Chapter 14: Too Late to Turn
Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the story which directly takes ideas from JK Rowling. This story is not being used for commercial purposes it is simply for pleasure and fun.
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Discovered near the Sea of Marmara by muggle Turkish authorities late last night, wizard and Tower of London curator George Lattimer, is dead at the age of 31. Having been placed on an international missing persons list by the Minister for Magic, Turkish authorities promptly notified British officials of the discovery. The state of the body mystified the muggles as he seemed to be in perfect condition and was found in a sitting position next to a market stall. Assuming he was homeless many passer-bys had left coins in a can next to Lattimer for days. It was only when army officers attempted to remove Lattimer from the market one cold night that they realized he was dead. According to witnesses he had been sitting there for at least a week. Magical authorities have examined the body and have found that Mr. Lattimer likely died as a result of the death curse and found that his body was magically preserved. Simon Sanos, head healer at St. Mungo's stated that "the murderer likely preserved the body for disposal at a later date." According to his findings Mr. Lattimer was killed at least a month ago. Friends and family say George Lattimer went missing during the summer when Big Ben's clock mechanisms malfunctioned but the Ministry disagrees, "There is no evidence to suggest that the malfunction of the clock mechanism and Mr. Lattimer's disappearance and subsequent murder were in any way related. We ask the public to not assume anything and remain calm." The Minister went on to claim that Lattimer was an adventurer and code-breaking enthusiast and likely found himself at the wrong end of a bobby trap while on vacation in Turkey. Family insist further investigation is needed but it seems magical authorities in Turkey will be taking over.
Lily and Snape were sitting in the investigation room on the 7th floor. Snape had already read the article several times but was looking it over once more. He believed it was likely that George was dead after what the paintings said but he had hoped there was another explanation. He looked over at Lily who was ferociously looking through the copies of documents she had made in Lattimer's office. Lily was facing death more and more often lately and Snape wondered if it was taking any sort of toll on her.
"Lily you should really go to the infirmary and get a check up."
"What for, I can fix cuts and scrapes myself, there's no point."
"Yes, but you're still ill, I don't know why you decided to play."
"I am NOT ill anymore, I'm fine. People recover, just because I was sick does not mean I am going to be sick forever! I played fine!"
"Alright, relax, I wasn't suggesting you played poorly. I just figured you spent enough time in the infirmary this year."
"I have and I thus have no intention of going for a few cuts now shhh!"
Snape opened his mouth to retort but decided against it at the last second. He looked at the article again. The Prophet was never a great source of unbiased news but they usually got simple facts correct. Lattimer was not a curator nor was he on any missing persons' list that Snape knew of. Had that not been the argument between Dumbledore and the Minister? If they did consider him on vacation why was he missing suddenly? It seemed like the Minister wanted to give the impression that he was doing something to deal with the disappearances. Snape did not expect The Prophet to write about the connection between Lattimer's disappearance and the incident at the clock tower but he felt like this article was going to hinder their investigation somewhat.
Severus looked back at Lily who was looking increasingly exhausted and frustrated as she went through a large stack of papers, stopping every few seconds to colour code and file each sheet. He knew he should be glad Lily was doing this, it would make information easier to find, but it also seemed like Lily was throwing herself into mindless sorting to avoid dealing with the issues facing them. They were now dealing with a murder investigation, not just one that involved the most dangerous wizard alive but one that was getting a fair amount of press and attention. The chances of their intentions being discovered and of them being in danger had increased tenfold.
"Ah ha! I knew I saw something about Turkey in here. Look."
Lily passed a sheet over to Snape. On it were mindless scribbles akin to what Lily had left in the library book and given her intentions away.
"Uhh, what exactly does this tell us?"
"Don't you see, George was looking into Bulgaria. He seemed to think something was there."
"And…?"
"And, Bulgaria is next to Turkey. But from what I've read he should have been looking into Albania. I suppose he was headed to that other wizarding school?"
"Wait, what? Lily you've completely lost me."
Lily rolled her eyes and passed Severus several more papers.
"Now I'm not sure if it was related to his work in the clock tower or his own code-breaking but Lattimer was looking into south-eastern Europe: strange news, linking important magical people from the past there and so forth. He seemed to think that Bulgaria was important somehow, perhaps because of the wizarding school there… what's it called…?"
"Durmstrang Institute."
"Right. But looking over his notes it seems like he was looking for a remote area of Albania, not Bulgaria. Either way it seems he didn't find what he wanted and moved on to Turkey."
"That, or he was being chased."
"Could be."
"But this definitely means he didn't die in the clock tower?"
"I guess so. He must have escaped somehow. It does make sense, why else would he ask the portraits about anything. If he wanted answers he wouldn't have killed Lattimer and if he caught him he would have tortured him into talking."
Lily began shuffling papers again and Snape wondered how he should bring up the sphere he clearly remembers being in the bell tower. The more he thought about it the less sure he was he saw anything at all. It could have been some sort of spell. He was sure Lily tried to warn him about the sign on the clapper, it could have been some spell to lure someone up to the top of the bell… The more he thought about it the more frustrated he became.
"Lily what exactly happened in the clock tower!"
Slightly startled Lily answered,
"We've been over this already Sev."
"No we haven't, not really. Did you or did you not see the sphere stuck to the inside of the bell?"
"No, I mean, I don't know what I saw. I know there was something, but I'm not sure what it was. All I saw from below was something making a shadow."
Snape remembered that he couldn't clearly see what was there until he reached the top of the ladder.
"After I collapsed, what did you see there?"
"Nothing, whatever was making the shadow was gone, I figured it fell with you or it was just a trick of the light. Either way I was a bit preoccupied with you."
"Preoccupied?"
"You look like you'd been hexed… and you… that's all. I contacted Dumbledore."
Snape let out a sigh and leaned back in his chair. Lily eyed him for a few more seconds and then started putting the files away. They were both tired and could continue another day.
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The rest of the weekend was spent looking through mounds of paper and trying to keep up with school work. As such Monday was an exhausted haze for Severus. Tuesday might have passed much the same way had he not gotten a rude awakening in Ancient Runes.
"Of course you will all have to work extra hard if you hope to beat the combined team of Miss Evans and Mr. Snape this Saturday."
Upon hearing his name mentioned Snape looked up from his desk. The entire class was looking at him, including Professor Babbling who was smiling and nodding her head.
"Yes you heard right students, they will make a formidable team, perhaps getting a few tips from them will help you get further in the Hunt. Now these basic rules apply to 90% of rune formations, however…"
Lily and Snape looked at each other and it was easy to see they were both thinking the same thing: everyone was hoping that they would fail, no one likes a teacher's pet. Lily ignored the looks and started doodling in her book again. These rune formations were not complicated and anyone who did any research beyond the textbook for the essay wouldn't need to take any notes. Despite that, Snape felt it was better to look like he cared so it wouldn't seem like he thought he was better than everyone else in the class, even though he was.
On their way down to Herbology after lunch, Lily and Snape were left alone. Everyone else hurried away from them.
"What is wrong with everyone?"
Lily slowed her pace to match it with Severus' and said,
"Well everyone from my house seems to think I've committed house treason in order to win the prize. Even though I tell people we started talking again, they don't believe it was motivated by anything but the stupid Hunt, like we had this planned all along. I suppose your mates are afraid you're starting to smell of mudblood."
Lily hurried ahead before Snape could say anything about her last comment. He saw Wilkes up ahead making faces at him, well, Lily might be right.
"Alright now children gather, gather up front now."
An out of breath and flustered looking Professor Sprout was gathering the class around a box shaped object covered in a white blanket.
"Now you well know that plants are going to be an important part of the Hunt. There is be a maze and a jungle set up on the grounds. Now that maze is full of nasty surprises, a wrong turn could lead you to something much worse than a dead end. Right now in the container are samples of all the significant plant life you will encounter. Read up on them and figure out how to manipulate them. Today is all practice. We will rotate the different plants ok? Right everyone in front of a plant and go at it!"
Everyone in the class looked confused but they wouldn't get much more out of Professor Sprout as she hurried out of the room after revealing a large glass container with a variety of plants in it, some of which were attacking each other.
"She's just going to leave us here?"
Asked a tall Ravenclaw.
"Well we won't have a babysitter Saturday night, now will we? If you can't handle the plant in a glass case how are you going to do when it's you and not the Fanged Germanium caught in the Devil's Snare?"
Lily produced a flame from the end of her wand and tapped the glass to get the attention of the plants, upon seeing the flame the Devil's Snare let go of the Germanium, but did not seem happy about it.
"Well it doesn't seem like you need any practice do you Miss Lily Evans?"
It was the same tall Ravenclaw. He moved closer to Lily who seemed wary. Out of nowhere the Ravenclaw pulled out a puffapod and smashed it over Lily's head, causing flowers to bloom in her hair and face, obstructing her vision. There was a tense moment as Lily wiped the petals off her face. Then Lily grabbed a puffapod and threw it at the Ravenclaw, only to have it land on Alice.
"Oh gosh Alice I'm so sorry!"
"Oh yeah?"
Alice grabbed her own puffapod and threw at Lily who ducked. The puffapod hit Wilkes and from there chaos took over. The puffapod fight saw Lily and Snape as popular targets. Soon the class was ankle deep in flowers and Mary ran out of the greenhouse sneezing the whole way. Everything was going fine until one of the puffapods broke the glass containing the plants. Suddenly the Devil's Snare let go of the Germanium and waited for one of the students to come near. The remainder of the class time was spent wrestling the plants back into the container and fixing the glass. Lily cleaned up the plants and everyone left for dinner.
The whole way back from the greenhouse Lily was anxious,
"Still I think Professor Sprout is going to have a fit when she discovers how many puffapods we wasted."
"Yes, but at least it seems most of the people here have taken out their anger on us."
"I don't see why they were mad in the first place, we didn't do anything!"
"Yes but they think we did, anyways I'm glad that's over and we did get a decent amount of practice."
"I suppose that's true."
Dinner that night was a quiet affair, most 6th years were shaking pollen off themselves, much to the displeasure of everyone sitting near them.
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The rest of the classes that week were very similar. The teachers would give the students some vague projects and let them go at it while they went off to have some cake or whatever it was teachers did during breaks. Severus woke up late Friday and was still sleepy when he went down for dinner. As it was the day before the Hunt everyone was nervous and there was an air of anticipation in the Great Hall. Snape noticed that most people were eating with their groupmates and would frequently huddle together in whispered conversation.
Snape debated whether he should sit with Lily but seeing as neither sitting next to Potter and his gang nor sitting at the Slytherin table was an option it seemed like a bad idea. From the looks of it there was only one other team that mixed Gryffindors and Slytherins, and Snape assume they were both purebloods.
Snape sat down on his own as all the other Slytherins were huddled in their respective groups. He caught Lily's eye from across the Hall, she had an annoyed and defeated expression on her face. She pointed towards a group to her left which contained the marauders and spun her figure at the side on her head indicating that they were crazy, then pointed to her right where Alice and Mary sat with two other girls and made the same sign again. Then she put her hands over both her ears and shook her head in frustration. Snape couldn't help but laugh but stopped when he saw Mulciber looking over at him.
"So I hear you and the mudblood made a team huh?"
Snape just nodded and tried his best to show through his body language, that he wasn't interested in speaking to Mulciber.
"I guess you think going to France together will finally seal the deal huh? I mean who can say no in Paris right?"
"It's not about the trip."
"No? Then what is it? Do you enjoy her company more than ours?"
"I would."
Roiser was looking at Lily as he said this who, fortunately, was pretending to read a book and eat at the same time.
"Evan my man, I'm shocked at you, it's all bros before hoes!"
"Yeah well when you grow a fabulous pair of tits we'll talk."
Both boys laughed and started making lewd comments about any girl in their year they felt was sufficiently busty. Severus was spared having to listen to the conversation for very long because Dumbledore stood up and addressed the student body.
"Well, now is the night before the Hunt. After many weeks of anticipation and preparation the time has come. I hope you have all prepared your best for what is to come. I have heard a few different answers to the riddle given out last week, each answer has intrigued me. Remember that the answer to the riddle is your starting point. If you have guessed correctly you will find the second clue on the list. Do not assume you are at the correct or incorrect location just because you found a clue, the progress sheet only states the number of the clue you should complete but whether the clue you found is number 2 or number 10 will not be made known to you until the end of the hunt when the clues in their proper order will be made known. To win the hunt you must simply figure out the final riddle, you do NOT need to figure out every single clue, however, the final riddle is practically impossible to figure out without other clues along the way. Yes, yes I see confusion and intrigue on all of your faces, that is good. The Hunt will begin at sunset tomorrow which is 16:30. All teams must meet up in the Great Hall by 16:00. At 16:30 all teams will be allowed to leave the Great Hall and make their way to where they believe the second clue is located. Teams will have until 6:30 the following morning, which is sunrise, to find as many clues as they can. Remember the emergency spells and the Hunt rules, all of which will be posted on the House bulletin boards for anyone to read. Now goodnight and sleep tight, you will need it."
As Dumbledore finished speaking a flurry of conversation erupted in the Great Hall. Snape thought it was best to leave and Lily appeared to share that sentiment as she also got up to leave.
"I say we go "upstairs" and talk this out, we need to be at least a little prepared."
Snape nodded and the both made their way up to the 7th floor, making sure they weren't followed.
Once they were safely in the investigation room Lily sat on a floor cushion and closed her eyes. Then she shook her head and laid down on her stomach.
"Well I brewed some stay up potions in case we get tired and this Hunt takes us all night."
"Good idea, I should have thought of that."
"Well Snape I was always the practical one."
"Oh please? Is that why you wore heels to go shopping in Diagon Alley two years ago?"
"You're never going to let me live that down are you?"
Lily and Snape both laughed, then Lily said.
"Well from what I hear everyone's already got the riddle figured out, expect a few idiots like Potter who are going to the kitchens."
"The kitchens? How did he get to the Kitchens?"
"Don't ask me, food is all he thinks about."
"Well, it should be easier to distract it if there is a large crowd, so it might be good."
"Wait, distract what? We aren't going in are we?"
Snape looked confused.
"Go in? Go in what? Wait Lily, what do you think the riddle was referring to?"
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Author's Note: Anyone have any guesses as to what Lily and what Snape think the riddle is referring to and what the right answer is?