Willing

Chapter 11

Figg Spills The Beans


Minerva watched Arabella with concern; she had tears running down her face. The guilt she herself had been feeling was reflecting in Arabella's eyes. She wasn't sure what to think, did she just feel guilty because she hadn't seen it sooner, or guilty that she'd seen it and done nothing? She repaired the cup and made a new cup of coffee for the shaken woman, wondering if she'd feel bad for helping her in half an hour. Severus was already twitching in irritation, obviously wanting to interrogate the poor woman again.

"Do you have a calming draught, Severus?" Minerva asked, Figg was still shaking too badly to take the cup.

"No, I have some Veritaserum thought," Severus said petulantly; a pureblood like Arabella would know exactly what it meant. Purebloods learned Latin early in life, well before her family realized she was a squib, no doubt. He watched as she straightened her back, and glared at him. Severus in turn just smirked at her almost ferally, making her pale considerably. Not many could withstand his glare when it was notched up to level ten, which was exactly what it was right then; it promised death to those under it.

"Severus," Minerva sighed, sounding irritated but her disappearing lips gave away the amusement she was feeling. Honestly, the man could drive a saint insane within the matter of a week. There was no doubt; he certainly could irritate the life out of her when he wanted to.

"I want to get back sometime today; now sit down, Minerva," Severus said. He blinked in surprise when Minerva did exactly what he'd told her to. She must be as desperate as he was for answers; she always put up a fight if he ordered her to do anything. Not that he made a habit of it; she had taught him when he was a child after all. He'd found it odd speaking to them as equals when he first became a teacher and it had remained so for years afterwards.

"Did you or didn't you know about the abuse?" Severus asked, his tone dark and his voice low and threatening. He wasn't going to leave until he had all his questions answered, the consequences be damned.

Arabella stared at both of them, the fear she was experience heightening further. She had expected this seven years ago when the investigation began. Yet nobody had come near her house, despite the fact they had to know she babysat Harry. Her guilt had never faded either, and her faith in the magical world had plummeted to an all-time low. They were Order members, she didn't know if she could trust them with any information she had. Yet it seemed as though they weren't going to leave her alone until they had the truth. "Does Albus Dumbledore know you are here?" she asked. She doubted it, he would have written to her and told her.

Severus observed her; there had been a tone in her voice when she said his name. He couldn't quite put his finger on it, but it certainly hadn't been a good one. Not many people said Dumbledore's name with other than awe, as if he was the second coming of Merlin. "No, he's unaware and it will remain that way," Severus replied, ignoring the curious look Minerva shot him; she had evidently not picked up on Arabella's tone of voice.

Arabella nodded, looking deeply conflicted.

"Start from the beginning, why were you assigned here?" Minerva instructed sitting forward, wanting to know the whole story, not just snippets.

Looked slightly relieved, Figg sagged slightly and began speaking, "I received a letter from Albus that day after You-Know-Who was defeated. I was to come here, and keep an eye on Harry over the years. He gave me explicit instructions not to tell him about his parents or the magical world," Figg said.

"You failed in your duty!" Severus snarled furiously.

Arabella flinched at Severus' words and furious tone. "No, no I didn't, I told Albus the truth. He wrote back a few times, but after Harry was six I didn't hear from him again. He instructed me to stop being melodramatic, that a spanking didn't mean he was being abused. Another time he said boys will be boys, that he and his brother had gotten into many scrapes." She was half yelling, half pleading with them to believe her.

"You told him Harry was being spanked?" Minerva asked in confusion.

"That's just it!" Arabella said, the tears once again slipping down her face. "I told him Harry had a hurt arm and a suspicious looking wound on his stomach. I gave him bandages and such and sent him home, thinking someone would come and investigate it, but nobody ever did!" The desperation in her voice couldn't have been faked.

"You sent him a letter when Harry ran away?" Severus asked, his tone going back to normal.

"At first I didn't want to, he would have just sent him back there. If you had seen him, you would have understood. He was so very skinny, so hurt and so unhappy…I didn't think he'd survive much longer…they told everyone he had an eating disorder. He didn't have one! He ate absolutely everything I gave him…everything," Arabella cried, seventeen years of frustration finally being released. "I knew the streets weren't a place for a child, the likelihood of him surviving there was even slimmer, so I wrote to him. It was the hardest decision I ever made, but I did it. Nothing came of it; I wrote again, the same thing over and over. It wasn't until the child should have been eleven did all hell break loose."

Minerva had a hand over her mouth, tears of her own in her eyes. She seemed incapable of talking; she was deeply shaken by what she was hearing as well.

"You should have taken him and left," Severus said scornfully.

Arabella's haunted bloodshot eyes stared up into black ones. "I wish I had," she confessed. "You know he used to sit there, and I'd show him pictures of my cats. I couldn't let him even enjoy himself even here. I was so afraid the Dursleys wouldn't let him come anymore if he liked it. You are right, I did fail him, and I should have done more." The self loathing in her voice was there for all to hear.

"Yes, you should have," Severus said bitterly, "Like take him to a hospital; he had a broken arm, and all you gave him was bandages to make a sling."

Arabella blinked, how had he known the arm was broken? Or that Harry had made a sling? She hadn't told him that, just that it was hurt and she'd given him bandages to help. Hope sprung like a rising inferno, as she realized the only way he could know. "You know where Harry is? Is he okay? Is he safe? Is he happy?" she fired off in rapid succession.

Now Minerva was looking between them both, wondering what she'd missed. Her hand had finally removed itself from her mouth as the anger began setting in. Not at Severus but at Dumbledore; being warned in advanced it might be true hadn't helped in the slightest. Her claws were out and she was ready to draw blood for a boy she hadn't seen since he was a baby; even then she'd only seen him a few times.

"Severus?" Minerva questioned, her heart beating like a wayward drum. Did he know where Harry was? If so, why was he keeping it a secret from Dumbledore? Because of what he had suspected…which had turned out to be true?

"He's fine, no thanks to you," Severus said bitterly.

"Oh, oh thank heavens," Arabella cried, relief flowing through her; at long last she knew. Harry was alive, he was safe; if she had been standing, she'd have fallen from going weak in the knees, her relief was so profound. It lessened the guilt a little, but not completely. The guilty feelings would never leave, that much she knew, she was stuck with them until the day she died.

"Severus…what?" Minerva asked, looking shocked to the core. All this time she'd been worrying, and for some reason Severus had been the one to help him?

"Not now, Minerva," Severus said. He had come here filled with anger and fury at this woman, yet sitting on her dolly filled couch he couldn't help but pity her. He knew he'd have done exactly what Dumbledore told him to a few months ago. And although he didn't think it extended to watching abuse happen, he'd never really know. The knowledge she felt guilty helped immensely.

"Where are the Dursleys?" Severus asked, his face perfectly impassively.

"Vernon is in HM Prison Wandsworth," Figg said quietly; it was the oldest prison in London, and ironically enough used to be called the Surrey House of Correction. "Petunia is in HM Prison Holloway."

"Still?" Severus asked, somewhat surprised. Muggle courts tended to give what wizards would consider ridiculously light sentences.

"Yes, the judge they went before happened to be the sister of a Muggle-born student; she knew very well who Harry was and what he'd done," Arabella said, her lips twitching in vindictive amusement. "They were given a tough sentence, their judge setting an example that child abuse was not to be tolerated."

"Indeed," Severus said; his own lips were curling. "Do you still have any letters? Any proof?"

Arabella jumped up from the seat she'd been sitting in, shuffling off to her writing desk. She pulled out a large tin box, and brought it over. Inside was a great deal of things, noticeably not Muggle in nature, including a Galleon, Sickle, and Knut. It made Severus feel rather sorry for her, for what she'd probably gone through as a young soon-to-be-teenager. How disappointed she probably was when no Hogwarts letter had come for her. She shuffled through the box, laying letters and odd pink coloured paper on her lap.

"These are the letters from Dumbledore, even the one I got for the assignment," Arabella said, handing them to Minerva who was closest to her. "These are copies of the letters I sent Dumbledore."

Severus took the copies, curiosity getting the better of him, and he began reading. It made him furious and sick, that Dumbledore could ignore her concern the way he obviously had. He looked over at Minerva who was reading one of them also. Now that he had the evidence he wasn't sure what the hell to do.

"I don't believe it; how could he? All this time he said felt guilty, but it was all for show!" Minerva shrieked, feeling as though she was grasping at straws. She was standing up with the letter scrunched in her hands, breathing furiously, trying for some way to contain her anger.

"Why didn't you tell anyone when they spoke to you years ago?" Severus asked.

"Nobody spoke to me, you are the first magical people I've seen other than Harry since I moved here," Arabella explained, "I expected someone to say something! Everyone around here knew I babysat Harry. These streets are filled with nothing but nosy gossipers!"

"Why didn't you inform the authorities? The Muggle authorities?" Minerva asked.

"Harry Potter doesn't exist on their records, he was born in the magical world," Arabella said. "If I said anything, their records would indicate that Harry didn't live there. They would have probably thought it was a bogus phone call, and totally disregarded anything I could have said or done." The social services wouldn't have come, she was sure of it.

"The police would have come," Severus told her.

"Oh," Arabella said, as if she finally just understood what kind of authorities they meant. "Albus told me never to get the Muggles involved, if I did he would have just Obliviated them and pulled me from my position. I needed to be here for Harry; at least with me he got something to eat and a little bit of the help he needed."

"Severus, what do we do?" Minerva asked, passing him the rest of the letters; she certainly felt like drinking an entire bottle of Scottish whiskey now. This would shock the wizarding world to the core. They blamed Dumbledore, yes, but that was more to do with just needing someone to blame than actually thinking he had done wrong. This, with this they had proof that Dumbledore had declined to take action.

"He could claim he never received the letters past Harry's sixth birthday," Severus cautioned.

"That's a big fat lie!" Arabella snapped, "His Phoenix collected them."

"Doesn't mean he read them," Severus sighed.

"Albus never gets rid of letters, he has an entire drawer full of them," Minerva said thoughtfully.

"He doesn't?" Severus asked curiously.

"Never, each time he places them in his left handed side drawer, beside his lemon drops, but I am sure it's sealed closed," Minerva said, "I think it's time I took a look."

"The best time to do that is when he's at the Ministry," Severus recommended, a plan forming between them.

"I agree," Minerva said with a vindicative light in her eyes, a look Severus had never, ever seen her sporting before.

"How is Harry?" Figg asked, interrupting their silent conversation. "When did you find him?"

"Dumbledore found him; Harry wasn't willing to play along with them, so they resorted to keeping him imprisoned within Hogwarts. What they were planning on doing I have no idea. I shouldn't tell you anything more, should Dumbledore come he would know everything that happened and was said here," Severus said with a soft snarl.

"But he's happy, yes?" Arabella pressed.

"Very much so," Severus said.

"We are talking some more when we get back to Hogwarts, young man," Minerva said sternly. Here she had been worried out of her wits, and Harry was safe and well. Still, she couldn't even find it in her to be truly angry with him.

"I know," Severus wryly said. He was deeply amused at being called a 'young man' from his old Transfiguration teacher. Now that she was truly on his side, he would tell her everything. This would mean he had Poppy and Lupin, as well as Minerva on his side, although Lupin didn't know the entire truth yet; perhaps he never would, either. He didn't fully trust the werewolf.

"Thank you for your time," Severus said standing up.

"Will you tell Harry I am sorry for not doing more? That I hope he's finally happy, please?" Arabella asked, grabbing into Severus unaware of his disgust for people touching him. Yet the Potions Master didn't jerk away, he looked into her eyes and saw they were similar to how his own mother's had been. They were filled with desolation, despair, a small degree of happiness, and a lot of wariness. Both women had felt as though they'd been abandoned by their world; to some degree they were right. They had been abandoned by their families and let down.

Even Minerva was surprised that Severus didn't draw back from Figg; the only person she'd ever seen him touching or allowing contact with had been Lily. Perhaps it was because of his childhood, when the only touches he had known had been harsh.

"I will," Severus assured her, finally withdrawing.

"Thank you, thank you," Arabella said, her brown eyes filling with relief.

Severus simply nodded; staring at Minerva she nodded back and both of them Apparated on the spot. As soon as both of them were away, Arabella slumped back onto her seat. Relief poured off her in waves; it felt so good to be able to confide in someone finally.

"Harry's fine, Tibbles," Arabella said as her part-Kneazle cat jumped onto her lap. "At long last, Harry has found his way back home." He was in his rightful world, and he obviously didn't trust Dumbledore. Good, he had every right not to. Hugging the cat close, she returned the box to the drawer and went upstairs to bed. She was so exhausted despite the fact it was early.


Thanks to Jordre and Jake for their awesome editing!