The Curse of the Eberbachs

Bonham cleaned the kitchen. He washed the dishes by hand, polished every surface. He heard the door to the Earl's suite being opened at one time, the Earl's voice calling "Major" in. So they had retired for the night ... Bonham worked on. The dustbin needed a thorough cleaning ...

"Could you see to James? He's sitting in the library, crying his eyes out, but he won't tell me why, and you always manage to calm him down, Bonham."

The Cockney sighed. For the last hour or so, he had just tried to avoid seeing James. He had known the small accountant would be a mess, but he had hoped for James calming down of his own account, or be comforted by somebody else. Rudy had taken up sleeping with James, so why the fuck could he not comfort his lover? He, Bonham, the Major's chosen executioner, would have needed comfort himself ...

"I'll see to 'im, Rudy," he promised, and the young man left, obviously relieved.

James would have to wait a while longer, however. There still was one thing to do, and he had postponed that as well ... He went up to his room, took his gun from the drawer in his nightstand, checked it and put cartridges into the magazine. No reason to keep the Major waiting by doing this tomorrow morning ... Bonham did not even want to think about the possibility of "Major" sleeping in the Earl's bedroom instead of the living room, and the Earl waking up when Bonham tried to take "Major" out ... What was that sleeping spell again?

"Thestral dung seems to have a very corrosive quality indeed," Snape remarked. "There! The first one to catch the meaning of Caerulea Undulata in the Noli Me Tangere Potion! Longbottom of all students! Longbottom!"

An eternity later, as it seemed to Hagrid, the voice from the stables raised its volume again. There was a hint of despair in it.

Hagrid jumped up, but Snape restrained him with a glance. Calmly, he finished correcting a very long essay.

The portrait appeared on the oversized chair it had rested in before. Stubbins was gasping.

"He's got to say it. He's got to say 'I love you' to the person in question! And mean it!"

"See?" Snape sounded benign, almost fatherly, which made the fat young Tree Roller whimper in his dark corner. "That wasn't too difficult, was it? Back to the stables!"

James still sat in the library. He had stopped crying, but felt an overwhelming loss which had nothing to do with financial disaster. After the initial fits of jealousy, quite usual if he felt that someone was taking away Dorian's affections from him, he had established something like an uncomfortable truce with the intruder. Maybe it had helped to know that Dorian would never touch the Major in dog form. Reflecting the past few days, James found he actually had begun to like "Major" the dog, who most probably would no longer remember anything of his human existence come morning.

A few weeks ago, James would have been overjoyed about such a development. Now he felt not only sad for the Earl, but also for the Major. Maybe it all had been a bit much, having to accept the reality of magic, of curses, of wizards …

James jumped up with a small scream and faced the fireplace, vaguely remembering that at some point Rudy had come in, had lit a fire in the fireplace, and sat with him for a while, before leaving in exasperation –

"Ummm ... Sorry ter call at such a late hour," a deep voice said from the flames. "Is Bonham in? Got an urgent message fer him."

James, who had half expected to see the tall wizard in black step from the flames, stared at the big bearded face which had appeared instead.

But James had run away already. He ran straight to the kitchen. Bonham usually sat there for a last cuppa before retiring. The room was empty, however – Maybe he was in the common room, together with some of the boys –

Damn, where is this frigging Cockney when you need him? James thought, hastening up to Bonham's room.

Klaus felt Dorian's arms around him relax, his whole body becoming less tense. The Major did not move a muscle, he just listened and took in Dorian's scent. The heavy, tense breathing became slower, more regular, as did the heartbeat. The Earl still smelled sad and worried, but there was no scent of fresh tears ...

The Major decided to wait a few minutes longer, before he would carefully inch away from Dorian's body, jump from the bed and go back to the living room as noiselessly as possible. Bonham would take him from there for his last walk in the morning – hopefully – for he would no longer be able to control whether Bonham would comply with his wish ...

He became aware that all the time he had taken for granted that the curse would come into effect. Bad thinking, von dem Eberbach. Not your usual way of facing danger. For God's sake, you are a fighter, von dem Eberbach! If you go down, go down by giving them a good fight!

This matter, however, was not so much about fighting as about strategy. Wait. Think, von dem Eberbach. And think around your own stubbornness and pride, for a change ... What did the wizard say about the curse? Something in the vein of that the cursed person must acknowledge his one true love ... And then there was some discussion about what he could have meant by "acknowledge". He had also discussed this stupid reincarnation stuff with Dorian – alright, scrap the stupid. The essence of what Dorian had said was that Tyrian and Benedict indeed might have been true lovers, but it did not work out for them, because they both were ruthless, murderous, thieving, selfish bastards. Then he actually hinted that we both might be reincarnations of these idiots, playing the game again, with a few changes in our characters ... I told him the story of one of my ancestors, and he said – what? Something like the curse did not come into full effect, because my ancestor's wife actually was his true love, only he never told her ... What if he is right, and I would remain as I am now, forever in a state in-between, a dog with a slipping human mind, like my ancestor obviously was? Do you want that, von dem Eberbach?

So, what's the logical conclusion? It's worth a try. It will not help anyway, but there won't be any harm in trying ... If it doesn't work out, there still will be Bonham and his gun in the morning ...

"Alright," he whispered into the darkness. "Let's assume that your line of thought is right: We have come back as Dorian Red and Klaus von dem Eberbach to finish a game we've begun as Benedict Red and Tyrian Persimmon. Let's assume you are my true love ..."

"Let's assume I've got to say it. No one will hear, not even you. So no one will tell. – I love you, Dorian."

There. The world did not stop turning, there was no "poof", and no prince regained his human shape. Only Dorian stirred briefly in his sleep, before his breathing became regular again.

The Major did not need to see that he was still in dog form. His heightened senses of smell and hearing told him enough.

He heard the little Stingy Bug running around. Apparently he had a hard time calming down ...

Better go to the living room now, while Dorian was still fast asleep ... Only he felt how a leaden fatigue took possession of his body and mind. As much of a fighter as the Major was, this fatigue was stronger than his attempts to roll away from the Earl, to jump from the bed, to walk the few steps to the connecting room ...

The last thing his sleepy mind registered were a few deep, gonging sounds, like the strokes of a bell, or a big clock ...