down to drape his chest in a shimmering of pale gold. “Who is the letter from, my love?” Narcissa spoke softly into his ear, fingers stroking his temple.

Lucius caught the slender, delicate hand in his own, pressing a kiss to her slightly chill palm. “Poppy. She’s sent word of Turan, our lost swan.”


TBC.