Master of Death, Lover Witches

The second two parts of this chapter will be going up tomorrow and the day after, one each day, as I try to catch up after being sick for the last week. Each part is the length of a normal chapter. Enjoy!

Su Li was eight years old on the day she would forever remember her grandfather by.

Every year they did it— her parents, her, and her grandfather himself, gathering in late January at her grandfather's home. He lived in a simple house, with forest on one side, the trees standing tall with dark spaces between them. Su's family assembled outside, standing atop dewy grass in the biting nighttime air. But the cold never lasted for long.

Holding the stuffed goose toy she slept with every night, Su watched, entranced, as her grandfather began the annual dance.

He stomped his feet, first leaning his weight to the right, then shifting it onto the left. He skipped about, moving jerkily. The only smooth thing about him was his wand, flowing in elaborate patterns, and from its tip spewed fire.

Su's mother and father also had their wands raised, but instead of fire they conjured sharp bangs. Her grandfather moved in time with the sounds, and so did the flames.

It rose in great shapes. Tendrils split off, taking the form of lanterns, while between them a many-legged serpent made of pure sparks slithered in the sky, long whiskers trailing from its snout.

In years to come, this serpent would be replaced with a small darting mouse, or a proud and prowling lion. But on that night, under those stars, it was a snake, for this was the Year of the Dragon they were welcoming.

The more her grandfather danced, the more life the dragon flew with, until he lowered his wand with a sheen of sweat all across his tanned skin, and the dragon kept flying on its own.

"Ye Ye," Su said, "your snake got loose."

Her grandfather laughed. He bent down on one knee, placing himself at her eye level, as he always did to speak with her.

"It was never mine," he told her. "That snake is here to protect us."

Su looked up, at the flaming lanterns above them and the fiery dragon, streaking over their heads like a comet, framed against the darkened sky.

"Protect us from what?" she asked.

"Something very frightening," her grandfather said. "A monster known as the Nian, that even Muggles know but only wizards truly understand. Long ago, it would snatch and eat up young boys and girls… as small as you!"

Su stepped back quickly as her grandfather chuckled.

"Stop scaring her!" said Su's mom.

Her grandfather cupped her arms, stopping Su from retreating any further.

"Don't worry, little one," he said. "The Nian is a monster from the homeland that we left, not cold and dreary Britain. But just in case, on this day when the Nian used to emerge, we fend it off the same way that our ancestors learned to. Always remember this: fire, loud noises, and the color red. Those are the things that the Nian fears. So long as you have those, you'll always be safe."

"What if I can't get any of those?" Su asked, thinking fearfully that the reason he could be so calm about this was because he was not a small girl, and so was not in any danger of being eaten.

Her grandfather leaned in, bumping her forehead with his own. And as he did, the dragon he had conjured flew overhead again, reflecting in his dark-pupiled eyes.

"In our village, none were better at these spells than I was," he told her, "and I have not allowed my skills to slip one bit in the time since. Do not worry. I promise you, every year, you will have all the fire and noise you could ever want, for as long as I am here."

O-O-O

Su didn't know what in Merlin's name she was doing, which was a ludicrous thing for a Ravenclaw to admit. Even worse, she was skipping classes. On her first day.

She could already hear her mother's voice. 

"Su, don't you want to follow in your Ye Ye's footsteps? You cannot get detention! You must go to class! Exceeds Expectations will not be enough to become an Unspeakable!"

Su looked toward the ceiling, attempting to blot out both her mother's voice and the pungent scent of owl dung around her.

"I know I'm screwing up," she mumbled. "Of course I know that! But what else am I supposed to do?"

"How should I know?"

BANG!

Su shot to her feet with a scream. She'd picked the Owlery partially because she couldn't stop thinking about the letter she hoped to receive any day, and partially because no one ever visited it on the first day of school.

Except, apparently, Harry damn Potter.

The Boy Who Lived peered at her over the top of a nice, cozy armchair, which he had levitated all the way up the stairs, then promptly dropped on the Owlery floor. That had been the cause of the bang. Even after discovering the source, Su still felt her heart beating much too fast from fright.

Seeing that she wasn't answering him, Harry shrugged and proceeded to drag his chair across the floor. When he approached the roosting owls, a snowy white one fluttered down to land on a lower perch. 

"What do you think, girl," Harry asked, looking between the owl and the chair a couple of times. "Could you get that all the way to him?"

The owl cocked its head, doing an impressive job expressing disbelief. It leaned down, pecking Harry's nose sharply.

"Ow!" Harry exclaimed, rubbing the spot. "Yeah, yeah. I get it. Stupid question."

He turned to the recliner and sighed so sadly that Su felt compelled to ask, "What are you trying to do with that?"

"I want to get it overseas, as a gift to an old friend," he said. "It's a bit heavy, though, to travel halfway around the world."

"And you thought your owl could carry that?"

"Hedwig here has already made sure I know how stupid that idea was," he said. "I'll figure something else out."

He walked around, dropping into the recliner he had failed to ship across continents, and crossed his legs, looking at her. His owl fluttered down a moment later, landing on one of the armrests.

"Now that you got to know — and make fun of — the reason that I'm here… what about you, Su?"

"You know who I am?" Su asked.

"We're in the same year. It would be a bit strange if I had no idea."

"I guess," Su admitted.

She just never expected Harry Potter to pay much attention to the little people around him. Maybe it was silly, because he was a classmate like any other, but she always assumed that he just had bigger things on his mind, between being a Quidditch star, international celebrity, and gaining (as well as losing) more house points than anybody else at the school. If you lived a life like that, why remember the name of one Ravenclaw girl you shared a few charms classes with?

"So?" said Harry.

Su nearly told him it was nothing. She almost lied that she was here for a bit of fresh air, the way she'd been passing off her strange behavior to friends for the last day and a half.

But… Harry was basically a stranger. And he was trying awfully hard to listen to her. Before she hardly realized what she was doing, Su had begun to talk.

"Over summer, my grandfather died. He was old, but it just… doesn't feel real still. I looked up to him more than anything. He was the one who first brought our family over from China. He worked as an Unspeakable, and he always seemed to love it so much that, growing up, I couldn't help but think, 'I want to do that too!'"

Harry stroked the side of his owl's head. "Tell me about him," he said.

And Su did.

She told Harry how her grandfather's favorite candy had been sugar quills, and how he stockpiled so many that he eventually ran out of real ones to write with. She talked about his deep love of the color red, to the point that when his son was sorted into Ravenclaw, he wrote to the headmaster, detailing across a four-page essay all the advantages of swapping Gryffindor and Ravenclaw's colors, so that "the clear best house could enjoy the best color, as they deserved." Su even spoke of his work before joining the Unspeakables, and how she would always remember peeking into his room, late at night, to find him scribbling away under the light of a Lumos spell. She said, her voice hitching briefly as she did so, that her Grandfather often claimed that the mind was the most important part of any person, and that the rest of your body was nothing more than its vessel.

Only when she paused to collect her breath, many stories later, did Su realized she was smiling for the first time in days. Harry was smiling too.

"He sounds like a good man," he said.

"He was."

"Then, if you'll let me, I'd like to give a little bit of advice." Harry leaned forward, looking at her over the tops of his glasses. "Treasure your memories of him. Don't forget the man he was. But even though you miss him, keep moving forward, because passing on at the end of a long life is its own reward, not a punishment."

Su nodded, but she couldn't look him in the eyes as she did. She chewed her lip, feeling her nails slicing the palm of either hand.

Harry's eyes narrowed. "There's something more to all this, isn't there?" he asked.

Su didn't answer.

"It's alright. You don't have to tell me, if you don't want to. But if you need help… I'm right here."

Su nodded again, and turned away very quickly, hoping that he hadn't seen the tears that were beginning to form. She paced away from the Owlery.

And, behind her, she could feel those green eyes against her back, watching her the whole way.

O-O-O

By the end of the day, Su was so sick of it. Her friends meant well, but their soft looks to each other when they thought she wasn't looking, and the way they danced around her as if she were made of glass, instilled an urge in her to scream. Because skipping classes and getting called into Flitwick's office on the first day was mortifying enough, Su didn't give into this urge, but that didn't make it go away.

She was grateful to finally pull the curtains shut on her four-poster bed in the Ravenclaw Girls Dorm. Sleep was slow coming for her anxiety-ridden mind, but she longed desperately for it, and eventually, it arrived.

Her dreams ensured that the wait wasn't worth it.

Su found herself standing in a hazy version of the woods outside her grandfather's home. It was dark, but unlike how she remembered it, there were no lanterns, bangs, or flaming shapes. It was only her and her grandfather, who was standing a distance away with his back to her, his wand held idly beside his hip.

She walked toward her grandfather, but although he wasn't far, it took her ages to reach him, because her legs shrunk with each step. By the time she reached his side, she was eight years old again

"Ye Ye?" Su asked, her voice as high-pitched as it had been in the past. "Ye Ye, conjure the flames! We need fire!"

She grabbed his hand, finding it cool to the touch. She yanked his arm, desperately pushing past the unease she was feeling.

Her grandfather turned toward her, but only because she pulled him, as if he were a marionette unable to move on his own. Su looked into his eyes, and screamed.

His mouth was open, drool dribbling from the corner of his mouth. His dark eyes were cross-eyed. Just from one look, Su could tell, right down to her core, that if she were to open up his skull, she would find nothing but an empty cavity.

Something roared. The world shook. From the woods a titanic shape soared out, coming straight for them. Su screamed again, dropping her grandfather's hand and scrambling back, all too slowly.

The Nian consumed her, and she woke up screaming. 

She pressed both hands to her head. Her panting breaths had a tremor to them, while all around her she'd sweated through her blankets. Su felt her fingers shaking.

She should have felt relieved that it was all a dream. Instead, she could do nothing but dwell on what had been true within it.

Su scattered her blankets, hurling them off. When she pulled back the curtains of her bed, light was leaking in the dormitory window. It was early, but still morning. She gathered her clothes, leaving the room.

Showering quickly (to clean her body, and to clear her head) she dressed and went to breakfast. She found the Great Hall far emptier than usual, although there were students scattered about. At the Gryffindor table, Harry looked up from fiddling with what looked suspiciously like a shrunken armchair, waving at Su. She managed to wave back.

She ate quickly, feeling calmer by the end of her meal. In fact, she felt almost returned to normal, until the post arrived, and an owl she had never seen before dropped a letter in front of her.

At first, Su just stared at it. The envelope had 'Ms. Li' written on it in scrawling script. Hands trembling, Su tore it open, eyes devouring the letter held within.

Dear Ms. Li.

First of all, as dear friends of your late grandfather, we must say that his passing has affected all of us. It heartens us to see that he had a granddaughter who loved him dearly enough to pen your letter that reached us. Now, on a personal note, I believe that you wrote about your desire for his body to be returned to your family, for a proper burial. I confess, this has me stumped. We Unspeakables have already done this, you see, with only one tiny exception. And, if what you meant in your letter was that you would like his brain returned, too, then I can only ask you not to be selfish. Zhen Li possessed an exceptional mind, one that will be better off in our care. I notice you professed your own dream of following in his footsteps as an Unspeakable. If you cannot understand something this simple (and, indeed, if you saw the need to pose such a ridiculous question in the first place) then I'm afraid I don't see the slightest bit of hope for you. I advise you find a new dream.

All the best,

Broderick Bode, and the rest of the Unspeakables Office.

Su was overcome with such a rush of anger as she reached the end of the letter that something which had not happened for years occurred. She enacted accidental magic, frying the paper into a smoldering black crisp.

The students either side of her yelped, scooting further away. Others looked over at the noise, only seeing wisps of smoke rising up from between Su's hands. The Ravenclaw girl didn't notice. She was too stuck inside of memories.

She had been there herself, with her parents, on the day her grandfather passed suddenly. Even in his old age he had refused to stop working, going into the Ministry each day. So when his years finally caught up with him, they did so beneath the earth, in the underground department where he devoted decades of his life.

Yet the body the Unspeakables returned had been wrong. Su just knew, from the first moment she saw it. It was hollow in the most crucial way. It was, as her grandfather would've put it, nothing but the vessel.

Her parents had proceeded with the funeral. They bathed her grandfather's wand-arm with water, cleansing it for the next life, then placed him in the casket, conjuring candles and lit sticks of incense. Su helped them. But she cried as she did, because it all felt wrong.

She wrote the Unspeakables herself. She begged them, although she did so with concise language and rational arguments, because she never got the impression they were the type to be swayed by pity. 

More people looked toward her as she suddenly struck the table in front of her, making her fork rattle against her cleared plate. Apparently, even logic had not been enough to reach them. A few lines of empty platitudes, followed by a rejection even harsher and more condescending than she thought possible.

When she looked up, Su discovered someone familiar among the students looking at her. 

Surrounded by his friends, Harry Potter watched her silently. They made eye contact, and Su jolted. She swore she could feel his attention, as if it were tangible.

"But if you need help… I'm right here," he had said.

He was a student, just like her. Unspeakables sometimes ignored the Minister of Magic himself, if they disliked his decisions. What could Harry possibly do? He would be just as helpless as her.

So why was she standing up, climbing over the bench and walking toward him?

More eyes followed her as she walked, leaving behind the table where she belonged to approach the red-and-gold one. Nerves set in. She wasn't used to being paid attention to like this. Her mind screamed at her to turn around and sit back down.

She completed the walk, standing directly in front of Harry, holding onto fistfuls of her robes and looking toward the floor.

"I need help," she said, very quietly.

He smiled at her, and stood up, not needing to hear a single thing more than that.