Chapter 3 Old Friends and Deadly Retribution
Lupin looked up from where he and Molly sat at the kitchen table as the front door opened. They weren't expecting anyone. Both stood and pulled out their wands. They started as the portrait in the hallway began her diatribe, and then, suddenly was silenced by a soft voice. "Hello mum." The woman in the portrait looked around warily, but as she couldn't see any of the usual blood traitors and mudbloods, she had fallen silent. Then she said, in the only kindly voice Remus and Molly had ever heard her use, "Muriel, dear, is that you? Back from America after all this time?"
Remus' wand dropped and he dashed into the hallway. The portrait of Mrs. Black began screaming immediately, but fell to the floor in the wash of excited happiness that ran through the house as Remus hugged his old friend. "Muriel, how can you be here? But - " he added, his happiness waning as hers did, "then, you already know," he stammered this last out as Muriel began crying. He held her as best he could as Molly entered the hallway, confused. Lupin introduced them, and led Muriel to the kitchen. They sat together as Molly made tea. "How did it happen, Remus?" She asked, finally, lifting her head. He recounted for her the entire story of the previous two-year's adventures. She gasped at the finding of Wormtail, and gave him a reproving look as he tried valiantly to keep the anger out of his voice as he described Snape's hand in it all. When he finished the tale of the final duel against Bellatrix, Muriel's eyes filled again, but she forced the tears to stay put. The correct emotion for this situation was definitely anger. After all, she'd been grieving for Sirius for 15 years.
She stood abruptly. "If you'll excuse me." She turned to go upstairs.
"Mur?" Remus said quickly. "His room is – "
But she cut him off. "Third floor, second door on the right. I remember." She turned again, and again he called her back.
"Mur, in the drawer beside his bed you'll find your ring."
She turned back around slowly, a look of shock on her face. "Thanks Moony," she whispered before she fled up the stairs, her face in her hands.
Remus took a tray of food upstairs a few hours later and pushed open the door. Then he dropped the tray and dove out of the way as a spell splintered the wood. He gathered the food with summoning spells and headed back downstairs as the door repaired itself. Perhaps she wasn't hungry.
It was finally Friday, the end of the first week of term. Owl post had arrived, and Ron and Harry were looking through a catalog from Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes when Hermione gave an audible gasp and looked up at Harry through glistening eyes. "Look at this!" she exclaimed, handing him the newspaper.
"Mysterious Death of Two Known Death Eaters
Blows Ministry Credibility to Bits:
Known Death Eaters, Bellatrix Lestrange and Peter Pettigrew were found
dead today in a disreputable shop in Knockturn Alley. Both bore the
Dark Mark on their arms. Poly juice potion was found on each of them,
though it had long since worn off. No obvious cause of death was
discovered. The finding of Pettigrew's body is a huge embarrassment
for the Ministry. A trial was held to ascertain how he could have
been alive as recently as last week when he was supposed to have been
killed by fugitive Sirius Black 15 years ago. Several key witnesses
came forward to reveal that Pettigrew was in fact the secret keeper
for James and Lily Potter. The Ministry has issued a full pardon to
Mr. Black, post-mortem."
Harry finished reading and passed the paper silently to Ron. When he had read it, he looked up and caught Harry's eye. He opened his mouth, but closed it again at the look Hermione was giving him, over Harry's shoulder. They finished breakfast in silence, each of them marveling at the unfairness of it all.
Harry, Ron, and Hermione walked silently to Hagrid's cabin for the Magical Creatures lesson. They stopped short at the sight of Malfoy's antics up ahead. He appeared to be doing a fair impression of someone being stunned and falling backward. Hermione and Ron each grabbed one of Harry's arms and steered him away before he had any chance to get at Malfoy. Harry was seething. When he was finally able to shake them off, he left. Hagrid had arrived, and looked as though he might call him back to class when he caught sight of Hermione shaking her head violently at him. He decided to hold class without him and ask Hermione about it later.
As he mounted the stairs, Harry ran into the one person that he did NOT want to meet while he was obviously skipping class. Professor Snape's eyes rested on him only briefly before he continued on his way, not stopping even to take points from Gryffindor for Harry's infraction.
Muriel finally came back downstairs that morning. Remus looked up at a very pale, very hungry woman coming into the kitchen. He noticed that she was wearing the Alexandrite ring on her right hand. Her eyes were red. She looked exhausted. "Alright, Mur?"
She nodded wearily. "Alright." A few moments later she helped herself to anything she could find in the pantry. She wasn't planning to taste it anyway. They sat silently as she ate.
"How've you been?" she asked finally, gulping down the second glass of water he'd gotten her. He summoned the pitcher and filled her glass again.
"As well as can be expected," he said vaguely. She smirked at him, knowing better. But she could also tell that he didn't want to talk about it. Honestly, neither did she.
"What about you?" he asked quickly. "You disappeared without a trace and no one would tell us anything. Sirius was - " he paused, then rephrased his thought. "Well, we were all really upset." He finished quietly.
"Yes, I suppose I should explain that. Well, you know that I got a job as an Auror after only an extra year of studying. And you probably remember that Severus still wasn't speaking to me, and it wasn't just that, he was blocking me from reading him, too." Remus nodded in understanding as she continued. "I caught my first Death Eater about two months after the Potter's wedding. I hadn't even been working, I'd left the hospital - my aunt was very ill, then. I saw him follow a muggle down an alley. When he raised his wand, I stunned him. The muggle ran and I went to see whom it was. It was Severus." She stopped speaking, looking at the table.
"Oh no," Remus said, quietly. He was shaking his head.
"I let him go, Remus. My father saw the whole thing. I didn't even know that he ever visited my aunt, but he must have been heading to the hospital himself." She paused, then continued quickly. "You know how he was - people were already suspicious of him, he couldn't have the whole Ministry finding out that I'd let Severus go, so he did the only logical thing he could do." Her voice was bitter. "He sent me to America to round up anyone that Riddle had sent to try and recruit new Death Eaters. I left that night. I tried to come home when I heard about Sirius, but the Floo network was being watched. They wouldn't let me through. I didn't even find out about it all until months after it happened."
They sat in silence for a while. When she got up to clean her dishes, Remus decided to risk another question.
"How did it go in America? I've heard they were having a lot of trouble over there with Dark Wizards."
She sat down again hard. "They were. I caught over two hundred. In the last fifteen years, I've killed 34 people, Remus. It's starting to get to me." She looked down at the table.
"You told me Sunday night that you'd killed 32, Mur." Severus had come in and was leaning heavily against the doorframe. She looked up at Remus, glad that he didn't have a scowl on his face just because of Sev's presence. So many of her school friends always had.
She looked Remus in the eye, answering without turning around. "As of Sunday night, that's how many I had killed." The silence in the kitchen was like a dense fog. It was suddenly very hard to breathe.
Finally, Severus came and sat down beside her, putting a flask of potion in front of Remus. "Bellatrix and Wormtail," he said quietly. "How?" Remus looked extremely upset, much the way Mur would have pictured James if he'd been there.
"I cast the Legilimens curse and told their minds to shut down. It's pathetically easy. I learned how several years ago." She kept her eyes on Remus. Severus would never judge her, he'd seen and done too much. But she didn't want Remus to misunderstand. It wasn't that she enjoyed killing, only that it had to be done.
Remus' reply shocked both Muriel and Severus. "It was your right. But I was looking forward to it." His eyes narrowed. "It was a better death than they deserved."
"That reminds me," Muriel said suddenly as Remus stood to go. He sat back down. Then she bellowed, "KREATURE" at the top of her lungs. Severus closed his eyes for a moment, knowing what was coming. The house elf appeared, muttering to himself as usual. Arthur and Molly Weasley and the twins came downstairs as well, surprised to hear anyone calling for the filthy being that never came out of his disgusting room. Fred and George grimaced at the sight of him as Muriel stood to face the foul thing.
To everyone's surprise, the elf stopped muttering when he saw Muriel. He groveled pitifully instead. "Mistress! I was not knowing you had come home. I was not helping you to unpack. Kreature is very sorry. Kreature hopes you – "
"Silence," she said quietly. There was no emotion in her voice. He fell silent instantly. "Do you recognize my position in this household as the intended of the last living member of the Black family?" she asked formally. Her voice was barely above a whisper. She knew Mrs. Black had left strict instructions with the elf about how she was to be treated. She'd overheard her telling him, during the month she'd spent there, even though she and Sirius hadn't been engaged then.
"Yes, Mistress, of course, Mistress. You is Miss Deesia! Kreature will do whatever Mistress says." He bowed and scraped again, but no one felt any pity for him. Everyone had heard of the role he played in Sirius' death.
"Then you will obey my final command." She paused, suddenly aware of her audience. She decided that she didn't care. If the Order couldn't stomach one dead house elf, she wasn't joining anyway. "Die."
The elf stopped groveling and blinked up at her for a moment. "Yes, Mistress Deesia." A moment later he swooned to the floor. She almost turned from the sickening sight, but thought better of it.
"Incendio," she whispered. She felt the shock of the Weasleys behind her as the figure burst into flame, but she didn't care. She turned to Remus. "Destroy the heads of his ancestors as well. I will send an elf from Papa's manor to take his place. Don't remove the ashes. I wish the elf to see what happens to traitors. Whichever one I bring will clean it up." Remus nodded mutely.
Severus followed her out the front door, leaving Remus and the shocked Weasleys to decide for themselves what to think.
Lupin looked up from where he and Molly sat at the kitchen table as the front door opened. They weren't expecting anyone. Both stood and pulled out their wands. They started as the portrait in the hallway began her diatribe, and then, suddenly was silenced by a soft voice. "Hello mum." The woman in the portrait looked around warily, but as she couldn't see any of the usual blood traitors and mudbloods, she had fallen silent. Then she said, in the only kindly voice Remus and Molly had ever heard her use, "Muriel, dear, is that you? Back from America after all this time?"
Remus' wand dropped and he dashed into the hallway. The portrait of Mrs. Black began screaming immediately, but fell to the floor in the wash of excited happiness that ran through the house as Remus hugged his old friend. "Muriel, how can you be here? But - " he added, his happiness waning as hers did, "then, you already know," he stammered this last out as Muriel began crying. He held her as best he could as Molly entered the hallway, confused. Lupin introduced them, and led Muriel to the kitchen. They sat together as Molly made tea. "How did it happen, Remus?" She asked, finally, lifting her head. He recounted for her the entire story of the previous two-year's adventures. She gasped at the finding of Wormtail, and gave him a reproving look as he tried valiantly to keep the anger out of his voice as he described Snape's hand in it all. When he finished the tale of the final duel against Bellatrix, Muriel's eyes filled again, but she forced the tears to stay put. The correct emotion for this situation was definitely anger. After all, she'd been grieving for Sirius for 15 years.
She stood abruptly. "If you'll excuse me." She turned to go upstairs.
"Mur?" Remus said quickly. "His room is – "
But she cut him off. "Third floor, second door on the right. I remember." She turned again, and again he called her back.
"Mur, in the drawer beside his bed you'll find your ring."
She turned back around slowly, a look of shock on her face. "Thanks Moony," she whispered before she fled up the stairs, her face in her hands.
Remus took a tray of food upstairs a few hours later and pushed open the door. Then he dropped the tray and dove out of the way as a spell splintered the wood. He gathered the food with summoning spells and headed back downstairs as the door repaired itself. Perhaps she wasn't hungry.
It was finally Friday, the end of the first week of term. Owl post had arrived, and Ron and Harry were looking through a catalog from Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes when Hermione gave an audible gasp and looked up at Harry through glistening eyes. "Look at this!" she exclaimed, handing him the newspaper.
"Mysterious Death of Two Known Death Eaters
Blows Ministry Credibility to Bits:
Known Death Eaters, Bellatrix Lestrange and Peter Pettigrew were found
dead today in a disreputable shop in Knockturn Alley. Both bore the
Dark Mark on their arms. Poly juice potion was found on each of them,
though it had long since worn off. No obvious cause of death was
discovered. The finding of Pettigrew's body is a huge embarrassment
for the Ministry. A trial was held to ascertain how he could have
been alive as recently as last week when he was supposed to have been
killed by fugitive Sirius Black 15 years ago. Several key witnesses
came forward to reveal that Pettigrew was in fact the secret keeper
for James and Lily Potter. The Ministry has issued a full pardon to
Mr. Black, post-mortem."
Harry finished reading and passed the paper silently to Ron. When he had read it, he looked up and caught Harry's eye. He opened his mouth, but closed it again at the look Hermione was giving him, over Harry's shoulder. They finished breakfast in silence, each of them marveling at the unfairness of it all.
Harry, Ron, and Hermione walked silently to Hagrid's cabin for the Magical Creatures lesson. They stopped short at the sight of Malfoy's antics up ahead. He appeared to be doing a fair impression of someone being stunned and falling backward. Hermione and Ron each grabbed one of Harry's arms and steered him away before he had any chance to get at Malfoy. Harry was seething. When he was finally able to shake them off, he left. Hagrid had arrived, and looked as though he might call him back to class when he caught sight of Hermione shaking her head violently at him. He decided to hold class without him and ask Hermione about it later.
As he mounted the stairs, Harry ran into the one person that he did NOT want to meet while he was obviously skipping class. Professor Snape's eyes rested on him only briefly before he continued on his way, not stopping even to take points from Gryffindor for Harry's infraction.
Muriel finally came back downstairs that morning. Remus looked up at a very pale, very hungry woman coming into the kitchen. He noticed that she was wearing the Alexandrite ring on her right hand. Her eyes were red. She looked exhausted. "Alright, Mur?"
She nodded wearily. "Alright." A few moments later she helped herself to anything she could find in the pantry. She wasn't planning to taste it anyway. They sat silently as she ate.
"How've you been?" she asked finally, gulping down the second glass of water he'd gotten her. He summoned the pitcher and filled her glass again.
"As well as can be expected," he said vaguely. She smirked at him, knowing better. But she could also tell that he didn't want to talk about it. Honestly, neither did she.
"What about you?" he asked quickly. "You disappeared without a trace and no one would tell us anything. Sirius was - " he paused, then rephrased his thought. "Well, we were all really upset." He finished quietly.
"Yes, I suppose I should explain that. Well, you know that I got a job as an Auror after only an extra year of studying. And you probably remember that Severus still wasn't speaking to me, and it wasn't just that, he was blocking me from reading him, too." Remus nodded in understanding as she continued. "I caught my first Death Eater about two months after the Potter's wedding. I hadn't even been working, I'd left the hospital - my aunt was very ill, then. I saw him follow a muggle down an alley. When he raised his wand, I stunned him. The muggle ran and I went to see whom it was. It was Severus." She stopped speaking, looking at the table.
"Oh no," Remus said, quietly. He was shaking his head.
"I let him go, Remus. My father saw the whole thing. I didn't even know that he ever visited my aunt, but he must have been heading to the hospital himself." She paused, then continued quickly. "You know how he was - people were already suspicious of him, he couldn't have the whole Ministry finding out that I'd let Severus go, so he did the only logical thing he could do." Her voice was bitter. "He sent me to America to round up anyone that Riddle had sent to try and recruit new Death Eaters. I left that night. I tried to come home when I heard about Sirius, but the Floo network was being watched. They wouldn't let me through. I didn't even find out about it all until months after it happened."
They sat in silence for a while. When she got up to clean her dishes, Remus decided to risk another question.
"How did it go in America? I've heard they were having a lot of trouble over there with Dark Wizards."
She sat down again hard. "They were. I caught over two hundred. In the last fifteen years, I've killed 34 people, Remus. It's starting to get to me." She looked down at the table.
"You told me Sunday night that you'd killed 32, Mur." Severus had come in and was leaning heavily against the doorframe. She looked up at Remus, glad that he didn't have a scowl on his face just because of Sev's presence. So many of her school friends always had.
She looked Remus in the eye, answering without turning around. "As of Sunday night, that's how many I had killed." The silence in the kitchen was like a dense fog. It was suddenly very hard to breathe.
Finally, Severus came and sat down beside her, putting a flask of potion in front of Remus. "Bellatrix and Wormtail," he said quietly. "How?" Remus looked extremely upset, much the way Mur would have pictured James if he'd been there.
"I cast the Legilimens curse and told their minds to shut down. It's pathetically easy. I learned how several years ago." She kept her eyes on Remus. Severus would never judge her, he'd seen and done too much. But she didn't want Remus to misunderstand. It wasn't that she enjoyed killing, only that it had to be done.
Remus' reply shocked both Muriel and Severus. "It was your right. But I was looking forward to it." His eyes narrowed. "It was a better death than they deserved."
"That reminds me," Muriel said suddenly as Remus stood to go. He sat back down. Then she bellowed, "KREATURE" at the top of her lungs. Severus closed his eyes for a moment, knowing what was coming. The house elf appeared, muttering to himself as usual. Arthur and Molly Weasley and the twins came downstairs as well, surprised to hear anyone calling for the filthy being that never came out of his disgusting room. Fred and George grimaced at the sight of him as Muriel stood to face the foul thing.
To everyone's surprise, the elf stopped muttering when he saw Muriel. He groveled pitifully instead. "Mistress! I was not knowing you had come home. I was not helping you to unpack. Kreature is very sorry. Kreature hopes you – "
"Silence," she said quietly. There was no emotion in her voice. He fell silent instantly. "Do you recognize my position in this household as the intended of the last living member of the Black family?" she asked formally. Her voice was barely above a whisper. She knew Mrs. Black had left strict instructions with the elf about how she was to be treated. She'd overheard her telling him, during the month she'd spent there, even though she and Sirius hadn't been engaged then.
"Yes, Mistress, of course, Mistress. You is Miss Deesia! Kreature will do whatever Mistress says." He bowed and scraped again, but no one felt any pity for him. Everyone had heard of the role he played in Sirius' death.
"Then you will obey my final command." She paused, suddenly aware of her audience. She decided that she didn't care. If the Order couldn't stomach one dead house elf, she wasn't joining anyway. "Die."
The elf stopped groveling and blinked up at her for a moment. "Yes, Mistress Deesia." A moment later he swooned to the floor. She almost turned from the sickening sight, but thought better of it.
"Incendio," she whispered. She felt the shock of the Weasleys behind her as the figure burst into flame, but she didn't care. She turned to Remus. "Destroy the heads of his ancestors as well. I will send an elf from Papa's manor to take his place. Don't remove the ashes. I wish the elf to see what happens to traitors. Whichever one I bring will clean it up." Remus nodded mutely.
Severus followed her out the front door, leaving Remus and the shocked Weasleys to decide for themselves what to think.
