Chapter 21: Hunting for Prey

The long afternoon stretched into a seemingly endless night. The first I'd spent without Severus nearby in months. Even when he stormed out of the house after we discovered the treasure, he'd come home eventually. Since he'd begun making the Wolfsbane potion for me, I didn't have to leave the house during the full moon. I locked myself into my room, of course, but it was the rare night when I didn't hear his familiar footsteps pause outside my door while he listened for signs of my presence, and I knew that he didn't find those nights apart any more restful than I did.

Since we'd argued about the treasure- though I suppose we really never got as far as arguing about the treasure because Severus made a unilateral decision and closed the subject off- but regardless, since we'd been at odds over finding it and had been sleeping apart, I don't think either of us had really had a restful night. I know I hadn't. But at least we each knew the other was still there and were able to draw some comfort from that.

This night alone, with no hint of Severus's whereabouts or condition, was pure agony and made me realise just how much I missed having him with me. As I paced through the still and gloomy house, I found myself making the sort of promise you only make in the wee hours of the morning. When you're feeling desperate and lonely, bargaining with fate makes as much sense as anything else.

I vowed to the silent darkness that if he would only come back to me I'd never bring up the subject of bonding rings or marriage again. As long as he was willing to continue living with me, I knew I would eagerly agree to any rules he set out. Having him by my side, safe and unharmed, was all that mattered. For I'd come to realise during those long, shadowy hours that for me, home was no longer a place... it was Severus and without him I'd never really feel at peace again.

Eventually, as night crept on toward morning, the reports from the Aurors stopped coming, but as tired as I was, I knew there was no use in my actually going to bed. Instead I dozed beside the fire, hoping for that one final message that would tell me he'd been found and was on his way home.

Over and over I fell into that hazy realm between dreams and wakefulness and each time I'd see him standing in front of me, his hand stretched out toward me, but whenever I'd reach back, my fingers almost brushing his, something would always jerk me back to full consciousness, and I'd discover all over again that he wasn't really there... and never had been.

Dawn's slow brightening of the sky found me standing by the window of the library watching the shadows recede and wishing that the return of the sun made me feel more optimistic, but the one thought that stood out in my tired mind was that Severus had now been gone for almost an entire day and night. How many more of them would I be forced to go through without him?

Hester knew better than to bother with her usual large breakfast in the dining room. Instead she appeared by my side shortly after daybreak with a pot of strong tea and a plate of buttered toast. I wasn't hungry, but I appreciated the gesture and her support. I knew that she hadn't slept any better than I had. I'd seen her light and heard her pacing behind her bedroom door as I'd moved through the house on my endless ramble, peering into empty shadows and hoping for answers that never came.

At her urging, we both sat down on the sofa by the embers of the fire and she poured out two cups of steaming tea. We sat silently side by side for a time, sipping and munching automatically, more for something to do than because either of us wanted to eat.

Finally she sighed and glanced at me. "This reminds me of that first month you lived here. Waiting around and worrying with Mr Severus when you didn't return after your transformation."

"Really?" I asked, startled out of my thoughts by the unexpected sound of her voice. "You were worried about me? You hardly knew me back then."

She looked embarrassed at having spoken and shook her head. "That doesn't mean I wanted anything to happen to you," she said a bit gruffly. "And now it's Mr Severus who's been gone all night. I know you didn't believe it at the time, but he really was concerned about you when you didn't return when he expected you to. Yes, he covered it up by going on and on about not being able to meet the conditions of the will if you were gone for more than three nights, but I could tell he was just using that point as an excuse so he could avoid admitting how worried he really was."

I rubbed at my eyes, trying to clear the cobwebs from my brain and smiled at her insistence that even back then Severus was concerned about me. "I'd forgotten about that. Not that it matters as far as the inheritance goes, but I certainly hope Severus won't be gone for three nights... either..."

Suddenly as if someone had lit a fire in my logy brain, everything fell into place, and I was absolutely sure that I knew the truth of what had happened to Severus. I jumped to my feet, upsetting the small table that contained the teapot, barely noticing the hot tea as it splashed on my robe and ran across the carpet, startling Richard V who'd been crouched by the fireplace watching our every move with wide eyes.

"That's it! That's it!" I exclaimed in excitement.

Surprised by my abrupt movement, Hester bent and snatched up the empty pot and began to mop up the spill. "What's 'it'?" she asked, clearly not on board the same train of thought I was.

I began to pace the length of the room while I spoke, to better order my thoughts. "It doesn't matter to us whether Severus is away from the house for three nights or not because we've already found the treasure and decided not to make use of it, but it matters to someone else, someone who has no way of knowing what our plans are.

"Damn it, I should have seen it before! All I needed to do was ask myself who'd profit from Severus's absence and the answer would have been obvious. It's not someone with connections to Death Eaters who's taken Severus, Hester. It's Skyrm! It's been that bastard Skyrm all along!"

Hester gasped and her eyes opened wide. "You think Horace Skyrm has abducted Mr Severus!"

"Yes, I do! It makes perfect sense. Think about it. If we fail to claim the inheritance it all goes to Skyrm, who's made no secret of the fact that he's determined to get his hands on it if he can. We've all focused on the fact that we needed to find the treasure in order to inherit and really haven't paid too much attention to the condition that says we both need to live here in the house for a year, spending no more than three nights away in a single month.

"Skyrm couldn't stop us from finding the treasure, nor could he find it himself, but if he can keep one of us away from the house for more than three nights, then he'll win by default no matter what else we do or don't do! In a way, I'm surprised it took him this long to try it. It was really an obvious course of action for him to take, feeling the way he does."

Hester righted the fallen table and placed the teapot carefully back on top of it. Then she sank down onto the sofa, a grim expression on her face, and looked up at me. "You're right; it's definitely something he'd do. He's a slippery one and always has been."

"Hester, you know Skyrm better than I do. Do you think he'd hurt Severus?" Or kill him, my treacherous mind added, though I couldn't quite bring myself to say the words aloud.

She sat and thought for a moment before slowly shaking her head. "If he was cornered he might, but Skyrm is mostly bluster and threats, more weasel than snake. If he thinks he can get what he wants without doing anything too drastic, he'll take the easier path."

I nodded, hoping her assessment of Skyrm was right. "So most likely he's just keeping Severus prisoner until at least four nights have passed. We just have to figure out where he's holding him. Do you know where he lives?"

"No," she said. "His family used to have a house not far from here, but it's been nothing but a ruin for years. I think he lives somewhere fairly close to London, but I'm not sure just where."

"Maybe the address will be at his office. I'll have to start there, I guess."

"No one will be there this early," said Hester.

I smiled grimly at her. "Oh, I'm counting on that."

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As I hoped, when I arrived at the offices of Stump, Starrett and Skyrm, Warlocks of Law, I found them shuttered and dark and, as far as I could tell, no one else on the alley was stirring so early in the day either. If you're planning a spot of breaking and entering, the fewer people around the better, so I was encouraged by the lack of activity anywhere in the area.

I set to work quickly and was surprised to find that the only wards protecting the building were very rudimentary and easily bypassed. A couple of quick passes with my wand, a twist of the doorknob, and I was inside, standing alone in the shadows of the entryway.

I began my career in burglary by rifling through the file cabinets in the clerk's office, but found nothing of value. Nor was there anything useful in the man's desk, not even an address book or a client list. The only thing I found that was of any interest to me at all was a carefully hidden stash of dark chocolate in the bottom right hand drawer, and I must admit that I snitched a couple of pieces to keep my strength up as I turned to burgling his boss's office.

In one drawer of Skyrm's locked but hardly inaccessible desk, I found an appointment calendar. As I flipped through the pages, I noted that Skyrm didn't seem to be overly busy at the moment, though he did seem to have at least one appointment listed for most days. It seemed significant to me however, that there was absolutely nothing listed on his agenda for the next several days, nor for yesterday either. The last few days of the week were entirely blank.

When I delved deeper into the desk, I found that one of the drawers had a false bottom and inside that hidden compartment were some very interesting documents indicating that Skyrm was up to his ears in debt to the goblins. An excellent motive for making sure he inherited Miss Sparling's fortune if ever there was one.

In addition, I found papers that pointed to something even more alarming. I was no financial expert, but if I was reading those documents right, it appeared that Skyrm had been dipping into accounts that were part of the Sparling estate. Accounts he had access to as executor of the estate, but certainly had no right to loot. No wonder he was so desperate to get his hands on the Sparling money. Not only did he want it to cover his debts, but he needed to cover his thievery as well.

Using a simple duplicating spell, I made copies of the documents and shoved them into my pocket, figuring the information might come in handy later.

Despite an extremely thorough search, I found nothing to tell me where Skyrm lived, but I did find his clerk's address. So I decided to head there next.

The clerk, whose name was apparently Lester Finch, lived in a third floor flat in a rather rundown building in another part of London. Even though by now the sun had been up for hours, judging by his rumpled and bleary-eyed appearance when he finally answered his door, Finch obviously had not. Although he was clearly surprised to find me on his doorstep, he didn't appear unduly alarmed by my presence. I took this to mean that whatever Skyrm was up to, his clerk was likely clueless as to his actions. This wasn't exactly a surprise. Skyrm struck me as a man who kept his own counsel.

"Good morning," I said smiling my very best smile at the dishevelled young man who stood before me stifling a yawn. "I'm terribly sorry to get you out of bed, but it's urgent that I find your boss. I tried your offices, but they were closed up, so I was hoping that you might be able to tell me where Mr Skyrm can be found."

I hoped he wouldn't ask me how I knew where to find him, and luck was with me on that point. It certainly looked as if I'd dragged him out of bed and like most people awoken before they wished to be, he wasn't quite as quick witted as he probably would be after a shower and a cup of strong coffee.

Finch blinked owlishly at me for a moment before nodding. "Uh... yes, uh... Mr... uh..."

"Lupin," I supplied pleasantly when he appeared at a loss. "You've been delivering my monthly allowance for some time now."

Hazy light dawned. "Right, Mr Lupin... at Greycliffs. I'm not really sure where Mr Skyrm is right now. He closed the offices for a few days and gave me the time off. It was all somewhat unexpected, at least to me. I assume he's gone off on holiday somewhere, though he didn't really say so."

"Perhaps he might not have left yet. It's very important that I talk to him. It concerns the Sparling estate." Which of course it did, as that was Skyrm's excuse for the reprehensible actions that I was by now absolutely certain he was guilty of. "Could you possibly give me his home address?"

The young man hesitated for a moment, and I pulled my wand from my pocket and twirled it between my fingers, smiling a smile that was a fraction less friendly. "It really is very... important," I stressed.

I could see dawning apprehension in his eyes, and though I found them difficult to maintain during the time of the new moon, when I was as completely human as I ever was, I toyed with manifesting some of my more intimidating wolfish tendencies to push that apprehension in the right direction.

To my relief, I didn't have to take that step however. Thankfully, he seemed to decide it wasn't worth arguing with me over his boss. Without a word, Finch disappeared back inside, leaving the door open, and I saw him cross the room to a desk, flip open a file and begin to copy something out onto a scrap of parchment. He returned quickly and handed the parchment to me.

"That's his address. I don't know if he'll be there, of course. He really did give me the impression that he'd be away for a few days. If it helps, he told me that he'd be back next week. That's really all I can tell you."

I took the parchment, noted that it contained an address in Surrey, and thanked him politely. He seemed relieved to be able to close the door on me, and I was certainly relieved to have come away from our encounter with yet another place to try in my search for Severus.

Skyrm's house in Surrey was quite modest, barely more than a cottage truthfully, which I'll admit surprised me. He struck me as a man who loved the trappings and appearance of wealth even when he really couldn't afford them so I'd been prepared for something much grander. It sat at the end of a dead end road behind a screen of thick pines, well separated from its nearest neighbours.

This was a fairly common practice in wizarding households situated so close to Muggle areas. It's always wise to fit in superficially so as not to raise any suspicions, but we still needed to find ways to hide our magical activities from casual observation. Hiding our houses at the end of private drives and behind heavy screens of foliage tended to do the trick quite neatly.

The fact that the house was somewhat isolated raised my hopes that Skyrm might be hiding Severus inside, but once I gained entrance, which was again trivially easy to do, it became apparent quite quickly that the place was deserted. Nevertheless, I took my time and searched it from top to bottom, taking special care to inspect the cellar very carefully for any hidden rooms or passages, but I found nothing but dirt and bugs for my trouble.

I'd hit a dead end and needed to try something else.

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"Hester, you said that Skyrm's family has a place around here somewhere, right? Can you tell me where exactly?" I asked as I washed the dirt from Skyrm's cellar off in the kitchen sink back at Greycliffs.

Hester, who was sitting at the kitchen table polishing and re-polishing the silver in order to have something to keep her occupied, paused in her work and looked up at me. "It's not too far away. I could probably take you there more easily than I could give you directions." I had a feeling that Hester was tired of doing nothing but waiting around for news, too.

"You've been there then?"

She nodded. "Yes, once. Not in many years, of course. Not since Old Mr Skyrm died. Surprisingly, he was a very nice man and Miss Sparling always got along very well with him. I don't think he'd be too happy if he knew what sort of mischief his son has been up to." She scowled darkly and rubbed extra hard at a soup spoon.

"Could you take me there now?" I asked, thinking that keeping Hester otherwise occupied might allow the silver to keep some of its finish.

Eagerly, she got to her feet and removed her apron, tossing it casually on the table. "If you want... Did you find out where Skyrm's living now?"

"Yes, and I searched it thoroughly and found nothing useful. I'm certain he's responsible for Severus's disappearance though. He's closed his offices for a few days and has gone away without telling his clerk where to find him. That seems like a dead giveaway to me."

"It sure does seem suspicious. Old scrimp and save never closed up shop that I ever heard of, not even on official holidays if he could get away with it," she agreed. "Oh, before we go anywhere, I've got some messages to give you. The owls started showing up shortly after you left and they've been coming in all day." She headed into the front hall and retrieved several parchments from a small table near the front door.

I took them eagerly and read every one closely, but it was all just more negative information... telling me where Severus wasn't rather than where he was.

"Anything?" she asked as I finished the last note with a sigh.

I shook my head. "No. Still no news."

"The Minister for Magic floo-called for you shortly before you came back." She sounded impressed that she'd actually spoken to Kingsley, but she was clearly trying to remain very casual about it.

"What did he say? Did he have any new information?" I felt a quick stab of hope. Surely if anyone knew anything of value it would be the Minister for Magic.

"No. He said he just wanted to check in with you and find out how you were doing. He was really very sympathetic. Does he know about your personal relationship with Mr Severus? From his manner, it seemed as if he might, though he didn't say anything specific."

I tried to ignore my disappointment at the lack of news and gave her question some thought. "I don't know. I've never said anything to Kingsley about us being anything more than housemates, and I've always tried to keep a bit of distance between us at work. Maybe I haven't done as good a job of keeping my feelings to myself as I thought I had."

She snorted less than delicately. "Since you light up like a candle whenever you see Mr Severus, I wouldn't be surprised if you haven't managed to keep your feelings entirely concealed." She smirked briefly at me before sobering once more. "Anyway, the Minister wanted to know where you were but I didn't give him any specific information. I just said you were out following a lead of your own. I hope that was all right."

"Yes, that's fine. So far I haven't found anything that proves that Skyrm has Severus. All I have are suspicions. I don't want to bring in an army of Aurors until I know for sure that I'll need them. Better to let them keep following their own leads, if they have any."

"He did say that if you needed any help to just send a Patronus or floo his office. Someone would be there around the clock."

I found that reassuring. Hester went to get her cloak and we left the house together. A scant few minutes later we were standing at the end of a long gravel driveway in what appeared to be a fairly isolated area. The property was surrounded by a tall spiked fence with an impressive wrought iron gate that was beginning to rust rather badly. Fortunately Hester had Apparated us inside the fence, once again no wards were in place to keep anyone out.

The narrow drive was lined on either side by large trees interspersed with overgrown bushes, many with rather nasty thorns on them. Weeds poked up through the gravel bed giving the whole place a neglected air. Around a corner down at the far end of the drive, I could just make out the dark silhouette of a house. Everything was still. Even the birds were quiet.

Slowly we made our way down the driveway toward the house, keeping to the verge and under the shadowy overhanging branches as much as possible to avoid being either seen or heard. Once we reached the end of the driveway, we stationed ourselves behind a large convenient bush and looked the house over carefully.

The afternoon sun reflected off windows, many of which were cracked or broken particularly on the upper storey. Shingles were missing from the roof and the stone walls were overgrown with ivy and appeared mouldy in spots. The painted trim was peeling badly. It was clear the house was derelict. After staring at it for awhile, I came to the conclusion that the place probably remained standing simply out of habit more than anything else. No one had put any care into it for quite some time. It was really a sorry sight.

I told Hester to stay put and keep watch while I made a circuit of the house. Keeping to the shadows and shrubbery as much as possible, I crept around the perimeter of the building. A squat one storey structure sat at the end of the driveway to one side of the house and I glanced inside when I came to it. It was empty and seemed just as ramshackle as the old stable at Greycliffs. I could see right up through the roof in spots.

I circled the entire house and returned to Hester's side without seeing any sign of life inside or out. This raised my hopes considerably. An abandoned house, far from its neighbours behind a stout fence and a park full of overgrown shrubbery struck me as the perfect place to hold a hostage.

"I'm going to try to get inside," I told Hester in a low voice. "Wait here and keep watch. If I'm not back in an hour, get back to Greycliffs and floo for the Aurors."

"Wouldn't it be a good idea to get a few Aurors here now to back you up?" asked Hester eyeing the house with concern.

I shook my head. "We could be wrong, and I don't want to pull them off other leads until we know there's a reason to do so."

"But..." she began but I silenced her with a gesture.

"Don't worry, Hester. I can handle Skyrm."

She stared at me for a moment, then nodded. "Okay. But be careful; Skyrm can be tricky."

"Don't worry, I'll be fine. Skyrm's the one who needs to worry, if I find he's hurt Severus," I said firmly. Then with a final grim smile, I slipped away through the bushes back toward the rear of the house.