The sound of the chair scraping the linoleum floor was loud in the small kitchen as Argus Filch pulled it out to sit. Three cats sat in the doorway, watching him critically with green, yellow, and blue eyes and twitching tails. His finger tapped out a restless tattoo on the table. Mrs Norris would have taken care of these three in a heartbeat, he thought bitterly, but there was no bringing her here for this conversation.

Arabella finally slid a cup of tea in front of him and joined him at the rickety table. She didn’t really look at him, instead gazing deeply into the tea cup as if it held all the secrets of the universe.

“You said you would tell me someday,” Argus rasped. “Well, the battles have been fought and won, so’s I figure someday is finally here.”

Arabella sighed, sending ripples across her tea. “I hated to close the door on you, Argus,” she said, voice tired and empty.

“Then why?” he demanded to know. The cats’ tail twitching grew more animated.

“I had a task, Argus,” she told him. She finally met his gaze, and he noticed wrinkles he’d never seen before around her eyes and lips. “I had to care for the boy. And I knew you couldn’t do that with me. Not without hating me for making you leave the magic.”

“I could never have hated you for that. I would have done it, for you.” His eyes were hard and his hand was tight around the fragile cup.

“No,” she said sadly. “You would not have.”

This time it was Argus who walked away and closed the door behind him.


A/N: I must wonder if this actually makes any sense to anyone besides me...