Chapter 56 ~ Consequences and Cmfort.

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Maxine sat on the stairs, shivering in her exposed ball outfit, partly because of the cold, partly because of the image that   she kept playing over and over in her head. The woged faces of those four Wesen, savage and vicious, a step away from killing her and Stefan. And the eyes, the eyes of one. She screwed up her face, trying to remember what was so poignant about them. Something...something she recognised. A faraway echo in the back of her mind.

She heard Stefan finish checking the door and walk through the hall, watching him as he came into her view. No one else was back from the ball yet; it was only nine o'clock and they'd be gone for hours yet. The empty house had stirred both of them to make sure it was secure, though, even locking the lounge doors so that if anyone tried to enter using floo powder, there was some barrier between them and the possible attacker.

Maxine was still shaken, Stefan looking the same as he climbed up the stairs to join her. His face was pale and pinched like it always was when he was worried or scared, both of which they felt at that moment. Each of them had also done a routine search of the house, making sure they were truly alone, nervous and jumpy as they did so. But luckily no one has been found.

Maxine leaned her head on his shoulder as he sat down next to her, Stefan also receiving comfort from the gesture. "I don't think I'm ever going to forget tonight." She said, staring ahead.

"No." Stefan said in quiet, solemn tones. "Neither me."

There was a pause as it dawned on them; the fact that their life outside Hogwarts would always be haunted by memories of the encounter that night. The fact that they would continue to be hunted until they were dead or the matter was sorted. Not that they could do anything about it. They would forever be hidden, forever be trapped.

"It's always going to be like this, isn't it." Maxine voiced her thoughts, head still leaning on Stefan's shoulder. She was just coming to terms with it, going through the matter in her head. 

Stefan exhaled stiffly. "Yes." He admitted, despite wanting to comfort her and himself. "Unless Nick can do something about it."

"We're always going to be hunted." Maxine said hopelessly. "We'll be stuck at Hogwarts all of term time and Christmas holidays won't happen again." She sighed. "God knows what we'll do for the summer."

Stefan also sighed, shrugging. "I suppose we'll just have to hide in our houses. Stay locked away. Or Nick will find us a place."

She nodded. "Yeah, I suppose so." She turned to him hopelessly. "But what sort of a life is that?"

Stefan gritted his teeth. "It's not a life." He looked at her. "But we'll get through it. The resistance will do something - Nick will do something. It won't go on like this forever."

Maxine, hope sparked by the insitance and surity in his tone, shifted her mood as well. "Yes. We'll get through it." She looked up at him, head resting on his shoulder. 

Stefan nodded. "Whatever happens to us, we'll always have each other."

Maxine moved to hug him, Stefan doing the same. She spoke as she embraced him; "But we can't give up. Let's not give in. We can't be pathetic about this."

He laughed slightly. Maxine, always trying to be strong, always hating weakness. And he had followed her lead as they had befriended each other. It ws more for comfort, but he said it seriously.

"Yes." He answered. "We will face this together. We will be strong together."

*   *   *   *

"How could you let him get away!" The leader raged, verbally attacking another of the four. "You had him right there at the drinks table and you let him get away!"

"I was surprised - I had no idea he was going to be one of the Grimms!" Protested the Wesen who had first grabbed Stefan and warned the boy of the assailants.

"Surprised!" The leader, clothed in a long black cloak, eyes glinting ifuriously from a gaunt face under the hood. "Surprised? Is that your excuse? You were 'surprised'?"

The Wesne looked won, saying nothing, before another of the group addressed the leader. "Turner, it's not our fault we didn't get them. They had help. That Longbottom-"

"I know about Longbottom." Cut in Turner, irritated. "He's not a problem. We'll have him in a short while, anyway."

"This is so complicated." Commented another of the group with little brains but much brawn. "Lestrange's grandmother tortured them for us yet he's on this girl's side?"

"We don't need your unhelpful confusions, Lax." Snapped Turner. "We've already been through this." Turner stood up, turning to the rest of the group. "The point is, you have failed us."

The three Hundjägers looked at their leader warily, watching him closely. There was always danger when Turner said those words. 

Turner turned, clasping his hands, continued after the pause. "And, though it pains me greatly to say this -  you will be placed in the cells."

Horror filled the eyes of the men before him, one of them breathing; "No, no, no, please."

It was hard to miss the physcotic smile on Turner's face as he regarded his terrified subjects.