Cockney Accents and Motherly Advice

Don’t have a bloody clue!? Rob fumed in his mind. He trotted over to the bed and pulled the bag of vials away. Khaat seemed otherwise... busy... so this was the perfect opportunity to steal the stuff and dispose of it. He still couldn’t believe he was still highly sensitive to it but he’d get over it. Khaat was never going to Knockturn Alley again. That was Jenifer’s playing ground. He didn’t want Khaat to have anything to do with that madness.

Rob picked the bag up by the straps and held it between his teeth. He ran out of the bedroom and ran down the stairs, managing to stay on his feet despite nearly falling both times. He ran into the living room and dumped the back of vials on the couch before running up to Robert. He yipped a few times and tried to make gestures with his head but he was probably only communicating that he was hungry.

He ran back over to the couch and dragged the bag of vials off. He pulled them along the floor to Robert’s feet and sat back to look up at his father-in-law. The man probably thought he was a fool but Rob didn’t care. Khaat wouldn’t have let him as close as he’d gotten and he was glad he had his Animagus otherwise he would have had to try out self-transfiguration and the last time that happened he turned himself into a plum that Jenifer nearly ate.

Robert saw immediately through the labrador animagus to see his son in law, and as a Master Healer, he saw all too quickly what was wrong with Khaat's magic and Rob's. He restrained the impulse to laugh just a little, and kept a stonefaced look at the young man. He sat down in a chair and set his bag on the floor, tapping his wand on his knee. "Well, gone and got yourself stuck like that, have you? Do you want me to change you back? "

Rob scowled at his father-in-law. The man must have found it hilarious. This wasn’t a question, who in their right mind wanted to stay as a dog for the rest of their life!? He must have been as thick as a wooden post. Rob sighed and nodded his head. This meant that he had to face up to everything that he’d actually done and tell Khaat exactly what had happened between him and Isidora. It was months ago though, before he’d even met Khaat. He couldn’t be held responsible for that.

"I'm really not laughing, Truthfully, I'm not," Robert said gently. "I'm sorry we didn't get on the other day, but the magical energy in this house is all buggered up. And, honestly, I have to start by sorting you out. I could do it in two bits, but that's not pleasant either. This will sting a bit." He leveled his wand at Rob, sort of regretting that this would hurt a bit more than that, but the sting wore off fast. He fired a powerful duel spell at Rob to correct the two problems he'd diagnosed, at the same time, preparing it would blast the poor Robdog off his four paws.

The spell hit him and he really wished he could have stayed as a dog. He didn’t believe that Robert wanted to cause him pain but that still made him angry slightly. He hit the ground again and exhaled. He felt better but he ached. His magic was better and it seemed that all it needed was that final buzz. He coughed a few times and pushed himself up off of the floor. He missed the fur, though. He felt cold. He could still smell that bloody potion. Granted it wasn’t as powerful but he could still smell it and that bothered him more than the fact that Khaat was taking it.

“In the bag, vials of Knockturn Alley knockoffs.” Rob coughed as he rose up off of the floor. “She’s not well. That stuff is lethal when it gets into the bloodstream.”

Robert went over to Khaat's bag and picked up one of the vials. Robert opened the vial and took a slight smell. "Hmm. I know this stuff--much too well. They've been selling this crap for generations. You do realize this will kill Khaat and your child, right? And as much as she's bought here, my guess is that she is already addicted. Do you know why this is so attractive? It numbs the mind and the emotions. Keeps the user from thinking or feeling about much of anything. Keeps it away. We have to get her off this, but that isn't going to be easy, pretty, or without great risk to her and the baby. How do you want to do this? She will be very sick for awhile, and will need round the clock care for a bit. I can certainly stay and do that, but she's your wife. You tell me what you want. Oh, and by the way, I presume you would like the proper explanation for why you ran out of magic?"

“I know what it is.” Rob snapped, now irritated. He might have been naive to life but he wasn’t an idiot when it came to potions. He and Jen had dealt a lot in the illegal trade of the stuff and he’d seen most of the effects before. “I know what it is, I know where you can get it and I know what it does, okay!? I might look like a hopeless idiot but I’m not, alright? Whether you like it or not she’s my wife and I want to look after her! I don’t care whether I have to stay awake for the next seven months! I’ll live on coffee and pepper-up potions! So you can stop patronising me because it is my job to look after her. I know I’ve made a pretty poor attempt so far but I can start over! Nothing is going to happen to either of them!”

Rob sighed and sat down on the couch. He ran his hands through his hair and looked up at Robert hesitantly. “Look, I’m sorry. I know I haven’t exactly been very adult these last few days but I don’t know if I’m ready to step up to the plate and be a good husband and a good f-father.” He couldn’t help but choke a bit there. “I’m sorry. You can tell me why I was nigh on a squib and hit me with your bag now. Just do whatever, hex me into the next century or something.

Release your frustration on the biggest screw up the world has ever seen. It’s great how the whole thing goes round, eh? I screw up, run away, and come back. I screw up, run away and come back. I wonder what it’ll be about next time. Perhaps a stupid argument between Khaat and my sister that I was stupid enough to get in the middle of or maybe it’s because I’m not good enough to be part of this bloody family!!” Somehow, though, during his tirade Rob had managed to keep his voice quite low. He didn’t want to alert Khaat of his presence just yet. Rob groaned again and dropped his head into his hands. “I’m just really irritable lately and I shouldn’t be taking it out on you. You don’t deserve to have to put up with all of my bullshit. I’m really sorry, Robert.”

"It's alright," Robert said quietly. "Better now and with me than with Khaat. And I know you'd like to give her what for about now. So would I. She knows better. I understand perfectly why she did it, but I don't have to like it. She's a determined stubborn woman who refuses to let go of her pain and only knows how to compound it. So, now she'd turned to numbing it.

"Katherine and I, neither one, see you as a screw up. The only one who sees you as that is you. Hard as that is for you to accept. But, you truly do need to know this. Your magic shorted out because you have bonded, for better or for worse--no pun intended, to Khaat. You now get your magic from her. You separated from her too long and ran out of magic. Let me show you something. "

He plucked out two strands of Rob's hair, without Rob's permission, and put them into a vial. He took an envelope out of his pocket and retrieved two more strands. "Watch," He nodded at the vial, He swirled the vial with Rob's hair, and the hair turned into a strand of blue shimmering light. Just a single thread. "There. That's you. Well, you as you are now. Observe." He put the two new hairs in the vial and swirled them again. The new hairs turned into shimmering emerald light. "Khaat," he pronounced the green threads. "Now, watch this." He swirled the vial a third time and the threads blended together into a beautiful turquoise light. "That's you now--really and truly. It takes her magic and yours now to make either of you work. Now--watch this." He drew out another vial that held a strand of pale green light. "This is what Khaat's magic looks like on her own. But there's more." He added two more strands of hair from a second envelope and swirled it. The new hairs became dark forest green light. "That's me," Robert said. He swirled the vial one more time and it produce the emerald green thread that Rob had seen in the first vial. "Khaat has gotten her magic from me since Remus died. She bonded to him and when he died, I had to bond to her in order to save her life. There wasn't enough of her left to do anything else. She gets it from me, and now you get it from her. It doesn't happen often, except in those rare cases where a deep love exists.

"It may not be what you want to hear but my guess is that you bonded to her the night she nearly died when she blew up that damned amulet because of your love for her. She does not know about any of this. If she lives, it will be because of you. I can help, but this" He shook the vial of blended magic, "this will be what saves her. What I did to 'fix' you was to, more or less, jumpstart you with a bit of my magic, since it is the core of what now fuels Khaat anyway.

"Getting her back will not be easy, but I presume it is alright if I go see her now? And are you coming? I presume you also want to know how this has affected Abbey."

He was feeling more overwhelmed than he thought possible. He just wanted to sleep. Whether his magic had been given a kick start or not he still felt like road kill. He wouldn’t have actually minded his grandmother trying to force meat on him at that moment. He needed something stronger than magic-buzzes that only lasted ten minutes. He seriously wondered if wizards and witches could live without their magical core. Muggles could but they were born without it. Squibs were defective. But what about those stripped of their magic? He didn’t think there was one on record that lived out a normal human life again. “Presume nothing.” Rob said darkly. “I want to know everything about her. Whether she’ll be alright or not is important but I feel as if I’ve missed so much already.” Rob sighed. “Let’s go upstairs.”