She whispered

by Lucas Chesterton

  ‘Where did he go?’

  A mysterious smile appeared on Draco’s face. ‘To an address in the Midlands’, he said, closely watching his erstwhile teacher’s face.

  Daysen’s heavy brows drew together. ‘The Midlands?’

  ‘A place called Cokeworth, to be precise.’

  ‘He went to my place?’ Daysen started with alarm in his voice. ‘To Spinner’s End?’

  Draco tilted his head. ‘He did go to Spinner’s End. But not to your house.’

  Ill foreboding glittered in Daysen’s black eyes.

  ‘In fact’, Draco went on, ‘he visited the opposite house. As I was able to find out, an old Muggle woman lives there, a Mrs Crawford.’

  Jack shot up from his seat. ‘He went there? McVey did?’

  Draco stared at him blankly. ‘Why does that upset you? And who’s Mrs Crawford?’

  ‘That ��� doesn’t matter.’

  ‘He didn’t talk to an old woman, anyway, but to a young one. I peeked in through the window and saw them chatting in the sitting room. They looked quite relaxed with each other.’

  Jack twitched and paced over to the window, Draco’s eyes following him with an interested gleam. The young wizard had known Daysen since childhood and he could tell when the man was upset. He watched him flexing his fingers as he stared out onto the street below.

  ‘Well, well ���’, Daysen murmured after a while, but the tone of his voice made it clear that nothing was well. ‘How long did McVey stay there?’

  ‘A little over an hour’, Draco reported. ‘Then he took off once more on his broom, this time to Dorset. Grand house, about as large as Malfoy Manor. He didn’t come out until nightfall, then went back to London and spent the rest of the evening in a very dodgy pub on Knockturn Alley, ‘The Green Spider’.’

  ‘Favourite watering hole to that kind of character’, commented Daysen with obvious loathing. ‘And the grand house? Did you find out who it belongs to?’

  Draco nodded curtly. ‘To Aeneas and Magrathea Crowley. I’m sure you have heard about them. They’re in the Prophet all the time.’

  Daysen said nothing, but continued to scowl out of the window.

  Draco watched him for a while, then asked, ‘What’s up with that McVey guy?’

  ‘You haven’t heard of him?’ Jack turned around and folded his arms in front of his chest. ‘Why, of course not, you weren’t a Death Eater long enough. ��� He’s a ��� I don’t know how to put it. A trickster? A negotiator? A fraud? A dark horse, anyway, with plenty of interesting contacts. The Dark Lord used him frequently for his negotiations with possible allies. McVey made contact for us with the giants, the trolls. And he ensured that the goblins would stay neutral, as he is closely connected to them.’

  ‘Looks like one, too.’

  ‘Yeah, but he’s ten times slyer than the average goblin.’

  ‘You don’t like him much’, Draco observed.

  ‘He’s not the kind to be liked. Hard to pidgeonhole. One of those that always make you wonder which side they are on.’

  ‘Do you have a current problem with him?’

  ‘I may have’, Daysen replied noncommittally. ‘The mere fact that he’s around, sticking his nose into things worries me.’

  ‘Do you want me to stay on to him?’

  Daysen taxed Draco in a calculating way. It was obvious that he was pushing something back and forth in his mind. After a while, he shook his head. ‘No. Not for now. ��� However, I may have another assignment for you. If you’re interested.’

  ‘Like I said, I have nothing to do’, Draco said, raising shoulders and arms in a dramatic shrug. ‘I’m glad for some purpose.’

  ‘Are you also up for Occlumency lessons tonight?’

  ‘Sure!’ It sounded nothing short of enthusiastic. In fact, Draco looked at Daysen with a genuine pleased smile.

  ‘Good. Come to my house at around seven. As for any plans that I have for you, I will tell you about them later.’

  ‘What about McVey?’

  Daysen smiled maliciously. ‘I’ll take care of him. Or rather ���’ He broke off, his eyes darkening. ‘Anyway, thank you for doing this for me. ��� You need money?’

  Draco raised a sarcastic eyebrow. ‘I’m a Malfoy. And although my father doesn’t speak to me right now, he hasn’t yet cut me out of my inheritance.’

  ‘Good’, said Daysen with a touch of relief. ‘So your father’s still sulking?’

  ‘Yeah. He had another visit from some Ministry guys, too. Mother told me.’

  ‘I can just about guess why. He was probably asked to corroborate something I told them.’

  ‘The McKinnon thing?’

  Daysen gave a curt nod. ‘Do you know what your father told them?’

  ‘No. But I’ll find out. ��� By the way, my mother sends her regards. She is quite thrilled that you are ��� as she put it ��� ‘keeping an eye on me’.’

  Daysen snorted and again looked pointedly towards the adjacent room and the untidy bed. ‘I’m sure she’d say I’m doing a poor job.’

  Draco grinned. ‘Well, she doesn’t have to know everything. ��� She’d also like to see you at Malfoy Manor one of these days, if you can make it.’

  ‘I hardly think I’m welcome there.’

  ‘Come on, that’s only my huffy dad! Mother’ll make him shut up and behave himself. You know how she can wrap him around her little finger ���’

  ‘Yes, I do.’ Jack grinned in spite of himself. ‘We’ll see. I have plenty on my mind right now. ��� See you tonight, then?’

  ‘Won’t you stay for breakfast? I have ordered something.’

  ‘I’m not hungry. And I have somewhere to be.’ A dark scowl spread on his face.

  Draco accompanied Daysen to the door and bade him goodbye. As he did so, he noticed the tension in the older man’s body. He was still clenching his hands and his movements were twitchier than usual. Draco knew well what this meant: Daysen was angry. Not at him, that much was clear, and the young wizard sensed that it wasn’t so much about McVey, either, but something very different. He watched the black-clad wizard as he stomped down the corridor, and the mere fact that he stomped when he would usually glide said it all. Draco wondered briefly who deserved that anger and he felt a tiny pang of pity for the person who would have to bear the brunt of it ���

  Jack was too upset to bother with the broom and Apparated from the first discrete place he could find directly to Spinner’s End. Without delay, he proceeded to the Crawford house with his blackest scowl firmly in place. As he stood by the front door, he could hear loud rock music from inside. It gave his foul mood a thumping rhythm and the energy went into his knock on the door ��� only to be ignored. Jack swore under his breath and, uncharacteristically, reached for the doorbell, pressing his thumb on the knob for a very long time.

  The music was promptly tuned down, and a moment later he heard footsteps and the door was drawn open. Elena was dressed in jeans and a long-sleeved men’s shirt and smiled at him radiantly, but only for a moment before she saw the look on his face. ‘What’s wrong?’ she asked, bewildered.

  ‘We need to talk’, he growled.

  ‘Now is not really a good ���’

  ‘It has to be now!’

  ‘Alright, alright’, she breathed. ‘Kitchen?’

  He jerked his head and followed her inside, across the hallway where the double-door to the sitting room was wide open. There were remnants of a messy breakfast all over the coffee table, disc sleeves and shells strewn across the carpeted floor. Most disturbingly, there was, once again, a young woman sitting on the couch who, once again, stared at Daysen with wide eyes. She had long dark hair and a face that seemed familiar, but he chose to ignore it. He hardly suffered Elena murmuring a quick apology to her guest and steered towards the kitchen, growling.

  ‘Calm down!’ she hissed as she hurried after him, eliciting a sharp scoff.

  The k
itchen smelt of coffee, there were dirty pans on the stove and fruit peels on the counter. Elena closed the door behind them. ‘What is it?’ she asked right away and stared at him challengingly. She had long ago learnt that submissive apprehension got her nowhere with him, and her body language told Jack that she was preparing herself for a fight. It was totally fine with him.

  ‘Don’t you have something to tell me?’ he started, glowering at her menacingly from behind a curtain of black greasy hair.

  Her face went blank. ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘You know exactly what I mean! McVey?’

  Her mouth opened and closed again. ‘What about him?’ she asked eventually.

  ‘Don’t play stupid! I know he was here!’

  Her eyebrows shot up. ‘So?’

  It brought him close to blowing a fuse. ‘Is that all you have to say? You meet a man behind my back who might be in a conspiracy against me and you don’t waste a thought on telling me?’

  Now she was dumbfounded. ‘Behind your back? ��� I didn’t! And of course I was going to tell you! Tonight, when we would have met for lessons, anyway. I thought that was quite early enough!’

  He issued an evil chuckle. ‘Learnt nothing, have you? Not enough that someone kidnapped you to get to me, no, you’re as happy-go-lucky and trusting as ever, letting that sort of character into your house without so much as a second thought!’

  ‘The man’s with the Ministry, for God’s sake!’ Elena defended herself, albeit a bit lamely.

  ‘That man is manipulative and deceitful! And if I remember correctly, I warned you of him. Also, you should have realized by now that being employed with the Ministry of Magic is hardly a recommendation!’

  She said nothing for a few moments, just looked at him searchingly. ‘Truly, Jack’, she said finally, ‘I didn’t think anything by it. Also, there’s a story to the whole thing; I wanted to tell you all about it tonight, as well, actually I’ve been dying to tell you ���’ Suddenly, she broke off and stared at him suspiciously. ‘Are you stalking me by any chance?’

  ‘Nonsense!’ he snarled.

  ‘I don’t believe you!’ she declared and pushed forward her chin.

  ‘I’m not going to explain myself to you!’ he bellowed, and then ��� quite without realizing it ��� he did it, anyway. ‘I had McVey followed. Only to find out that he came to you!’

  ‘Why did you have him followed?’

  ‘You don’t get to ask why before you tell me what McVey wanted!’

  ‘I don’t get to ���’, she broke off, gasping for air. ‘What exactly are you telling me? That I can’t use my own judgment on when to tell you something? I am to come running to you right away?’

  ‘Exactly’, he said with an acid grin, ‘and I hope I don’t have to tell you why!’

  Her mouth fell open in astonishment, and she laughed harshly. ‘Do you really think you can protect me by controlling everything I do?’

  ‘First of all, I need to be able to trust you!’ Now his eyes were on hers, it was as if he had cornered her with his stare and demanded something, although Elena had a hard time cottoning on to what it was. His anger was so palpable and pressing in on her that she shrank from him a bit.

  ‘Aren’t you?’ she asked in a small voice.

  Daysen saw her apprehensive eyes, the slight tremor of her hands. It made him twitch, look away and he took a few deep breaths before he spoke again. ‘I want to make sure nobody uses you to get to me.’ His voice was a tad calmer now.

  ‘I understand that’, she said, but she had to force herself to speak gently. ‘But sometimes things just happen. Like the day before yesterday. I was having coffee with a friend, and suddenly McVey turns up. Inviting me to come with him to visit Magrathea Crowley.’

  The glare was back. ‘You didn’t ���’

  ‘Yes, I did. ��� Wait a minute, don’t work yourself up again, it was all perfectly safe and I had my friend with me! It was only an invitation for tea. Oh yes, and quite an unmasked attempt at warning me off you.’

  The glare fell, leaving blankness. ‘She warned you off me? I don’t even know that woman!’

  ‘Yet, she has quite an opinion on you. Thought I shouldn’t have to bear your teaching practices and come to her academy instead.’ She grinned. ‘Of course, I told her where to shove her academy. ��� No, no, don’t look at me like that, I was very polite about it!’

  ‘I’m looking at you like that because it was very na��ve to just go off with McVey and visit somebody you don’t know at all!’

  ‘Come on, I know hardly anyone in the wizarding world! Sometimes you have to take chances! And like I said, I had my friend with me.’

  ‘Why are you constantly referring to Hincks as ‘my friend’?’ he snapped suddenly. ‘You did the same after the hearing; do you think I’m stupid?’

  For a few seconds, Elena was lost for words and just rolled her eyes. However, when she looked at him again, her face was friendly. ‘I wasn’t talking about Eddie. On neither occasion.’

  Another uncertain twitch. Abruptly, Daysen turned away, paced towards the stove. Elena suddenly understood what had been riding him and she hung her head to hide a smile.

  ‘Who was with you, then?’ he asked after a while, his voice hoarse and very quiet. He didn’t turn around.

  ‘The woman over there in the sitting room you so graciously ignored. Her name’s Cassandra Cleary. I believe you know her?’

  He half turned, but didn’t look at her; nodded. Then, briefly, his eyes flickered towards her face. Elena sensed that he had just been jolted out of a paranoia that had a lot to do with trust issues and his fear of opening up. She felt that he was trying to let her get closer, but that this triggered irrational responses and desperate measures to regain control. He saw now that he’d let his temper run away with him and was embarrassed.

  Elena came closer. Her voice when she spoke was hardly more than a whisper. ‘Have you forgotten what I told you the other night? I don’t play with men like that, and I wouldn’t go against you, I wouldn’t ���’ She broke off, bit her lip.

  ‘Yes’, he said hastily, eyes still glued to the floor. Seconds dripped by, laden with unspoken meaning. Eventually, Elena broke the awkwardness of the moment by telling him quietly about her visit to Abrasax Manor, what she had found there and what had been said, leaving out only one small detail. Daysen listened, staring ahead of him, and his face was again impassive so that Elena found it impossible to guess at what he was thinking.

  ‘These Crowley people keep creeping up wherever I go’, he murmured when she was finished. ‘Lupin mentioned them, he’s very suspicious where they are concerned. ��� But where does McVey come into this? What has he got to do with them?’

  ‘My impression is that he is somehow indebted to them’, Elena explained. ‘At the same time, he appears to resent that, or otherwise he wouldn’t have wanted to meet me. Some of the things he told me were ��� quite interesting.’

  Jack looked up into her eyes then, and it was a demand to go on.

  ‘I asked him what Magrathea wanted from me’, she complied, ‘and his theory is that she was trying to suss out how close I am to you, and if I could be used against you.’

  ‘I bet he couldn’t tell you what that woman wants from me?’ Daysen asked sarcastically.

  But Elena shook her head. ‘He was quite clear on that. In his view, the Crowleys consider you a danger, or rather an incalculable factor. McVey says you’re too independent and too powerful for the world order they have in mind. And too much Dumbledore’s disciple.’

  ‘I’m no one’s disciple’, he growled.

  ‘What McVey meant was that these days you act in Dumbledore’s spirit. And that, according to him, is the last thing the Crowleys and their posse want.’

  Daysen digested this, then twitched himself out of his thoughts. ‘I hope you know to take whatever McVey’s told you with a pinch of salt.’

  ‘Of cour
se I’m wary’, Elena assured him, ‘at the same time, I’m pretty convinced that McVey has nothing sinister in mind. The Crowleys have some kind of hold over him ��� he wouldn’t tell me anything about that ��� and I think he’d be glad to see them gone or discredited or something. That’s why he wanted to talk to me. I think he was looking for an ally.’

  ‘In you’, Daysen said with a sneer.

  Elena rolled her eyes. ‘Yeah, absolutely, remind me of what a crappy witch I am, as if I didn’t know already. ��� And no, I don’t think he’s so interested in me, but he hopes to win your help through me.’

  ‘Fat chance’, Jack scoffed. ‘Unlike you, I know a thing or two about McVey. Believe me, he is the last person who needs help. ��� And mind you, I was right, wasn’t I? He’s using you to get something from me. That’s exactly what I wanted to avoid.’

  ‘That’s probably impossible’, she mused, ‘I’m associated too much with you already.’

  ‘Maybe’, he said sharply, ‘but you don’t need to invite it in, either.’

  Elena sighed. For some reason, she looked stricken, but Jack was too caught up in his own thoughts to notice much. ‘I will take care of McVey’, he announced tersely, ‘there’s no need for you to meet him anymore. In fact, I recommend that from now on you stay as far away from him as possible.’ He fixed her with one of his cold stares. ‘Do you understand?’

  Elena gave a quick nod, but she didn’t look at him. She appeared lost in thought, a little flustered even. For a brief moment, Jack wondered what she was thinking. He was, however, reluctant to ask, anxious that he might upset something and hit a wasp nest of emotions that he was not fit to deal with. Legilimency occurred to him. It was not for the first time that he felt irresistibly tempted to take a covert peek into her mind, but there was a possibility that she might notice, sensitive as her inner make-up was. She had already accused him of stalking her ��� it still rankled ��� and hence, he did not want to take the risk. Lacking alternatives, he chose to ignore her pensive mood and changed the subject.