Don't Forget to Feed the Furniture

ooc: you might want to read kitty's article to catch up so that this post makes sense. https://www.pottersarmy.net/t18361-khaat-lupin-speaks-out-exclusive-interview


Michael was out of town, on something or another at Robert's request. Michael was concerned for his dogs, and he'd asked Khaat if she'd mind terribly just stopping by to take care of them. There were few people that understood footstools properly. Besides that, Khaat was becoming a hermit in her own estate since James had disfigured her.

She had reluctantly agreed. Her bodyguard, Marcus, had talked to her that it was merely porting to Michael's, which had always been a safe place for her, and porting back. He had promised he would not leave her, that no one need see her. It would be an easy in, easy out. The danger from James would be minimal. And so they had gone, right after a fresh morning rain that left everything smelling clean and new. She liked the rain, really.

She had worn a long black cloak with a full hood that was pulled up to try to hide her he scars on the left side of her face and neck and to hide her left arm that was still completely paralyzed. Marcus Belby was, as always, glued to her. She arrived at Michael's and let the dogs out in the front yard to run. She was not surprised when they were followed by the kleptomaniac hat rack, with the sofa and the coffee table galloping out behind them. Michael had been steadily expanding the animation charms on the house until the place almost ran itself.

"Damned dogs ate all the socks," Marcus called back to her, looking in the house at the sock basket.

"Well, of course they did," she said, not surprised. "There are some in my cloak pocket. Can you get them?" He reached into her cloak to the inside left pocket and drew out a shrunken bag of socks. He resized them, and the dogs went nuts, running and jumping and barking.

"Look at his flower beds," she sighed. "Overgrown with weeds."

"Try the new charm he said he made."

"Weeds!" she commanded in a strong voice. At her command the flowerbeds appeared to just literally spit out the weeds. "Well, I'll be damned. That ridiculous spell actually works," she frowned.

"Yeah, well, one of the footstools just peed on my shoe, I think," Marcus frowned. "Aren't they housebroken?"

"Yes. They're just glad to see us," she said.

"I don't want to see what the sofa will do to my shoes, then," he sighed.

Matt may have disappeared off the face of the earth but that didn't mean that he'd become a monster. He still cared for his friends despite never making an attempt to see any of them. It meant that in certain cases, if he was in the area, he would drop by and check on an old friend. But over the year he had regretfully ignored a very strong emotional rock in his life, Khaat Lupin. He had closed essentially every tie with her. He didn't want his issues to become her issues. But as he had found out only a few days before she had some pretty big issues of her own.

He had been absentmindedly sitting in an ice cream shop in Diagon Alley reading a newspaper when he overheard a couple mention the Lupin name. He only caught a snippet of the conversation but it was enough to hear "Lupin" "Werewolf" and "Attack". Naturally a large portion of the wizard world associated the Lupin family with werewolves. However in this instance Matt felt the need to do some research. And it wasn't long after speaking with some strangers and a snitch here and there that he had learned that his dear old friend Khaat had been attacked by a new werewolf Matt had never heard of before. But with the surname Blood he knew it couldn't be good.

Matt knew he could never get close enough to speak to Khaat by just showing up at her place. He had to really think about this one. Cause knowing Robert he'd have Khaat either on house arrest with about a dozen security wizards. But knowing Khaat he knew she'd get away at some point. But his route in was going to have to be Michael. Michael would welcome him back with a pat on the back and and insult and that's what he needed. So he made it a point to walk past Michael's house every night just to see if the lights were on. It would seem for the past week he'd continued to miss the man because the lights were always off.

But on this night it appeared his hopes were finally reached. The lights were on and the dogs were barking. Or the furniture.

He looked down at the little home from where he perched himself up on an old broomstick he had been given from an old soothsayer. He could see a figure in the back yard and could hear them speaking to a second party. Maybe Robert was there too. Oh that would be fantastic! He rode the broom down silently to the fence post and stood on the wooden bits. He hovered it closer to the figure in the cloak.

"You know old man, I never pegged you as the cloak and dagger kind of guy." he laughed as he jumped off the broomstick and onto the ground off to the side of who he presumed was Michael.

Marcus had decided not to overreact to the case of mistaken identity. The man was not drawing a wand, so Marcus wasn't going to use overkill. Khaat heard the voice behind her that wasn't Marcus and spun around. She was completely unprepared to see, of all people, Matt Lestrange coming back into her life.

"Matt?" she asked, very pleasantly surprised. "No way! That can't possibly be you."

"I take it I shouldn't shoot him?" Marcus asked her, glad to know this was clearly a friend.

"You can leave him be," she said. Then she smiled a bit mischeviously. "For now." Then she figured she needed to do introductions. "Matt, this is Marcus Belby, my bodyguard. I don't know how well connected you were to the Bulgarian government when you were in office, but Marcus was the bodyguard for the Bulgarian Minister of Magic for a long time. He now works for me. Marcus, meet Matt Lestrange."

"Ah," Marcus knew the name. "Minister Lestrange. 'Pleasure to meet you, Sir."

"Marcus has spent far too long in the diplomatic corps," she laughed.

Marcus had knotted two socks together and he handed them to her. She dangled them in front of the footstools and then threw them to let them go argue over which one was going to fetch the socks and eat them.

"Its about time you came home. How many hugs do you owe me, anyway?" she asked Matt.

She deliberately didn't lower her hood. She didn't know what Matt knew or didn't know, but she was guessing he didn't know that Blood had scarred her face, her neck, and her shoulder. She generally tried to spare her friends from, at least, the shock of it. She knew that sparing him the visual would only be momentary, but it might soften it.

The voice that responded to Matt's remark was not male. In fact, the voice made Matt's own heart skip a beat and his knees weaken. He was expecting the familiar smooth voice that was Micheal Tremaine. Not the even smoother and motherly voice of Khaat Lupin. Despite the shock he managed to stay on his feet and even move a little closer.

"Khaat?" he asked as he tried to peer under the hood. He could make the outline of her face but nothing more. "I was, ahem. I was expecting someone else. In case that wasn't obvious." he chuckled. He really couldn't think of anything to say other than

"Hey."

and he gave an awkward wave.

He then turned his attention to the man who had moved somewhat aggressively towards him. Of course he had quickly halted his false pursuit but he still made Matt uneasy. He hadn't even been back a minute in Khaat's life and she was bringing up his time in Office. Oh God what a disaster that had been. He rubbed his forehead at the thought.

"Uhm, I didn't do much with the Bulgarian government. I barely dealt with our our own to be honest. It was more than enough to turn me away from politics for life. I'll tell you that." he said politely to the man. "But it's nice to meet you." he added. It was a little hard to take everything in at once. And it seemed like his brain had shut down just to protect him from the train of emotions that was hitting him. He stopped looking at the man and turned to Khaat again.

"Oh goodness I've missed you Khaat." he said with a small smile. He was definitely ready to squeeze her to death with a bear hug. "But uh, I gotta ask," he began. "What's with the hood? I never really thought you'd go all 'Maleficent'."

"Michael is off on some secretive bit of weirdness for my father," she said, explaining Michael's absence. "He asked me to stop by and feed the furniture while he was gone. The dogs don't always take well to others who don't understand magical furniture."

She was glad to be able to give him a hug--of sorts. Her hugs weren't what the used to be. They felt, for her, rather one sided since one arm didn't move.

"This is my new spring look," she teased Matt. "I toyed with borrowing that old Death Eaters mask my father had leftover from some duel years ago, but he'd prefer I didn't.

"As it happens, I've been having werewolf problems. I've got a few more scars than I used to have, and, well, my father isn't able yet to heal them. Glamour spells won't cover them. So, yeah, the wicked fairy godmother look seems to be more in fashion for me this spring." She looked at Marcus. "Do you know how to get the kitchen to brew tea?"

"Sure," Marcus said. He went to the kitchen door and looked inside. "Hey! Look sharp. You have guests. Tea tray, please!" Khaat heard the clatter of the kitchen's enchantments starting to make tea.

"Michael's made just about everything in the house animated now," she told Matt.

Ah, yes, that was very much like Michael and Robert. In retrospect he probably should have seen it coming. As if his first meeting with Michael after a year would go as smoothly. The perfect dismount from his broom was the giveaway now that he thought about it. Things had gone far too smooth up to that point. But he was pleasantly surprised once the initial shock had passed through him. As she hugged him he could sense that something was physically off with Khaat. Her arm did not move at all; Matt made a mental note.

Matt's assumption had been correct. Khaat had indeed fallen victim to a werewolf attack. But he couldn't help but allow his brain to wander with her passing remark about her father. Robert Lupin could heal nearly everything. He had healed Matt quite expertly as a matter of fact. "Your father?" he inquired with a slightly chuckle. "That old codger can heal nearly anything. I suppose the day would come eventually when he had a run for his money." he added with a sigh.

Tea sounded lovely. He'd been back less than a week and hadn't quite had the chance to sit down for some tea. Of course he'd had a few drinks but nothing as simple as tea time with the Lupins. He smiled at the thought of sitting with Khaat and drinking tea. "Needless to say your life has been interesting in my absence." he added.

"Well," she said, "it honestly has nothing to do with his ability to do it. He is very capable of doing it. However..." she stopped herself, and sighed heavily. "Oh, lord, this is going to take some explaining."

"Look," Marcus said to her. "He's a friend, right?"

"He is," she said. "He's close enough to be Abbey's godfather."

"Then, first of all, quit hiding it from your friends. Its been all over the bloody newspapers. Then, sit. Try telling him the truth." He motioned to the garden furniture. "I'll get the tea." Marcus went to the kitchen door and whistled for the tea tray.

"Marcus has a way of being very direct," she said. "He's right. Let's sit." She went over to the patio furniture and sat down. "There's a lot of trouble," she said. "First, Thaor is...gone," she said, not finding it easy to say Thaor Elldir was dead. "Turned his own wand against himself. It appears he was cursed. Before he passed, though, he tried to assassinate my father and nearly killed him. He buggared up the curse he was casting, and my father's been cursed for months and months.

"It stopped him from a lot of things--including healing the damage after I was attacked by James Blood. Be careful of him, Matt. He's the biggest werewolf I've ever seen or heard of, and he's a monster...."

Marcus brought the tea and added the milk and sugar to her cup and stirred it for her, knowing she couldn't do it well these days, and set it in front of her. "Tea, Mr. Lestrange?" He looked at Khaat. "Enough with the hood," he said quietly to her. She'd been in hiding for nearly a year, and Marcus wanted her to start to move forward. He unfastened her hood and removed it from her, knowing how it made her spirit drop every time she had to face someone else with her scars and her paralyzed arm, and every time she had to face herself in the mirror.

"He can fix it," she said about her father. "But now isn't the time. Long story short, if he does, it could destroy our whole world. This truly is for national security. There is someone wanting to risk us all, and my father needs to do whatever it takes to catch him."