Hidden Slytherin

Chapter 52 My Past Doesn't Haunt Me, It Just Wants Rent

Aldric watched as his niece retreating form disappeared in a burst of green flames.

He stood lithely before paying the bill and thanking the cashier for the excellent service before slipping from the tea shop. He began walking down the street wit long fluid movements while not paying much attention to the world around him. He had seen the shops before, visited hundreds of times and knew these streets like they were his family home. No denying they had changed with the years, drastically in some cases but others had remained stoically similar.

Personally Aldric liked the change. It brought new ideas, new life into the world. But it also stole away the people he cared about like sand in the wind. Time seemed to move all too fast and yet incrementally slow at the same.

But now there was something, someone new. Aldric brought his attention back to his niece. Although she didn't say much her body language spoke volumes. She didn't like talking about the people that raised her. Jane or Bane had said that they lived upto their reputations. That worried him. He had only started to look into what Karen Gage and Brody Maless had been accused of but what he had found so far disturbed him. Aldric had no doubt that if they wished to hurt his niece then they would have and he wondered how it had reflected in their parenting.

Aldric stepped off the Diagon alley and down a side passage. He could feel the shadows moving behind him but never looked back.

He had noticed she did not like to be touched. She had flinched just slightly when the waiter had come from behind her to deliver her tea. Although she had held remarkably still, he had noticed how Jane moved to see more of the room. Aldric had noticed her watching him from the street, and he had forced himself to read his newspaper slowly, methodically and to move gently, nothing that could startle her away.

Aldric had not been sure if she would come in. He didn't think she was either.

Then she had anyways. Walked in with all the self-assurance that a young witch could muster. None of the scared girl showed then. The more Aldric had talked to Jane the more she relaxed into the flow of the conversation but she never fully settled. When he had put up privacy wards so they could speak openly she also put up wards. He was stunned to find them both unrecognisable and incredibly string. Aldric had struggled to focus. He could have spent ages just examining them. When he focused he could catch a rune or two before they seemed to slip through his fingers and flow like water.

She was clever, he would give her that. Aldric had seen how carefully each of her answers were given, each searching out responses that would tell her more about him. He knew she felt out of control and nervous from the bank and wanted to give her some back. He was more than willing to tell her about himself if it meant she would trust him, even a little.

Jane seemed to be able to form attachments. The way she had talked about whoever she was staying with proved that. It seemed she just really did not want to. He wanted to curse Karen Gage and Brody Maless for the damage they had done. He had no doubt the guilt lay at their feet.

Aldric's mind raced through possibilities. He was hoping she was with someone safe but he was not sure. He tried not to growl. How he hated this. Children should be protected, especially the children that were so rare among the Fae. Instead they were thrown to the side and abandoned to face what they would. He had seen it so many times before. A child that should have been safe fell through the cracks and some just never came back. Even if he doesn't wish to have any of his own did not mean that he wanted to keep seeing it happen.

The thought of the young girl that had sat in front of him disappearing made him feel physically ill. He would do what he could for his niece, even if he had to get his hands dirty to do it.