The Letter & The Meeting

It was going to be a hot summer in England. The heat was unbearable from the moment Mari returned to her home country and despite of the weather, she was happy to roam familiar streets once again though she still missed the familiar people and those wouldn't just go roaming around London. Mari was just finished buying the groceries in her apartment when a though occured to her to call on her good friend, Khaat. She didn't know why was seing her first so crucial, but once she started a letter, she was already burning in desire to see her.

Dearest K,

I know it has been a really long time since our last contact, I hope you are well. I'm sorry for not keeping in touch, I was out of town. I leave the details for our encounter since everything I did could hardly be put in a short letter. To keep this short, if you are not too occupied I will stop by your bistro in Hogsmeade on july 5th which is 2 days from now around 10 o'clock in the morning to have breakfast with you. I hope you are free, I will make sure this letter arrives in your hands to leave you enough time to change the houring, I just figured it would be less crowded and less warm so early. I hope on seing you very soon my old friend...

Love,
Mari.

Like the letter said here Mari was in Hogsmeade sitting in a booth in the corner ordering a cup of cherry tea with extra sugar fifteen minutes earlier than agreed. Mickey, her tawny owl returned empty handed (or rather empty clawed) so she assumed Khaat would be here soon. While she sat there waiting, her mind wondered off to Jess first since she usually day-dreamed about her husband, but than more random thoughts started circling her mind. Of all the things, she could think about she was thinking about Mickey, her owl wondering whether Khaat even saw him before and how he seemed to simmilar to many other of his kind.. She entertained herself thinking about the colour of his feathers and stop noticing even when someone brought her the tea she ordered...

Khaat was surprised to get an owl from Mari. It had been a long time since she'd heard from her. So much had changed. It had been at least a couple of years, Khaat thought.

That was before James Blood had created the deep scars on her face. Before he'd paralyzed her arm. It was before she'd married Brian. Khaat had had children, certainly. Mari knew about Mis, and knew about Abbey and Dakota, she was fairly sure. But it was certainly before the triplets, and before her newborn twins. Khaat believed Mari knew she had 3 kids, but in fact, she and Brian now had a total of eight.

"Marcus," she said to her bodyguard. "I need to go out. I need to meet an old friend." She handed him the letter."

"The fifth. That's do-able," he nodded. "Hogsmeade is a good choice. The bistro is a bit quieter this time of year while school is not in session. I think we can do that. I'll see if Tobias has your new summer cloak ready for you."

"Thank you," she said quietly. "I'm not ready for everyone to see my face."

"I know," he said gently. "You're not there to see them. You're there to see your old friend. She wont' think less of you for a few scars. Not if she's the healer you say she is. She'll be alright with it."

"I'm sure you're right," Khaat said.

When Saturday the fifth arrived, Khaat had gathered some wizarding photographs together. She was looking for a small album to put them in, but hadn't found the album she was looking for.

Marcus came in and found her dressed--sort of. Her summer dress wasn't zipped, and she hadn't put on her shoes or done her hair or make up.

"What are you doing?" he frowned. "You seriously aren't still looking for that, are you?"

"It has to be here," she sighed.

"Oh, give me those," he said. He picked up the photos and put the in the inside pocket of his light gray suit. He accio'd her heels for her. "Turn around."

She obeyed, and he zipped her up. She stepped into her tall natural colored shoes as he cast a spell to do her hair in a long, sweeping style to partly hide the left side of her face. He cast a glamour spell to hide as much of the scarring as magic would do, but that was never enough.

"I have your cloak," he said quietly, "but let's not be quite so obvious. Let's do this." He got out the thin white translucent wrap that Michael had given her and draped it over her head like an oversized hood and wrapped the excess around her shoulders. It did shield some of her face and her unusable arm. "Better?"

She looked in the mirror and nodded.

A few moments later, she had let him port them to Hogsmeade. They went into the Library, where the staff recognized Marcus immediately and presumed the woman with him was Khaat. The server pointed out the table where Mari waited.

"Shall I bring you tea?" the server asked.

"No thank you," Marcus said. "French roast, please. For both of us." They went over to the table.

"Hello, Mari," Khaat said, glad to see her again. "This is Marcus Belby. He's my companion." She knew Mari was enough of a trained fighter to recognize a professional bodyguard when she saw one, so she didn't see need to explain Marcus further. She and Marcus took seats at the table. "Its good to see you. Its been much too long."

Mari was still lost in her thoughts. Why was she thinking about her owl? How ridiculus to lead inner monologues over her pet. If she ever told Jess, he would probably tease her about it for the rest of her life.

Too lost in her own world, she didn't even notice when the door opened or when two people came by her. It took years of getting used to not snap at unexpected sound, but it was more instinct than anything else.

Her musing was interupted when a familiar voice spoke up and two people slipped in her booth. That was unexpected. First she took a good look at her friend. Her face was covered, but still her experienced eyes caught the outlines of a few scars that were covering her face. She barely had enough sense to greet her friend before she said anything else. "It's good to see you K. What happened to your face?" she asked immediately when her healer insticts kicked in. Only the person who she introduced as Marcus stopped her from examining her right than.

Mari wasn't scared, however she was cautious especially when the person in question had the look that screamed fighter in her mind. She fought the instict to reach out for her wand, Khaat knew him so she concluded that he wasn't dangerous, at least not to her.

"Good morning Marcus, I assume K. already told you about me, but my name is Mariana Diggory more commonly known as Mari." she said pleasantly confirming the impresssion that he was guarding her friend, although she still needed to know from what. She had a lot of questions, but didn't want to overwhealm her friend, so she waited to see how much was Khaat willing to reveal. I wonder if she would let me examine her.. she thought for herself, but didn't want to voice that thought although she was scanning her mind already about all her knowledge on magical scars and muggle scars.. Before her thoughts could get any more vague she turned her full attention back to K.

"Good morning, Mari," Marcus smiled. "She did fill me in just a bit. Not a lot--I try not to pry. I generally trust her judgment in people." He looked at Khaat. "What would you like to order?"

"Could you just order a plate of scones, please?" she asked. "An assortment is fine."

"Good idea. I'll take care of it," he said, knowing there would be more than enough to share, along with a great selection of jams and creams alongside. Trying to make just a small casual gesture of it, he took her napkin from off the left side of her place setting and laid it in her lap, knowing her arm and her hand wasn't going to move.

"Sorry about the scarf," she told Mari, "Its been in the Prophet, but for some reason, I just don't like dealing with everyone staring at me. I was attacked by a werewolf in September. I've seen every healer that I know, except my father. Well, let me correct that. He's had his own health issues. He believes he can remove it over time if he works at it, but he has to recover his own energies first. There's a lot of tissue and bone that's just gone. Its going to take some extreme regenerating."

"He damaged her arm too," Marcus said quietly. "She nearly lost it. Robert's best guess is that when he can tend to it, it may take months to determine if she'll ever move it again."

"He's probably the deadliest werewolf I've ever heard of in our time," Khaat told Mari. "Fenrir is dangerous, certainly, but there is an insanity about this new one that makes him far more unpredictable and volatile. He's kidnapping and killing men, women and children just because he can. He believes that if a human doesn't agree to be turned to a werewolf, then there's no purpose for that human other than to be prey. So far, we haven't been able to catch him."

"Do try not to go out alone after dark," Marcus told Mari. "He's not dependent just on the full moon, or doesn't seem to be. And if you run into him, do try to avoid letting him know you know Khaat. You certainly will be safer."

Even though, Marcus seemed nice enough, it wasn't in Mari's nature to put her guard down so easily though she did loosen up a little when he spoke up.

Her brain was trying to recieve the overwhealming amount of information they both together bombarded her with. Her emotions ranged from anger toward this werewolf she needed to put a face to and grief for her friend. To her apppearances were not important, but to being so violently desfigured, all in one night (or day she wasn't quite sure and didn't want to know anyway..).


"My guess K. is that if there is a potion that can regenerate non-exsistent bones, there has to be one that does the same to the ones that have been damaged." Mari finally said remembering about what Harry said about Madame Pomfrey making bones in his arms grow back again. The memory itself was too vague since she was only 6 and she was still in shock after her parents died. "I wish I could contact my old potions teacher or Arthur, they could give me a few tips.." she mused for herself though loud enough for her friend to hear what she was saying.

Only for something to do, she took a sip of her cherry tea. It was hot, but refreshing at the same time. Suddenly she wondered whether they had ice tea in here, but pushed her thought back where it came from when Marcus came back remembering the issue in hand. "Hmm.. do tell your father, or if he is still working at the hospital I can, that I want to help him with whatever he is doing. He can be the mind, and me the hands he needs.." she said quietly, her mind still working in overdrive though at least her focus was on her companions.

"My job requires a lot of night shifts, but I'll be on my guard thanks." she told to Marcus as a matter of fact. Did Jess know about this? She should warn him all the same when she goes back home. "Does the ministry know about this, this ... vile creature? Have they issued an arrest warrant?" she asked struggling with the correct term that would show her fury toward him and yet keep her calm at the same time...

Mari mentioned Robert, and Khaat smiled slightly. Robert was always working on something. He did have that slightly workaholic tendency.

"I'll tell him," she said. "Actually, he has an old friend who is doing some interesting potions work. He's working on some things to deflect werewolves. He's hoping to find some things that people might be able to carry with them and perhaps throw to ward any werewolves away from them until they can get the packs under control a bit. I'm sure he'd let you work with him if I mentioned you to him. He's a fine potions master.

"But in answer to your question, yes. The Ministry does know about the werewolf issue. Blood has been incredibly hard to catch and very elusive." The violence had been sporadic from the pack. Blood usually took women and children in order to grow is pack. It had been quiet, though, since his lair had been found and destroyed. Khaat knew that was temporary. He would resurface at some point.

"The fact of the matter is that if they really want to find James Blood, I'm the best bait they've got," she said. "He has a list of priorities, but it seems I'm on the top of his list."

Mari's brow furrowed at the ministry's current tactics. "I don't like the idea of you as a bait, especially because I don't know if you'll be able to defend yourself since one of your arms is useless at the moment." she said thoughtful. Whose idea was this anyway? Either the new minister was stupid or she was actually missing something that he knew and that was vital.

"What's the best tactics if I encounter him by accident? Is there a spell or anything else that could be helpful?" she asked considering the unlikeliness of the postivie answer. He would probably just jump her from the back and it would be over before she even has time to raise her wand. She almost shuddered at the thought. When was the last time she read the daily prophet? Too many things took her by surprise and it was obvious something was happening.

Incredible, she was talking to her friend for the first time in so long and yet the first topic of their conversation was a werewolf that could kill them all. She almost expected him to jump them right here. "But you didn't tell me how are my neices? I miss them a great deal." she commented quickly trying to lighten an atmosphere a bit. She did have a habit of calling them neices even though Khaat wasn't actually her sister or related to her in any way. She had no idea how old were they now for cryin* out loud. But she did remember 3 girls that were some mixture of her friends, sisters and neices at the same time.

"I know," Khaat replied when Mari didn't like her plan. "But its true. Blood has it in his head that he's got this really unhealthy attraction to me. He would do just about anything, I think, to catch me. He sort of tosses out logic if he thinks he can finally catch me. Personally, if I were you and I ran across him, I'd run. For now, Marcus's job is to keep Blood away from me."

"Nieces," Khaat laughed. "Oh, that's right. Its been awhile. Well, they're growing. Abbey and Dakota are both 4 now. But you're a bit behind. Since I saw you last I had a set of triplets, and I just had identical twin boys. So, there are five more from when I saw you last."

Marcus laid the stack of wizarding photos of the children in front of her. Khaat took a photo of the triplets and handed them to Mari.

"Those are the triplets. They're two now. They'll be three next month. That one is Robert Remus, the other boy is Michael Brian, and the girl is Julia Katherine," she said. She began looking for pictures of the newborn twins.

"Ah, here they are. They're still newborns. Daniel and Benjamin. We weren't counting on the triplets, let alone the twins. Both pregnancies were surprises, but we've gotten to like having a really busy house."

"I still don't like this idea of you as a bait, with or without Marcus at your side. If he is dangerous like you say, he won't think twice about killing you both the moment you are on his radar." Mari muttered in dissatisfaction on the absudity of this situation. "I didn't plan to hang out with him, but in case I can't run fast enough, I was just wondering what works as a distraction.. she almost laughed at the idea. No matter how brave she was, hanging out with werewolves whose only purpose was death and despair wasn't her idea of showing courage, more like showing stupidity.

Surprise! She almost shouted Whaaat to her friend, she wasn't gone that long. Khaat must have been preganant when Mari left. She did nothing as to hide her astonishment as her friend declared she had 5 more nephews. Her eyes were wide as she observed more and more of her new nephews and neices.

She tried to put on a serious tone as she said next thing, but her expression especially the glow in her eyes was giving her away. "K. if you keep doing it at this rate, I won't remember their names. You need to stop making me a multiple aunt at this pace." she said in mock reprimanding. The truth however is that she liked kids, and Khaat probably knew that by now.

"I'll need to come and see them soon, but tell me what's it like wth 8 small children in the house?" she asked amused. Only imagining it was funny especially with two new-borns.

"Meat," Marcus offered, with a bit of humor. "If you just happen to have a leg of lamb in your pocket. It is a dandy distraction."

"Or, use your patronus," Khaat said. "It shines a light bright enough that it might temporarily distract him. And if it doesn't do that, it might well make him think twice because he knows that brings do-gooders in a hurry."

When Mari mentioned not remembering her kids' names, Khaat laughed.

"We have issues telling the boys apart," Khaat said. "Robert and Michael look very much alike. And Daniel and Benjamin are impossible at this age to tell apart. But having eight kids under four in the house is a bit chaotic. Especially at the dinner table. Dakota seems to like food fights. We're working on that, but she is incredibly independent. Guess she gets that honestly from Mis. But--as chaotic as it is, Brian and I love it. I don't know that we'd have changed a thing. And you know my parents love it. They never dreamed, with one child, they'd have this many grandkids. But tell me, what's been going on with you?"