SACRIFICED TO THE SWORD
Disclaimer: Any body, thing or place you recognise does not belong to me and I make nothing from my use out of the except a strange satisfaction.
CHAPTER 2
Filius was older and consequently significantly more world wise than most of his students would give him credit for. He had also known Pomona Sprout long enough to be able to tell when something was bothering her and that was obviously the case tonight. But then again, most of the staff had been on tender-hooks for the last few months and it should hardly be surprising that the strain was beginning to show.
Eventually, suspecting that the Hufflepuff would feel better if she got her current concerns off her chest, he put his marking aside, folded his hands upon the desk and looked across the staff room at her until she looked up towards him.
"What is it that has you so distracted tonight, my dear?"
"I don't know." She replied quickly and with uncharacteristic frustration. "It's too quiet." She added after a moment.
"You mean apart from the continuing brawls amongst the student body, the ever more ridiculous edicts from the Headmaster or…"
"That's not what I meant and you know it Filius!" she sighed. "It just feels like something's changing – like we're about to enter a new phase of tyranny."
The Ravenclaw couldn't think what to say to that after all, his own fears had only continued to grow since the induction of the new Head. The situation was not as bad as it might have been – and that was exactly what it was that frightened Filius.
Thus far Snape had been more demanding, prejudice and altogether less pleasant than in his previous incarnation at the school. However, and it was a big however, he had also thus far, kept a tight reign on the Carrows, and though Poppy had seen more of the students in the first six weeks of term than she would normally see in a year – there were remarkably few of them that had been seriously hurt and the majority of those injuries had been inflicted by their fellow classmates rather than anyone else.
"You know what I think?" he said after several moments contemplation. "I think we both need a drink. Join me for a nightcap?"
"As long as it's not whiskey." She countered with a smile. "That's the problem after you've been introduced to the fine quality stuff – the rest tastes like homebrewed paint stripper."
Filius snorted.
"Ah well, Minerva's bottle was rather fine wasn't it? However, that my dear, is the joy of cherry syrup." He pointed out, closing the lid on his ink well.
They had only just settled in front of the fire, a glass of wine in hand when The Grey Lady appeared on the far side of the room.
"Professor Flitwick."
"My Lady," he greeted her with a deep nod.
"There is a student missing from the West Tower."
"Who?"
"Luna Lovegood, Professor, she left a little before 9 this evening and hasn't returned. There were several other students out after curfew that left around the same time but they are all safely back in the common room. As far as I could gather, had everything gone to plan she should have been there with them."
"Oh dear, do you know where they've been?"
"The Barron informed me that there were some sightings of students up on the 7th floor. Sir Nicholas also informs me that there are two students missing from the Gryffindor dormitories."
"Does Professor McGonagall know about this?" Pomona asked, sitting forward in her chair.
"The Baron did suggest that Professor McGonagall had been summoned by the Headmaster but he wasn't keen to divulge anything further."
"Thank you." He said almost absently, as his mind tried to process the ramifications of what it was he had heard.
"We have to go up there!" Pomona announced, standing abruptly.
"I'm not sure…" he began. "I'm not entirely sure that rushing in is the correct way to go about…"
"No – you're right. Minerva will have it in hand." She began to pace. "I'm going to go check the Set. Just to make sure."
"That's a good idea. I shall go and speak to those of my students who were out this evening and did return and I'm sure by then Minerva will have finished with the Headmaster." He tried to reassure her, but suddenly not quite so convinced himself.
On his return to the Tower, he was met by a group of anxious students. Of all the things that had changed this year, the fact that when something went wrong his students would turn to him, would turn to Pomona, would turn to Poppy or Minerva. They would turn to someone they could trust in the face of being caught by those of whom they were really scared.
"They've got Luna!"
"She was supposed to be back."
"We were all supposed to be back."
"Ginny and Neville were adamant!"
The flurry of statements came from the group.
"Miss Patil, Mr Goldstein." He instructed, gesturing for them all to quieten, "Please – one at a time! Now I understand that Miss Lovegood has not returned from this little… escapade." He raised his hand again, stalling the protests. "Which is something that we will discuss later. Where was she and what was it that she was doing."
"She was on look out along with some of the others." Terry Boot informed him. "We," he gestured to the small collection of students around him, "were all at the other end of the second floor. We were on diversion duty."
"We had a load of Weas…" Miss Patil began only to elbowed sharply in the ribs.
"We were to get Professor Amycus and Professor Amycus at the other end of the castle." Boot continued.
"Snape was away, see?" Goldstein added.
"Professor Snape or the Headmaster." Filius corrected automatically.
"We knew that Professor Snape was going to be away. So Neville and Ginny said that tonight was the night." Boot continued.
"They were going to be the ones to…. Well they were going to go into his office."
"But we were all due to be back!"
"Everyone should have been back in their houses by 10.15."
"We ran as soon as the distraction was… you know… distracting, so I'm not sure exactly what happened then."
"Fair enough, Lad." Filius, said almost to himself, "Fair enough. I shall look into it. I'm sure Miss Lovegood and the others will be fine." He tried to reassure them. "In the mean time – I think it would be best for all of you to head up to your beds and to try and get some sleep."
Once it was clear that his students were at least pretending to follow his suggestion, Filius headed back to the Staff Room hoping that there would someone there with more information about what was going on. He was so deep in thought that he almost walked right into Poppy as she swept out of the door on the ground floor.
"Filius!" she squealed, as they danced around each other in an attempt to maintain their balance. "Thank Merlin I found you." She continued.
"Is something the matter?"
"I've just had word from Hagrid that the Headmaster has sent three students down to him to go foraging through the forest."
"Do we know who they are?"
"Miss Weasley, Mr Longbottom and Miss Lovegood." She confided with a sigh.
"Well at least we know they're in good hands." He consoled her.
"Yes well – his primary reason for getting in touch was the students concern about Minerva."
"Minerva?" he asked.
"Yes, it would seem that she has 'sacrificed herself to the sword' by encouraging Snape to punish her for the students transgressions."
Filius chose to say nothing but watched Poppy closely.
"He didn't have time to expand but I got the impression that… well,"
"I'm sure she'll be fine," was his automatic response, "Minerva can look after herself."
"She hasn't been fine in weeks!" Poppy snapped. "You might not have noticed that man working her to the bone but I have." She lost steam towards the end of her short tirade and Filius knew well enough that she wasn't really angry with him.
"You're not the only one who's noticed. She's thin as a rake and running on nervous energy – I can see that too." He began. "But she's strong – and at the moment the only thing we can really do is hope that she's strong enough."
"It's just…" Poppy tried to continue but faded away with a sigh and Filius reached out to place a hand on her lower back.
"I know… I know…. It's hard. Pomona should be back shortly – when she arrives we can go up to the Headmaster's office. But we do have to play it carefully, I'm really not sure what sort of game Professor Snape is playing but I think it would be wise to remain calm and professional."
"Easier said than done." The Mediwitch said taking his hand and squeezing it gently.