It was six in the morning when the entrance of Colonel Lance Snape's provisional tent suddenly opened and an utterly furious deputy headmistress of Hogwarts entered his realm. She was sweating, out of breath, and Lance noticed that her broomstick was in a mess, which told him that she had been flying at top speed. Her hair was hanging loosely around her head. The usual bun had turned into a bunch of individual black skeins and her face was paler than usual - clearly not because of excitement, Lance concluded.
'Sit down,' he said after a moment's shock of seeing this particular woman inside his tent in the middle of the night. He had been planning this morning's searching strategy up to her arrival, but it did not escape his notice that he might have been sleeping or in underwear at her entrance as well.
'Lance,' said Minerva McGonagall breathlessly, not accepting the seat offered, 'we need to talk. This is getting too far. Has Albus informed you that he was trying to trick the Knights into surrender?'
'He did indeed,' replied Lance with some surprise. 'In fact, it was my idea to use the circumstances...'
'I should have known,' said the deputy headmistress sharply. 'Well, you'll be interested to hear then that the boy is dead. You sacrificed him!'
There was a short silence. Lance considered this new turn of events and then took a small note. His opposite frowned.
'Well?' she said. 'Don't you have anything to say?'
'We'll have to take these news into account,' replied Lance curtly. The deputy headmistress was visibly displeased.
'I shall tell you what you will do,' she said, as sharply as before. 'You will find those blasted Knights, wherever they might be hiding, and you'll put them in Azkaban's ground level for the rest of their lives! And pray that I don't find them before you do. Because in that case I cannot guarantee for their safety. But so much you owe me for using Remus Lupin as a military feint: find his murderers!'
She glared at him. Lance considered himself surprised.
'Minerva,' he said after a small while, watching her infuriation not without interest, 'I notice school life does not seem to provide enough challenge for you. This is a matter the army should deal with, not you or any other teacher, for that matter. I thank you for personally bringing the news of Lupin's death, but I believe you ought to go back to the castle and let us deal with this matter. I can assure you that everything is under perfect control.'
'You don't understand anything!' stormed Minerva, now seriously angry. 'As usual! And you won't even listen, as usual! This is so typical! I'll tell you why I have come. Because it is my students out there! And because I care about them! And because I want those kidnappers caught and flayed alive, if possible. And, most importantly, because three of the remaining students at Hogwarts have left the castle to do some searching of their own. And you won't believe me, but I expect them to be more successful than all your soldiers have been so far.'
Lance felt his jaw drop. Literally.
'Students escaped after the attack? How is that possible? I am sure Dumbledore put up all safety measures available to protect the remaining children from further trouble?'
'Well,' said the deputy headmistress reluctantly, 'you know his system of controlled self-control...'
'You cannot tell me he left the tunnels open!' stormed the colonel. 'Where is the sense in this kind of negligent behaviour? You cannot tell me he still has not learned that children cannot control themselves. That they have to be protected?'
'I don't know why he did it,' snapped Minerva impatiently. 'The tunnels are closed now, as is the entrance to The Forest. That is all I know. And don't you give me that tone, Lance Snape! I still trust Albus Dumbledore's decisions more than everyone else's, despite his recent mistake. And in the matter of education I certainly take him to be more competent than a Snape, if you know what I mean!'
That hit home. Lance shot her a look of pure venom, finding, however, that her glare was as merciless.
'We have had this discussion,' he said icily after a little while. 'I have nothing more to add.'
'Fine,' snapped the deputy headmistress. 'Meaning you will finally start arranging matters for my students to be found? I know tracking them down will be almost impossible, but that is why I need your help. If they are really looking for the Knights, they will be in mortal danger if indeed they are successful. Now, don't look at me like that. I realise that you don't think they will be, but you don't know them as well as I do.'
'Why don't you ask the headmaster to assist you in this matter?' enquired the colonel coldly.
For a fraction of a second, he got the impression that the deputy headmistress was reddening. Then she spoke, her voice as normal and firm as ever.
'He doesn't know,' she said firmly. 'I did not want to tell him.'
Lance stared at her. 'What? Why not?'
'I... didn't think he could take it,' replied Minerva vaguely after a moment's consideration.
'Could not take it? What are you talking about? The headmaster of Hogwarts?'
'He is an old man,' retorted the deputy headmistress. 'Despite appearances.'
'You are insane!' Lance heard himself snarl, not sure if she did not have a point, given the headmaster's recent state of mind. 'What do you think you are doing? In times like this? This is just typical of a McGillivray. Always interfering with their own ideas. Never doing as they are told. Never ever fitting in a system. I'll tell you something: the last thing we need is everyone going their own way at a point like this. We are facing another war, Minerva. The headmaster needs to know what is going on!'
'The headmaster needs to get over the shock of having killed one of his students!' snarled Minerva, now utterly indignant. 'Intentionally or not. His decision played a part in it. You might have got used to the idea of ending life by now, but Albus has never before killed a human being through his actions! Not even during the war - the first war, that is. Just because you authority-obsessed uniform fetishists don't have a problem with...'
'Now, this is getting irrelevant, Minerva McGillivray!'
'Oh, is it, Lance Brutus!'
It took a little while before things calmed down again.
Surprisingly, in the middle of all desperation Lance still found he enjoyed his occasional dispute with the deputy headmistress of Hogwarts, even though she tended to get unfair right towards the middle.
When the insults on both sides ceased and they had calmed to an almost reasonable level again, Lance gave the black-haired witch a conciliatory nod, collected a few papers, and went outside.
'Very well,' he said, turning towards her again when she followed. 'Incidentally... which students are we looking for?' It took some effort to maintain a motionless face, but Minerva was quicker on the uptake than one tended to assume.
'Potter, Black, and Pettigrew,' she said curtly, and after a while added, 'Why do you want to know?'
'Well, it might have been anyone,' replied the colonel, realising too late that there might have been a less controversial reply.
'Your son is safe,' said the deputy headmistress softly with an annoyingly knowing smile on her face. 'He was the one giving me notice of their disappearance.'
Against his will, a jolt of pride ran through the colonel's body and he nodded, trying to withhold a smile. His son, of course.
'He does show an enormous degree of responsibility from time to time,' he eventually managed, finding that he sounded as indifferent as ever. Minerva McGonagall kept smiling and nodded.
'Yes,' she said quietly. 'He does.'
There was a short silence in which Lance tried frantically to concentrate on the matter at hand. Thinking fondly of his son was not something he was used to, and yet the blasted deputy headmistress kept raising hope in him that it might not be too late yet to get through to Severus. To become more than just a person to respect...
'Are you two getting along with each other?' Minerva said after a small break, pulling Lance back to reality.
'Naturally,' said the colonel quickly, frowning. 'Why do you ask?'
'I imagine it can be difficult at times,' said Minerva, sounding cautious. 'Did you two talk about what happened to Virbia and why?'
'Course,' mumbled Lance, finding that this was not a topic he liked to discuss.
'Well,' said Minerva impatiently, 'what did happen that night? He was not actually responsible for her death as you assumed, was he?'
'Na,' muttered the colonel, now entirely unsure what to say. 'Not the way I assumed, no. We're... on speaking terms again. If that's what you want to know.'
'Good,' said Minerva softly. 'That is very good, Lance. I don't know Severus very well, but I can imagine that he needs all the help he can get.'
Lance nodded merely.
'Anyway,' said Minerva firmly, 'we need to get going. Will you personally accompany me on my search, or do I have to put up with one of your minions?'
'Soldiers!' corrected the colonel automatically, before realising that a smile was playing around her lips. 'Witch,' he added, realising that she had been having him on. 'I am afraid it'll have to be one of the lads. I am fully involved in a spell check around the high-security sections in the North at the moment.'
Minerva nodded. 'Naturally,' she said. 'But please give me someone with brains.'
Lance felt his eyes narrow, just slightly. 'I'll give you Robertson,' he said. 'That should be sufficient for you.'
'Settle down! All of you! I don't want to have to explain it more than once!'
Bellatrix was in an exceedingly bad mood. Rodolphus considered for a second whether to talk to her for a second, but then decided against it and settled down together with the others. There were too many recent blunders on his side for him to go against his partner's chosen plan now, and indeed he found that her ideas were quite valuable once you took the time to listen to them in detail. For now, he consented himself with remaining quiet and listening, just as the other six Knights in the room did.
'I announce,' said Bellatrix when everyone listened, 'that we have a werewolf!'
People remained dead silent. This statement in itself, Rodolphus found, held more foreboding of danger than opportunities. She would have to put it differently.
'After Dumbledore's somewhat ridiculous attempt to sabotage our plans,' went Bellatrix on, 'we found that we could use the information he gave us to our advantage. After questioning the hostages one by one, the person in question quickly admitted to his state. He was obviously afraid of hurting one of his little friends.'
She laughed. So did several of the others.
'So,' she continued, 'we have now locked him in for a little... final test. Obviously, we cannot know if this isn't one of Dumbledore's more thought-through plans. Full-moon is approaching. If the boy turns out to be an actual werewolf he will be the ultimate, secret weapon to use against the Ministry of Magic for making our plans for the future of our society work. We will not tolerate any further disturbances if we indeed manage to get a man-eating beast under our control! Questions?'
'Yes,' said one of the younger Knights called Bagman. 'How does this work with the Ministry knowing about our 'secret weapon'? Won't they be prepared?'
'Oh, don't worry,' said Bellatrix curtly. 'Rodolphus did manage to convey quite convincingly to the headmaster that his precious werewolf is now roaming the happy hunting ground. You see, if everything works out as we hope, we will be able to stick exactly to our plan - and more than that...'
'Err...' said Rodolphus, unable to hold back, 'we don't actually have a plan, Bellatrix.'
There was a second's silence.
'What are you talking about?' snarled the black-haired witch. 'Of course we have a plan.'
'I seem to know that you are disinclined to murder the hostages,' remarked Rodolphus coldly. 'What then, may I ask you, do you intend to do with them?'
Another silence followed. Bellatrix was glaring at her partner with unconcealed hatred.
'I will kill them if I must,' she hissed. 'But all at once. I wouldn't have you kill one of them in front of the others with the danger of our plan failing, all of them returning and us having to return to our usual life among Mudbloods and Muggle-lovers only for them to tell on us afterwards. I have no intention to end up in Azkaban, even if you like to be careless in everything you do, Rodolphus! I know what I am doing!'
'Why then,' continued Rodolphus matter-of-factly, 'didn't you just leave the werewolf with the others and let him do the work for us?'
For the first time today, Bellatrix's handsome face changed into a sweet smile.
'First,' she said, 'because not all of them would have fitted into the high-security room where we put the boy after finding out what he was. You will understand that I don't want him in the vault with that somewhat unsound door leading directly to Mull. And second,' she said with an even broader smile, 'because I would like to see how he copes with the situation at hand.'