Chapter 22: Merlin's Beard!

"McGuire." Snape said later on, when they had manged to drag Shona inside her own house. She hadn't really said anything to either of them, she'd just kept very quiet. It was as though she was embarrassed because of her father. 

Shona looked up from her hands, she was sat in on the floor in the living room where the chair should be. The dark circles under her eyes were as prominent as they were in her third year. 

"What do you personally think you're going to do now?" 

"Take the house off of the market," Shona replied in an airy voice, it was very distant and sad. "Hopefully the estate agents won't mind when I make some sort of excuse." 

"Estate agents..." Snape repeated and tried to work out what they were. 

"Don't worry, it's complicated," Shona forced a smile just as Lucy came down the stairs. There was a dog at her side, following her loyally.

"I found Bruno upstairs, I thought you might want him to keep you company," Lucy smiled as the dog left her side and sat next to Shona. 

"At least dad didn't take Bruno, he's the only one I could trust when it was just my dad, brother and me. But if I'm honest, I don't think dad liked Bruno. He was probably scared that Bruno would get a wand and robes then go to Hogwarts with me." 

"We'll help you through this, Shona, we're not letting you go through this alone." Lucy confirmed and for once Snape agreed in helping Shona. 

"Thanks, but you don't have to. This is my problem and I should get on with it myself."

"No you shouldn't, you need our help."

Shona smiled. "You two are more family to me than my real family."

"Not in this life time, McGuire," Snape scowled. 

*      *      * 

Later that day, Lucy was on the phone trying to convince the estate agents to take Shona's house off of the market while Shona herself was helping Snape drag some old furniture into the house. Martyn and her father hadn't taken an awful lot of furniture, they'd just taken things of sentimental value to them. But some things still needed replacing. 

"It's a good thing that we still had this spare furniture," Shona sighed as they plonked down a three seater sofa. 

"Yes, but you could probably go round the corner and find spare furniture there. Unpredictable place, Worthing is." Snape rolled his eyes as they went out to get some more furniture. 

"Hey, remember the other day on the train when we were talking about the gifted?" Shona asked as she picked up one end of a wardrobe. Snape nodded. "Were you serious about Lucy having to defeat Lord Zuc?" 

Snape looked in the living room window as they walked past it at Lucy, she had twirled her finger around the cord that connected the phone to the base and looked happy. It was evident that Shona was going to get her house back. 

"McGuire — " Snape began but he was cut off by Shona. 

"Do you really think she can do it?" 

"She needs training first of all. She can't do it like she is now, Zuc's too strong. She can't just mutter a few spells and swing that sword at him, can she? It takes skill, determination, courage...but do I think she can do it at the moment? Not a chance. Yet, I believe if she has the right training she could be the cause to his downfall."

"But why is it her who's got to do it? Why not you or I? Not to be mean to Lucy but she hasn't exactly got a skill for fighting..."

"The skill is there, McGuire, she just doesn't have the confidence to use it. She doesn't know how to use it. Half the time she's worried about visions, she's the only one that can see exactly what's happening. I get glimpses of what's going to happen but I don't get direct contact from Zuc." 

Shona and Snape entered the house and carried the wardrobe up the stairs and into the room that was Shona's. They placed the wardrobe down and breathed sighs of relief and in the next moment they could hear Lucy running up the stairs, she ran into Shona's room and grinned. 

"Your house is off the market," Lucy announced and Shona grinned. 

"How did you manage to get it off?" Shona asked. 

"Made up an excuse that you loved the house so much," Lucy said innocently as she admired her fingernails. "Couldn't bear to leave the place that was so sentimental to you." 

"How did they agree to this? McGuire's father was the one who put it on the market in the first place." Snape frowned. 

"Just told them that I was 'Mrs McGuire.' Muggles believe anything..."

The three of them left Shona's room and walked downstairs, they sat down on a chair each but didn't say anything. It was as though Snape and Shona were still continuing their conversation about Lucy, but the girl herself was oblivious to it as she read her book. 

"What is she, My Mighty?" The voice of Kingston entered her head again and she almost rolled her eyes in annoyance. 

"I've told you, Kingston!" Zuc roared and slammed his fist down on the table. "I do not wish to say!" 

"But I must know! I need to know what's so bad about her so that I can figure out a way to destroy her! So that I can help you!" 

"Kingston..." Zuc's voice was dangerously low, he had closed his eyes and opened the hand that he had slammed down on the table. Splinters fell from his hand and he ignored the mark in the table. He breathed in and then opened his eyes, they locked on Kingston. 

"My Lord?" Kingston prompted. 

"I will say this once and I won't say it again so you better keep your ears open." 

Silence fell around Zuc and Kingston, the whole room was still as though it was a muggle photograph. Kingston waited impatiently as Zuc turned his back on the vampire and stared out the vast window. 

"She's his..." Zuc whispered and ran his finger on a clay knights head that he had been using for decoration. "Merlin's descendant." 

"Merlin's descendant!" Lucy leapt up and thew her book on the floor, Snape and Shona stared at her startled. 

"Lucky? Are you feeling OK?" Shona asked as Lucy's hair turned different colours like she was a Christmas light. 

"Oh my goodness...it all makes sense." Lucy muttered as she rummaged through her bag and pulled out the sword and held it up to the light. that had been switched on. On the hilt of the sword there was Merlin's name engraved. 

"What makes sense?" Snape asked worriedly. "Is everything alright?" 

"Of course everything's not alright, she's just been screaming about nothing in particular!" Shona snapped as Snape stood up and tried to take the sword from her. 

"You were right, dad," Lucy said finally after an intense moment. "You were completely right about everything." 

"Lucy, please elaborate." Snape said frustratedly. 

"I'm Merlin's descendant and I must be the one to defeat Lord Zuc, whether everyone likes it or not." 

"Are you serious?" Shona asked. 

"I swear I'm not lying, Zuc's just said it himself. He wouldn't lie about something as serious as that." Lucy spat then pulled out the Tale of the Knights. She flicked through it until she came to the very last page that had been torn out. "It's now vital that we find the full Tale of the Knights. Vital..." 

"What about me!" Shona pouted. "You two are the descendants of Merlin and what am I? Just the third wheel?" 

"You're not the third wheel, we need you just as much as anybody here." 

"Just because we're the descendants of Merlin doesn't mean you're left out." Snape shook his head as he still tried to make sense of what Lucy had said. 

"But how come Lucy is going to be the one to defeat Zuc? What about you, Snape?" Shona demanded. 

"Lucy's the youngest so she must be the one who kills Zuc." 

"Why, though? You're as much Merlin's descendant as she is!"

Snape stood up defensively. "Lucy sees the visions, Lucy's encountered Lord Zuc before, Lucy discovered the Tale of the Knights, Lucy fought that chess piece, Lucy's done a lot more than both of us." 

"But I've always had help," Lucy sighed. 

"That's why you need us, to guide you. That's what we're here for and we each have a power that makes us 'gifted.'"

 "I guess so, but I need a little more guidance..." 

"What?" Shona frowned. 

"I want to go and see Sirius and Remus in headquarters." 

*     *     *

"Lucy, Lucy, Lucy...such trouble you've been getting yourself into recently!" Sirius grinned as he gave Lucy a hug. Snape had apparated her to outside headquarters and then had apparated straight back to Worthing. He had promised Shona he was going to put some more furniture in the house. 

"I know, two detentions! I think I'm turning into you, Sirius!" Lucy said sarcastically.

"Not quite," Sirius laughed as he led her into the kitchen. "Guess who's here!"

"Lucy, dear!" Molly gasped and went over to greet her. "It's such a pleasure to have you in headquarters!"

"Thank you, Molly," Lucy replied. 

"Alright all you kids out, apart from Lucy. She's going to be lucky enough to join us in the meeting today," Mad-eye Moody growled and Hermione, Ron, Fred, George, Ginny and Harry left the room. Lucy took a seat in the middle of Sirius and Remus and waited for everyone to settle down. 

"Why me? I just wanted a quick chat with Sirius and Remus..." Lucy cringed. "That's all I came over here for." 

"We know, but things have been getting a lot more serious recently," Tonks said sadly as she slid the Daily Prophet in front of her. 

"Mass Breakout from Azkaban," Lucy read aloud. "Bellatrix Lestrange?" 

"Yes, things aren't going too well for those in favour of getting you-know-who killed." Remus sighed. "Things are getting a lot worse, I'm afraid. Are things getting better on Zuc's side?"

"Zuc's broken the portal to France, he keeps sending me visions and..." Lucy looked down at her hands. "I'm Merlin's descandant." 

"Merlin's descendant?" Tonks asked. "Knew she was special!" 

"Nymphadora!" Moody growled. 

"Don't call me Nymphadora!" Tonks snapped. 

"How do you know this?" Molly asked. 

"Zuc told me, well he didn't tell me he told Kingston. I saw it happening...it's sort of like watching a muggle television but the signal's fuzzy..." Lucy glanced over to where Arthur should be sitting but he wasn't there. 

"Arthur's in St. Mungos, dear," Molly whispered and Lucy was given details of what had happened to Arthur Weasley in the department of mysteries. 

"Anastasia died earlier in the year," Lucy whispered and tried to choke back the tears.

"I'm sorry," Sirius said. 

"Zuc killed her, that's how we found out he'd broken the portal to France. Zuc's getting more stronger than we know. And now...and now dad's told me that I'm the one who's got to defeat Lord Zuc." 

"You must." 

Everyone turned towards the door and saw Snape standing there. He looked down on everyone else but he wore his usual blank expression. 

"And I've thought of a way to keep these visions out of your head," Snape announced but Sirius frowned. 

"How are you going to do that then, Snivellus?" 

"Occulmency, it's a simple process." 

"What's this? Guiding the evil spirits away?" Lucy laughed. 

"Penetrating your mind. You will attempt to fight me off and if you become successful, Zuc will in no way be able to reach you."

"Oh that's fantastic!" Molly said. "You'll be able to help Harry too!"

Snape pulled a face. "This isn't a club, Molly." 

"But you can help that poor boy! He has the visions too regarding Voldemort!" 

"Then again, if he didn't have those visions, he wouldn't be able to see Arthur," Remus said matter-of-factly. 

"And I wouldn't have been able to see that I was Merlin's descandant," Lucy frowned.

"Occulmency will help force the bad images away, the one's that are useful you won't have to fend off."

"This will be a great way to help Harry!" Molly smiled. "Oh he'll be so happy! Lucy, could you grab Harry for us? He'll be in Ron's room with the others."

Lucy nodded then exited the room as everyone else eyed Snape evilly. As soon as Lucy had reached Ron's room she knocked on the door and Fred answered it. 

"Oh, we have a visitor." Fred said. "Come in, Lucky."

"Hello, Lucy," Hermione smiled. "We're glad you could join us." 

"Harry, you've got to go downstairs, they want to talk to you." Lucy said. 

"Oh no, more interrogation!" George teased.

"Shut up!" Harry laughed and he left the room. 

"We heard you're Merlin's descendant!" Fred said excitedly. 

"Have you been using those extendable ears again?" Lucy frowned. 

"Who wouldn't use an extendable ear to listen to people's conversations!" George grinned. "You've got to love our inventions."

"Inventions?" Ron frowned. "What are you going to use them for?"

"For our shop, Ronnie, we're going to use the money Harry gave us from the tri wizard tournament, buy a place down Diagon alley and start our shop!"

"You two have some barbaric ideas!" Hermione announced. 

"But they're good ideas," Fred spat. "I'm sure Merlin's descendant will come to buy them! We'll even give her a discount!"

"Only if you make a Zuc doll so I can rip off it's head." Lucy smiled. 

"That can be arranged!" The twins chorused. 

"Just so I can practice for when I do it to the real one..." Lucy laughed in satisfaction.

"Don't get your hopes up, Merlin's descendant," Zuc laughed.