Chapter 20: Fruits of His Labor

For the next several weeks, Remus was the star of the school. Everyone wanted to know the elusive details of what had happened the night of May eighth, and when Remus declined to elaborate, the rumor mill cranked into full gear. Some said a troll had been spotted on the grounds earlier in the evening; others said some Slytherins had attacked him after hours. Everything from hippogriffs to dark magic to vampires had been implicated, and a third year Ravenclaw even suggested something called a Crumple-Horned Snorkack, which James suspected he had made up on the spot.

At times, James wondered whether Remus even realized how many people were talking about him. He kept to himself as much as ever, such that James, Sirius, and Peter hardly saw him except at meals, in class, and about an hour before curfew each night, when he finally returned from the library.

They didn't hear much about his research, except that he couldn't be sure about anything just yet.

A week passed before Sirius grew impatient and convinced James and Peter to ask Remus directly. And so, just before dinner on Tuesday, the three of them made their way to the library, which was packed full of students studying for exams. They wound their way among the tables and rows of bookcases, searching for their scrawny, scarred friend.

Eventually, they found him, all but buried under three haphazard stacks of books, a scroll of parchment before him, his quill flying across the page as he scrawled some notes, pausing every few seconds to check the book lying open before him.

"Found you," Sirius grunted, dropping into a chair across from Remus.

Remus started and looked up. "What are you doing here?"

"Sirius got tired of waiting," Peter explained, eyeing the stack of books nearest him. "Are you planning on getting through all these?"

With a shrug, Remus flipped the page in the open book. "Hour for dinner, hour to finish up tomorrow's homework… I'll be back before curfew – though…" He glanced up at them, arching his eyebrow. "I don't think you care much about that."

James laughed. "True. But don't you wanna take a break?"

"I'm fine." Remus returned his attention to the books, flipped a few more pages, and then snapped the book shut and set it atop the tallest stack, which wobbled dangerously.

Sirius moved the center stack, the smallest of the three, and peered at the parchment. "Merlin's beard, Remus!" he exclaimed, snatching up the parchment and ogling it. Tiny writing covered all but the bottom inch of the page. "Have you done all this in a week?"

"Don't be ridiculous," Remus muttered, grabbing the next book from the medium-sized stack. "That's just from today." He reached under the table for his school bag and pulled out a thick stack of parchment. "This is the rest of it."

He set the stack down for the others to look at and took back the latest page from Sirius, cracked open his new book, and started reading. James rifled through the rest of the notes, staggered by the sheer amount of writing. How had Remus found this much time?

Each name from the list James, Sirius, and Peter had compiled had an entry in Remus' notes, some only a line or two, others nearly a full scroll of parchment by themselves. Various dates had been circled, and a few of the names had been underlined with a single dark stroke. James tried reading the top sheet, but the tiny writing made his eyes hurt, and he quickly gave it up.

They sat in silence for a while, but when, a quarter of an hour later, Remus closed his book and set it on the tallest pile, James spoke up.

"It's dinner time, you know."

Startled, Remus checked his watch. "Already?" He sighed and rubbed his eyes. "I've got, let's see—" He eyed the stacks— "five more? And… three here." He looked thoughtful, then nodded. With a flick of his wand, he levitated the tallest tower of books to a nearby re-shelving cart, which set off at once to return the books to their proper places. "Would you mind checking some of those out?" he asked, nodding to the medium-sized stack, which had five books left. Remus, after shoving the notes back into his bag, picked up the three books in the remaining stack. "I'll finish up in the common room tonight."

James gave Sirius a bewildered look, but Sirius just shrugged, so they divided the five books amongst themselves and went to sign them out with Madam Pince. Almost immediately, however, Remus seemed to regret giving up his books, and he tried to take them back. James and Sirius refused to give them up until after dinner, but Peter relented more easily. They walked the rest of the way to the Great Hall with Remus' nose buried in The Dark Deeds of Drurius Dropple.

James and Sirius sat on either side of Remus, but despite their best efforts, they could hardly make him glance up from the page. In fact, it was all they could do to get him to eat. Eventually, they retreated to the common room, where Remus nicked the books in James' and Sirius' bags and returned to his research.

The sun was setting by the time Remus set aside the last book and stretched, letting out a long breath.

"Done?" James asked.

Remus nodded. "It looks like—"

"Wait," Sirius interrupted, glancing around the crowded common room. "Not here."

Remus frowned, but gathered his things and followed the others to the dormitory, where the four of them gathered on Sirius' bed. James drew the curtains closed and cast the quieting charm before gesturing for Remus to go on."

"Was that… the counter-charm for Sonorus?" Remus asked, staring at the curtains as though he could see the magic working.

"Never mind that," James said. "What've you found?"

Although Remus looked like he wanted to hear more about the charm, he didn't ask. Instead, he rifled through his notes, pulling out a handful of pages and setting the rest aside, along with the five books he'd spent the evening going through. Next, he grabbed the other three books, the ones he himself had checked out, and spread them out on the bed. James read the titles. There was The Hunt for Horwell Umbre, Frederick del Bene: The Unabridged Tale, and 1779: Year of Terror.

"Okay…" Sirius said slowly. "Mind explaining?"

Remus pulled out yet another piece of parchment – the list James, Sirius, and Peter had made of dark wizards Endowynn had encountered. "I went through this list – just to see if any other dark wizards might fit that inscription you found."

"What, didn't trust our research?" Sirius grumbled, at which Remus looked immensely uncomfortable, but James rolled his eyes.

"Ignore him. What did you come up with?"

Remus stared at Sirius a moment longer before clearing his throat and turning his eyes back to his notes. "Well… I went through all the names, like you did, and I narrowed it down, but I looked for different things than you did."

"Like what?" Peter asked.

"I started off the same as you – ruling out dark wizards who caused trouble after 1782. I mean, if Endowynn sealed the last of this person's power then, he shouldn't have been able to do anything big after that, right?"

"Right," James said. "That's what we thought, too. Then what?"

Remus worried his lip for a moment, then plunged ahead. "Well, I know you only looked at the people Endowynn finished off, and that you looked for the duels that happened closest to the date in that inscription, but… I don't know that either of those is very helpful."

"Why not?"

After a moment's pause, during which James suspected Remus was gauging whether or not the other boys were mad at him for disagreeing, Remus swallowed and licked his lips. "The inscription said that Endowynn sealed the last of this wizard's power, right? And there was some kind of object in there – not a body, or a tomb or anything. So Endowynn didn't have to have dueled him at all, just found something he left behind – which means whoever it was might have been killed years earlier."

"So it wasn't Parenon?" Peter asked.

"I… I don't think so," Remus said apologetically.

With a groan, Sirius flopped backward onto the pillow. "All that reading for nothing!" His eyes flicked to Remus. "But you've got another lead."

"Yes – maybe – three, actually." Remus nodded toward the three books in front of him. "I figured if... whatever it was... was sealed here at Hogwarts, then there had to be a reason for that, so I looked for dark wizards with a grudge against the school, or against Endowynn, who were defeated sometime before 1782 and had used cursed objects. I found three.

"Horwell Umbre," Remus said, picking up the leftmost book, "was expelled from Hogwarts in his sixth year after he smuggled in a cursed box that killed another boy. He went on the run after that, leaving all sorts of cursed objects behind to slow up anyone who tried to follow him. Endowynn was on the team of aurors who brought him down in 1759 – that was just before Endowynn came to teach at Hogwarts. Umbre might have left another cursed object in the school, one that wasn't discovered until 1782."

Remus paused to give them time to absorb the information, then picked up the next book in line. "The dark wizard Frederick del Bene did a little bit of everything. Started off hexing muggles, then took to terrorizing the wizarding world. He used spells, poisons, cursed objects, booby traps – you name it, he used it. First came to power in 1771, caused trouble for a good five years, then came to Hogwarts, where he launched a full-scale attack. Dozens of students injured or killed, even a professor sent to St. Mungo's. Endowynn defeated him in 1777, and dementors were called in to give him the Kiss straight away. There were some incidents in the next few years that some say they can trace back to del Bene, but nothing's certain."

There was another pause as Remus grabbed the last book.

"And then there was someone who called himself Retribution. They never found out who he really was – when they cornered him in November of 1779, he was wearing a mask and blew himself up rather than be taken alive.

"Anyway, that whole year, there was this cursed necklace that kept popping up in the muggle world. Must've killed at least a dozen people. Each time, Endowynn got a note from Retribution, saying it was all to pay muggles back for the persecution of wizarding kind – Endowynn, not the Ministry or anything. Maybe Retribution had a bone to pick with him, or maybe he thought Endowynn would understand, who knows?

"No one knows what happened to the necklace, either. It just sort of disappeared after the last attack. The Ministry assured everyone they'd already found and destroyed it, but there were all sorts of witnesses who said they were looking for it for years before they finally stopped. Some people reckon it's still out there."

Remus stopped abruptly, weighed the book in his hand, and set it carefully back in place beside the other two.

James was the first to speak, his eyes wandering from cover to dusty cover. "So we've got three wizards who might have left a cursed object in the school… Which one did?" While Sirius and Peter shrugged, Remus smoothed the bedspread absently and avoided James' questioning look. James frowned. "What is it, Remus?"

Glancing up quickly, Remus bit his lip and shook his head. "No – nothing."

"Well," said Sirius after a moment. "I'd say it's probably not this Retribution fellow."

James tore his eyes away from Remus and tried to think. "Oh? How come?"

"He was all about attacking muggles, right? Not even muggle-borns? So why would he want to attack Hogwarts?"

"That's true," Peter said with a tone of surprise.

"Besides which," James said, mulling over what Remus had said. "Retribution isn't really a name, is it? So wouldn't Andromeda have been able to translate it?"

Sirius nodded. "You would think so."

"So Retribution's out." James glanced to Remus. "You agree?"

Remus nodded.

"Let me see your notes."

Remus handed them over, and James scanned through them. Both Umbre and del Bene, he saw, took up a large section of parchment. Lists of incidents, victims, and dates followed the names in chronological order, some labeled "Endowynn." The date of death for each was circled and followed by a brief summary. As Remus had said, Umbre had been cornered by aurors in 1759 and killed in a duel, while del Bene had been defeated by Endowynn at Hogwarts in 1777. After del Bene's death date, there was another list of incidents, all of them followed by a question mark.

It took a moment for James to realize that each one had taken place at Hogwarts.

"It's del Bene," James said. "It's got to be."

"You sure?" Sirius asked.

James was far from sure, but he held out Remus' notes. "Look at all that stuff that happened after he died."

"But that's all guesswork," Remus pointed out. "It might not have been him at all."

"I know," James admitted, furrowing his brow. "But nothing's been traced back to Umbre at all, let alone anything that's happened at Hogwarts. If even one of those things on del Bene's list is true, it could explain why that chamber's in the dungeons."

After a pause Remus nodded. "Alright. So something of del Bene's was sealed in the dungeons."

"Right," James said with a nod.

"But then, sometime between December and February, somebody opened the door and took it."

"Yep."

"And now they're using it to attack the school?"

"Mm-hmm."

A silence.

Peter spoke up timidly. "What do we do now?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Remus asked. "We've got to go to the professors."

"No way!" Sirius protested. "They might be in on it!"

Remus looked more than a little dubious, but Peter shrank back in fear. "Do you really think a professor would do that?"

"Do you really think a student could get past all those enchantments Endowynn put on that door?"

There was a long, uncomfortable silence while the four of them retreated into their own thoughts. The idea that a professor was involved had been brought up before, but that didn't mean it sat any better with James now. Someone running around the school attacking people with a cursed object was a terrifying enough prospect; how much more if that someone was a professor?

And which professor would have done it? McGonagall, who handed out detentions for a simple hex in the corridors? Flitwick, who greeted his class with a cheery smile every day? Juniper, who was something of a co-conspirator with the school pranksters? James wouldn't believe it of any of them.

"Let's go to the Headmaster," Remus said suddenly.

Sirius looked at him incredulously. "Weren't you listening? He might be in on it, too!"

"Professor Dumbledore would never—"

"We don't know that!"

"Yes, we do."

Peter interrupted with a stammer, "D-don't fight! Please!"

Sirius spun toward Peter, eyes gleaming. "C'mon, Pete! You agree with me, don't you?"

"W-w-well," Peter said, licking his lips. "I – I think we should go to the professors." Peter's voice trailed away rapidly so that James had to strain to hear the last word.

Scowling, Sirius turned to James. "James?"

James hesitated. "I think we should figure out who we can trust before we tell anyone."

"And then…" Remus prompted.

"And then we'll tell them what we've figured out. Agreed?"

Sirius, Peter, and Remus, exchanged fleeting glances. "Agreed."