Messenger: (by timydamonkey)

Author's Note: I've not officially taken this story off hold, despite the update, as I don't know if I'll finish it. I'll remove the "HOLD" from the summary as it's a bit contradictory, but I don't really consider this a WIP either. I haven't even thought about this story in years before today. It was never intended to be long, though, and I believe I mentioned this was written to be a bit 'different' in a crossover, back at a time when they were fairly common. I'm going with that original outline, which may seem a little odd, but is undisputably "a bit different".

I haven't read the Mediator in years. I haven't written in first person in years. This means the quality of this chapter will be variable. I've at least tried to keep this chapter consistent to my previous writing style, though. Hopefully it'll work out. Thanks for the reviews and alerts in my absence, they mean a lot to me. More are, as always, welcome.

Chapter Two:

It sounded like an easy request at first. As a mediator, I've been asked to do a lot of things… from breaking into buildings to passing on messages. I can't say it's fun to act as this spiritual medium – it really puts a crimp in my social life – but it didn't sound that bad. I mean, there's nothing more awkward than telling people messages that might involve personal details or something… I don't want to look like a murderer or a stalker.

But this seemed nice and simple. So simple, in fact, that I should have figured there'd be a catch.

Instead, I'd just said, "Are you sure it needs to be said?" I folded my arms and stared at them. The black-haired man nodded.

Lily added, "It's very important. I know it sounds very silly, but…"

But it's not really my business. Hey, nobody ever made it my job to act as psychiatrist to the dead. I never asked for this job in the first place, but I help where I can. (Father Dom once muttered something about hindering on occasion, too, but really, I have a great track record. A fist in the face or an exorcism… well, it's all a means to an end, right? And I don't use them often anymore. I figure it's my revenge for the police record I'll inevitably build up with all the wanton destruction by the ghosts around me.)

"I get it," I said, flicking my hair out of my face. I bet I looked a fright. I hoped I didn't look too wrecked…

It was at that moment that CeeCee and Adam arrived.

"Suze!" CeeCee yelled. She looked mildly alarmed at my appearance, though she didn't have to ask what was up. We'd all seen those things.

Adam grinned at me. I guess he was pretty shaken up, as he didn't seem to have a joke at the ready. It looked way wrong to see Adam being serious. Not that he never had been before, but it wasn't a common occurrence.

"They can't see us," the man noted from behind me.

I couldn't stop myself giving him a 'well, duh' look. I'm a mediator: it doesn't mean I hang around with a clique of them. I knew Paul, Father D and Jack, and that was pretty shocking. Father D must have been at least sixty and he'd never known another mediator before me. I think that's more typical. We're certainly not common.

CeeCee must have caught the glance as her eyes narrowed, and she's more aware than I'd like of my extracurricular activity.

"Nobody died, did they?" she said, and I realised she assumed that this was related to the previous incident. I didn't think it could be. Lily'd said she'd been looking for ages, so unless she was excessively inpatient, she couldn't have only been dead a few minutes.

"I hope not," I said instead, "but I've got to go out tonight…"

CeeCee wasn't happy.

I couldn't really blame her, if I thought about it. I doubt I'd be impressed if I'd took a friend on vacation and then they'd then run off. True, she knew that I wasn't exactly heading off for a pub crawl or deliberately running off, but she felt uneasy.

So did I. The ghosts hadn't seemed particularly psychotic – and in my experience, the psychotic ones never really tried to look innocent – but who knew what could happen? I could at least tackle them or something if they got out of hand. Neither of them looked like they'd had much experience with fistfights, and being able to touch them if necessary was a perk of being a mediator.

Or a curse. I'd thought that a few times when I was being strangled. So, you know, whatever's more convenient at the time.

So we left CeeCee and Adam back at our hotel. Adam had been curious and hadn't bothered to hide it, so I'd just told them I'd catch up. I fully intended to, as well; I wasn't going to abandon either of them.

With luck, this errand would be over with in a day or so. And with that, we headed for a place called Hogwarts.

It didn't quite work out.

The first issue was that I had no idea what a Hogwarts was, let alone where it was. When they first told me, I gave such a confused expression that they'd both seemed surprised at my lack of knowledge.

"Hey, I don't live in England, okay?" I said defensively.

"It's alright." The woman smiled.

"Can we not get a bus or something?" I asked.

That weird look appeared on the man's face again. It was beginning to annoy me; I had no idea what was being insinuated.

"There's normally a train," she said. "But it only comes a few times a year, and now isn't much of a good time."

They'd paced in such bewildered silence until I'd outright demanded to know where it was, and then I'd wasted my time looking up bus routes. I'm not proud of it, okay? But they weren't coming up with anything that didn't sound crazy, and they weren't going to volunteer to go and see what was happening. I supposed it made sense. It'd be a bit of a bummer not to be able to turn pages or whatever.

Thankfully, the stop was a place she seemed to recognise, and then we went trekking. I was beginning to suspect I was going to end up with blisters all over my feet again. At least present company wasn't Paul this time. That was the only positive I could think of.

That's where we hit the big snag. Oh yeah, the others were nothing compared to this.

The closer we got to Hogwarts, I started to feel queasy. It was kind of bewildering: I'd had to sneak in buildings and nearly got killed by ghosts and hadn't felt as weird as I was now. I wondered if I was getting travel sick or something – I'd never been travel sick in my life before, though.

Lily must have known something was up. She'd been watching me carefully, and now finally voiced her thoughts among the scattered small talk we'd had. "Are you okay, Suze?" She must have picked up my name from CeeCee earlier. "You look pale."

I shrugged.

"Maybe she's shocked about everything that's happened," said the man. "It wasn't really a pleasant experience."

"I've been through similar," I said, and it was true. My life was made of unpleasant experienced, it seemed.

"Hopefully you'll be able to rest," Lily murmured. "We're there now."

I was silent for a minute, scanning the landscape. "But… there's nothing here!" I protested. I was beginning to wonder if these ghosts were a bit crazy with their inability to be practical and odd clothing choices (if spirits even made that choice).

"What?" questioned the man. "It's difficult to miss." He waved his hand to the distance. "It's the castle!"

I tried to look in the direction he pointed, but was assaulted with such a feeling that I'd really begun feeling nauseous. Nontheless, I stared as hard as I could – and I began to see what was, undoubtedly, a castle.

Or, more accurately, had been a castle. The majority of it had gone, large sections completely disappeared, while other parts looked majorly structurally unsound. Chunks of stone lay abandoned where they fell on the grass. From a remaining piece of building, a sign hung. A warning.

I hoped whatever had destroyed the place hadn't left any ghosts hanging around. I already had my hands full.

I wondered when these people had died. It didn't seem to me they had been around since the time this place must have fell, though. I shared my bedroom with Jesse, and it was obvious how old he was, from his values down to his tone of speech. And fashion sense. I wondered if calling him to ask for advice while the ghosts in question stood next to me would be considered rude.

It was probably Jesse's sense of manners that stopped me doing so.

"Look," I said soothingly, trying to use some of Father Dom's 'peaceful mediation techniques' that he'd tried to drill into me. It wasn't something that came naturally to me. "I don't think there's going to be anybody there to give this message to."

"It's a boarding school," said the man. "There are always people there."

A school in a castle?

I decided that way wasn't going to work. Besides, Father D didn't need to know that it had only lasted one line, right? "I'm sorry, but it's in pieces. I don't think anybody will still be alive." Even I wasn't quite tactless enough to say, 'But, as you're dead, I'm sure you'll be able to find any ghosts you want and pass on messages personally.' I didn't suspect they'd appreciate it much.

"No, it's not," said the man, and I sighed. It was going to be one of those days.

"Are you a Muggle?" Lily suddenly asked me, as if this was a moment of immense revelation.

I blinked. "A what?" I couldn't tell if it was meant to be an insult or a pun or something. Muggle? Muddled? Maybe she'd said that and I got confused. It'd at least be appropriate.

"That makes far too much sense." The man looked even wearier, all of a sudden. "A Muggle is a non-magic person."

I looked sceptical, but I remembered being at the shops. "Are you telling me those people were some sort of warlocks?" It was all getting a bit much.

"Wizards," corrected the man. He stared at the horizon for a moment then laughed. As his wife looked questioningly at him, he said, "Well, at least we can't be punished for breaking the Statue of Secrecy."

An unwilling smile crawled onto the woman's face, but she sobered so quickly I wondered if I was imagining it. "You can't tell anybody," she said. "And I'm sorry for us assuming you were a witch… I'd always thought, from what I'd heard about mediators, they'd have to be witches. My family were Muggles, and they didn't believe in ghosts at all."

I didn't point out that, having been seeing them since when I was small, it was pretty obvious that I'd either decide I was seeing ghosts or that I was otherwise going a bit crazy.

"We'll have to find another way." The woman looked conflicted for some reason, so I decided to outright ask her.

"Is that good or bad?"

"This would have been safer. Dumbledore…" She trailed off. I assumed Dumbledore must be a person; I couldn't see what else would be called that. "But it was James' idea, and it was always a risk… it's flashy."

"Nobody else would do it," James defended himself. "I thought it might make it seem more believable."

The thought occurred to me that for once one of my clients had realised that my claims may not readily be believed. I had to admit, it did all sound rather ridiculous out loud.

"We'll have to think of another way." Lily looked visibly deflated.

"Could I go back to my friends now?" I asked. "You guys sort something out; I don't want to ruin my holidays with them."

I wasn't sure if they were going to protest, but I was practically swaying at this point. It hadn't gotten any better when we'd reach the castle, just worse. With the conversation tapering off, I was losing any distractions from the irritation.

"Ah!" The man exclaimed. "Better get her away from the Muggle-repelling charms. Come on, Suze…"

And we started the long trek to get back to my hotel, me half-supported by two people nobody else could see.