Her cloak lays discarded in a heap on the ground.

Her necklace as well.

Something in her expression gives him the impression that she's in the middle of a mental argument.

She has her determined war face on.

He doesn't know if he should disturb her.

He doesn't know if he should even be here.

A part of him screams that he should just leave.

He doesn't want to be involved in a war.

He doesn't want to lose anyone or anything else.

He just wants to go home.

But where is home now?

House Auron with it's ghosts of the past?

House Auron which no longer even has Lady Auron?

No, that isn't home.

It hasn't been for a long time.

Her eyes slide shut.

"Either come in or leave. Don't just stand in the doorway."

He hesitates.

Then he steps forward.

She frowns and he can't help but worry that he's made the wrong choice.

"I see."

She looks at him then.

He'd give anything to know what she's thinking when she stares at him so intently.

It feels like an eternity before she speaks again.

"Ask your questions. I know you have them."

He has questions.

So many questions that it feels like he'll never get all the answers.

"Are you okay?"

She makes a noncommittal sound.

He reaches out to touch her.

All he wants is to offer some comfort.

She pulls away before he can make contact.

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"Don't. If you do, I-"

She swallows hard.

"Just ask your questions."

He clenches his fist and allows it to fall to his side.

"You put me with Arabella and Sonia. Why?"

Her eyes fall shut again.

"It's the only way I can honour my deal with you."

He frowns.

"Lord Auron's plan of attack against a telepath was for him to use his considerable control and magic to brute force his way to said telepath."

"Your point?"

Her voice has a distinctly dreamlike quality now.

"Why aren't you doing the same?"

"I don't have magic."

"Not with you. With me."

Her lips quirk into what could be called a smile.

"Because I won't have you die."

He swallows.

"And the others?"

"I've done all I can to protect them."

He gives a derisive laugh.

"By putting them with me? I'll draw her gaze."

"Let me worry about that."

Her words begin to slur and he knows he's running out of time.

Still he can't quite push down the panic that sentence brings him.

"What do you intend to do?"

"What needs to be done."

There's a finality in her words that chills him.

He wants to ask her more but her breathing evens out and he knows he's run out of time.