Chapter 12: Subterfuge
Hermione knocked on the door to the small shack next to the ruins of the ancient castle. She was in a foul mood, her hair dripping frigid water into her eyes as she tried desperately not to think of the thick mud pooling in her shoes. She had her wand drawn, just in case, but the building looked run down and probably empty.
It was with great surprise that she heard the sound of small feet approaching the door. Hermione raised her wand as the door was flung open and- she took in a sharp breath, hiding her wand under her sleeve at once. Large, brown eyes stared up at her as a young girl who was maybe four or five years old stared up at Hermione, her face framed by riotous red curls that were even wilder than Hermione's hair.
"I got it!" the girl exclaimed proudly as a portly woman with fine lines on her face appeared behind her with a look of extreme worry on her face.
"H...How did you…." the woman trailed off, her eyes locked with terror at Hermione's wand hand as she shoved her child behind her. "No! Please- don't...don't hurt us!"
Hermione hated being looked at as though she were the Death Eater come to kill them. Of course, this momentary thought was interrupted by the scream of the little girl and Hermione looked up to see Severus coming behind the woman with his wand.
The woman went stiff as a board as Severus stunned her from behind, and the little girl immediately screamed in horror and grasped her mother tightly, her eyes screwed shut as she began to cry fat tears in her terror.
Severus looked at Hermione, who had begun to scowl deeply at him. "What? The Mark spell that you created clearly shows that they're in here. I've stunned three others in the back, all without a fight"
"Severus, this is bad!" Hermione hissed.
"Well, perhaps they ought to have thought of that before taking the Mark," Severus replied, though his expression had softened as the girl continued to wail for her mum to wake up. He grimaced as the young girl began to cry more shrilly, working herself up into a frenzy. He tried to grab her arm and jumped back as an electric shock passed through the girl's skin into his hand. "She's displaying accidental magic. Fine. I'll stun her too."
"No!" Hermione jumped in front of the girl and Severus froze. "You're not going to cast a spell on an innocent child!"
"A Death Eater's child," Severus replied, looking at her dubiously.
"Draco was a Death Eater's child, and you sure as hell didn't treat him like this while he was at school!" Hermione hissed back. She turned to the little girl. "Your mum is just fine, she's just...er...sleeping for a minute or two. Now, let's take your mother into the other room and everyone can sit down and have a chat, okay?"
The girl went silent at Hermione's kind tone of voice, but she stayed rooted to her mother's body like a barnacle, her eyes wide and full of fear.
"Your mother will not be harmed. You have my word." Hermione said, though, as she thought of the rings in her pocket, she wasn't exactly sure that she was being entirely truthful.
The girl relaxed slightly, but her eyes immediately went to Severus, who was sneering down at her. She tucked her face into her mother's apron as though looking at him was simply too terrifying.
"Severus, I think you need to go into the other room. Since none of them put up a fight, you'll just need to secure their bodies and make sure their wands are confiscated. Then we'll Ennervate them and have a little chat."
Severus glowered at her but turned on his heel and did as she said.
"Come on, now. What's your name?" Hermione said, tapping the girl's mother and levitating her slightly so she could be easily moved.
"I'm M...Molly," the girl said, still refusing to let go of her mother.
"It's nice to meet you, Molly. My name is Hermione. I'm here from the Ministry," Hermione said as she brought them all through a narrow door frame. The space had obviously been charmed fairly extensively, as the inside was far larger than the outside appeared.
"They're...where the bad men're from," Molly said, her voice full of conviction. "But you're not a man. Does that mean you're not bad?"
"I should hope not," Hermione replied gently, trying to give the girl a reassuring smile. It felt less than genuine.
"Then why'd he hafta freeze my mum?" The girl's voice broke and her eyes filled with fresh tears that she tried to wipe away.
"Unfortunately, it was for our protection. We tried to talk to other people before and they attacked us. We had to be sure that nothing bad would happen," Hermione replied, trying to be as matter-of-fact as she could in simple words.
"My mum would never attack anyone!" Molly replied angrily.
"That may be true, but first we have to talk about it," Hermione said with a shrug. "It's an adult thing, Molly."
"I know," the girl muttered irritably, "Adults are always talking."
They reached the back room where Severus was sitting on a chair near the far wall, his arms crossed with irritation. Three men were lying on the ground, their bodies tied securely with magical ropes. They were still unconscious, though, which Hermione supposed was to keep them from yelling or screaming at Severus.
"Ok, Molly, I'm going to ask you to sit over here," Hermione said, moving a chair next where she'd Levitated her mother. "I'm going to wrap your mother up in the same ropes and wake her up so we can talk. Do you understand?"
The girl nodded, letting go of her mother to sit in the chair. She slumped her shoulders and kicked her small legs back and forth glaring at Severus, who returned the gesture. Hermione added her own magical restraints on Molly's mother and then went to each sleeve and lifted them, grimacing when she saw that two of the four bore Marks.
With a deep sigh, she reawakened Molly's mother, who gasped and immediately screamed. "Harry!"
Hermione winced. It was hard hearing her best friend's name being screamed in such a horrible manner. She tried to put on a kind expression and turned to the woman, who'd begun to cry as she turned her head and saw the others lying next to her with their sleeves pulled up.
"Hello," Hermione said, "Can you tell us your name?"
"Why don't you just kill us and be done with it!" the woman screamed, her face contorted in a feral snarl.
"We're not here to kill you, you moron," Severus growled from his spot near the wall. "If we were, you'd already be dead."
"Severus!" Hermione hissed. "You are not helping!"
"Hmph, suit yourself." Severus picked up an old copy of the Prophet and pretended to read it.
"I read about you in the papers," the woman said angrily. "So why is it that you get the pardon but folks like us have to run for our lives?"
"Talk to me when you survive the walk of shame through the streets of London," Severus quipped as Hermione silently willed him to shut up. He gave her a curious look as though to say fine, I'll be quiet and Hermione turned back to the woman and her daughter.
"Please, help me understand," Hermione said, trying to keep her voice even as Molly grabbed her mother around the waist and cried softly.
"My name is Olivia Norton. My husband is Harry Norton. He's a Muggle. Since you've obviously taken my wand and seen my Mark, you know I'm a witch. I am distantly related to both of the Black and Lestrange families. Let's just say that Bellatrix Lestrange came recruiting and you don't say no to someone like that." Olivia winced as she seemed to remember that moment in her life and then looked down at her daugher crooking her neck to rest her cheek against the top of her daughter's head. "I didn't have to do much. I was stationed up here and had to put up guests in the old castle up the track without asking questions and pass on messages to the right people as needed. The Dark Lord only Marked me so he could summon me for monthly reports. I fell in love with my husband when most of the war had gone south into London, so no one was staying in the castle. When it was finally over, the Ministry didn't try very hard to find those of us who weren't in the inner circle. I thought I could just...make a fresh start. My husband is a good sort- an archeologist who'd come to study the supposed ruins and decided to stay. We became good friends and...well…" She looked at her daughter. "I had a newborn in my arms when the Dark Lord returned. The summoning hurt immensely, and I went to him silently. I saw that poor boy die...I saw the THING the Dark Lord had become try to kill that other poor boy….Harry Potter….but I was too afraid to speak up. I was too afraid to do anything. I've never been in a real battle before. I had my daughter and my husband...if the Dark Lord knew...they could be killed...I froze up….I…." She looked away, obviously ashamed.
"Phillip there is like me," she said sadly, inclining her head at the other man, whose Mark was harder to see against his dark brown skin. "He's from the Zabini family but got disowned when he ran off to the French countryside with his Muggle fiance after being Marked against his will by his father. He too was summoned, and he too had to watch the horror unfold. I held his hair back as he vomited after it was over. I was lucky. I had my hair tied back so I only had to worry about my boots."
"But...they're Muggles," Hermione said slowly, looking at the other two men.
"Please understand," Olivia said, her expression growing somewhat irritated, "most of us who don't take stock in the pureblooded power feuds between the older, more wealthy families aren't nearly as closed-minded as you might think. Besides, Muggles have their own kind of magic- they are some of the most resourceful people I've ever met, and their technology is basically magic that anyone can use if they simply spend some time to learn it. There's a kind of helplessness that one develops when one relies on magic too much. My Harry keeps me from falling prey to that sort of hubris."
Hermione glanced at Severus, who shrugged. "It's true that the Dark Lord was notorious for Marking his followers in different ceremonies so that no one would ever know all of his servants," he said thoughtfully. "In fact, most of the time when we were summoned, we were wearing the masks, which were charmed with voice-distortion charms and capes to keep us from figuring out our identities unless we were all part of a particular training group or squad. Other than Lucius, who sponsored me, I only had a vague idea of the highest level members- names that everyone knew, other than the other Potions masters in the Dark Lord's laboratory."
"Please," Olivia whispered, "Leave us be. We just want to live our lives quietly without any fanfare. If you can't do that, then kill us here and bury our bodies in the bog. I know what happens in Azkaban. I do not wish for my daughter to see her mother after the Dementors are finished."
"I...I need to talk to my colleague," Hermione said, forcing her mouth in a thin line.
Severus sighed but walked out into the hallway with her, casting a Muffliato spell to keep anyone from overhearing.
"Severus, we can't….we can't…do this…" Hermione said, allowing her eyes to tear up as they'd been threatening to do while Olivia had been speaking.
"She could be lying," Severus said unhelpfully.
Hermione frowned, considering this. "I don't think she is, though. Otherwise, why would they be married to Muggles?"
"My mother was from a pure blooded family. My father was a Muggle. He sweet talked her, married her quickly and then knocked her up. She couldn't escape after being disowned by her family. I became a reminder of the source of all of her suffering, lucky me. They hated each other by the end," Severus replied, his voice deadpan.
Hermione gave him a sympathetic look and he snorted derisively.
"I'm just saying that you can never really tell just by looking," Severus clarified, "but it's up to you. You're the boss, after all."
Hermione's eyes went wide. "Wait. You can use Legilimency. Why can't you just look into their memories and determine if they're telling the truth?"
"I will not look into someone's mind without their permission, Hermione," Severus said with a frown. "However, if they give me permission and their story checks out, they still have their Marks. In fact, my arm throbs pleasurably every time I get closer to them. How are we going to keep others from coming after them the same way we did if we just leave them here like this?"
"You leave that to me," Hermione said, biting her thumb in concentration. "But first, you need to go back in there and get their permission."
"Hmph. They aren't going to like it," Severus replied, "but then again, it's not like I care either way. I'll talk to the woman first."
"Don't scare Molly," Hermione scolded.
"Fine. I'll ask nicely," Severus said, rolling his eyes.
Hermione shooed him back into the other room and pulled her notebook from her beaded handbag and began to make some notes.
She had her work ahead of her, but as she thought back to the stricken look on Molly's face, she knew it would be worth it.
If it actually worked.