Warning: this chapter discusses past violence.

Chapter 10: Knots

Snape -

Edward Nott is missing. We can't rule out escape or foul play through dark magic. We have just begun our investigations, but I wanted to let you know straight away. Theo Nott was visiting his father at the time of his disappearance and has been taken into custody. I know you vouched for him several years ago as a member of your eyes, but his current communications with his father have been cause for suspicion.

Current communications? What on earth was going on? Try to leave and live his own life for a few years and everything went to hell. Bloody typical.

Snape slapped the protean note on the desk and scrawled an answer to Schacklebolt's message.

I have your portkey. I'm coming through to your secure office.

He made it over to his office door in a few steps. "Grossman!" he called out into the lab.

"Yeah?"

"I'm leaving. I'll be… I'll let Dick know when I'll be back."

"But the protocol testing is -"

"Do not touch any of the diagrams, do you understand me?"

"Well, sure, but -"

Snape slammed the door. He patted his breast pocket, the small packet of emergency potion vials was still there. It would be winter in England, where was his heavy cloak? Writing was still appearing on Shacklebolt's note on the desk.

No, if he has escaped, you will be safer where you are. You are not to…

Snape retrieved his cloak from the wardrobe and stowed the note in his pocket. He fished out the portkey Shacklebolt had given him two years before. It was for emergencies, definitely intended to take him away from fugitive Death Eaters, not towards them. It was contained in an old biro. Snape carefully unscrewed the plastic pen top and shook out the pen cartridge. There - the small metal spring rolled free on the desktop. He touched it and was gone.

Shacklebolt entered the office a few minutes later; a small private refuge, heavily warded. Snape was sitting in one of the two armchairs with his wand out, facing the door.

"Of all the fool -" began Shacklebolt.

"I need to know exactly what is going on."

Shacklebolt took the other chair. "Believe me, I wish I could tell you."

"What did you mean by missing?"

"Just that."

Snape glared at him. "That isn't an adequate explanation."

"If I had one, I'd give it to you." Shacklebolt sighed. "Right. Your Theo Nott put in a visitation request for his father. Which he hasn't for five years. It was granted. He went through the usual security protocol, turned in his wand. He had nothing on him at the time of his visit. The guard reports that during the visit he was asking his father about family matters. About letters he'd sent, which is a whole - in any case, after they spoke for a few minutes, Theo made a sudden move, and Mr. Nott collapsed. By the time the guard reached his side, Mr. Nott had been replaced."

"What the hell does that mean?"

"In his place was a sheet," said Shacklebolt deliberately.

"A… sheet."

"All we know at this point is that there are no active curses on it. I was in the middle of the examination when I was called away."

"I want to see it."

"None of this is a good idea, Snape"

"When has that ever stopped you?"

Shacklebolt gave a momentary smile. "Right. I suppose you'd better take a look. But we are not advertising to all and sundry that you're back in the country. Stay here. I'll clear the area and Floo you in."

Snape was left for an interminable quarter hour until Shacklebolt returned.

"All right. I've activated the Floo connection here, and the room is cleared. We can go through."

The Floo deposited them in an empty DMLE corridor. Several equally empty halls later, Shacklebolt led him into a last empty room under heavy wards.

In the middle of the floor lay a sheet. It had been gathered and knotted to form a crudely shaped body.

"No curses?" said Snape.

"None."

What passed for the neck and waist were tied with a bit of frayed string or floss. The hands and feet were the corners, knotted. The sheet wasn't particularly clean. The whole thing was clearly cobbled together with Azkaban materials.

"Spells?" said Snape.

"Traces of magic, yes, but no identifiable spells any more."

"The knots - "

"Right, let's take a look."

Shacklebolt teased apart the frayed strings and they pulled the wrinkled sheet open. It wasn't large, the size to fit a narrow Azkaban cot. It was worn and patched in places. It was also stained. A dull brown blotch was in the upper-middle, and there were quite a few other stains as well. Shacklebolt was working at the knots that made the hands and feet. Once they were undone, they revealed nothing but wrinkled patched sheet corners.

Shacklebolt made a face at the stains. "We'll have to test that, but it wouldn't be a stretch to guess it's Nott's blood."

Snape nodded absently, peering at the small fabric patch sewn into what had been the right 'hand'. He gingerly lifted the corner of the sheet. Nothing on the other side, no hole for the patch to cover. He let the sheet drop. A sheet and patches of another sheet. He wasn't much inclined to trust coincidences at the best of times. He was fairly sure that this did not qualify as the best of times.

"Right. Someone did something to Nott and replaced him with this… effigy. Either it was smuggled in from the outside or... well, how anyone could channel the power to activate this on the inside without a wand? We're already conducting a sweep of all the cells and prisoners," said Shacklebolt.

Snape nudged the bottom edge of the sheet with his shoe. Part of it had been frayed or torn away.

"Well, any ideas, Snape?"

He raised his eyebrows at Shacklebolt and smiled. "None whatsoever."

"Really," said Shacklebolt flatly.

"You seem to have it well in hand. Sweep of the prisoners, who don't have any wands. Detaining Theo, who didn't have one either. Clearly the guards are incorruptible and above suspicion."

"Come off it. They'll be investigated. We're not ready to rule out any suspects. Including Theo Nott."

"I can tell you Theo Nott had nothing to do with this."

"And I can tell you he knows something. He took up extremely uncharacteristic communications with his father after five years of silence. Followed by a visit. During which his father was replaced by an effigy."

"You think he made this?" Snape waved his hand at the sheet. "In a visiting room, without a wand, under guard?"

"No, but I think he knows something."

"He won't tell you a bloody thing. Release him to me."

Shacklebolt came around the sheet and stood close to Snape. "Is that an offer?"

"What could I offer you?"

"Stop it. If you think you can get information from Theo Nott, be my guest. I don't like to think that he's become a Death Eater sympathizer after his service in the war, but stranger things have happened."

Snape made a scoffing noise.

"Oh, really?" said Shacklebolt. "You've never heard of anyone changing sides, have you?"

"We're not talking about me."

"No, we're talking about Theo Nott, who has conflicted family loyalties and has been acting suspiciously. I can't in good conscience rule him out on your word alone. For Merlin's sake, Severus, have you even seen him in the past few years? People do change. And I don't think you want Edward Nott on the loose, if he is alive and out. If you can get Theo to tell you anything that will help, it's in your own self-interest to share it."

"We both know I look after that."

"Oh, certainly, you're very good at that, for an adrenaline junkie with a death wish."

"Spoken by a Minister who can't stay out of DMLE investigations."

Shacklebolt snorted. "We can go back and forth all you like, Snape. You know I'm right. We've worked together before."

Snape raised his eyebrows at him skeptically.

"You are a member of the Order."

"The Order is defunct."

"And you always will be. Do you think I let just anyone demand to see evidence in ongoing DMLE investigations? You should get out of the country. If you're going to be stupid about that, the least you can do is let me know if you find any trace of Nott. As a fellow member of the Order."

"And Theo?"

Shacklebolt smiled. "Aurors have been going in circles with him for the past four hours. He's one of yours, all right. I'll release him to your custody. I'll bring him through to the secure office and you can Floo out from there. You have my protean note. Use it. And remember what I said about being stupid."

Theo came through the Floo a few minutes later, looking very much like someone who had been questioned by Aurors for four hours. He sagged further at the sight of Snape, who was waiting for him, alone, watching the Floo behind him keenly. No one else came through.

"Sir."

Snape leaned in and spoke quietly. "We are going somewhere private and you're going to tell me exactly what happened."

"I, I don't know, he just - "

"Not a word. Where do we go?"

"Uh, I think Bulstrode's in the administrative offices. But she'd have to let us through on her end and I left my protean notes behind when I went to Azkaban."

"Never mind, I have one."

Theo conjured himself a pint of water while Snape wrote to Bulstrode. When Bulstrode confirmed that the Floo connection was open on her end, they went through.

Bulstrode was sitting at her desk, her arms folded.

"Sir."

"Bulstrode," he said.

"We were handling it," she said, irritated.

"Goyle, you could handle. Mr. Nott, you can't. I know him. Trust me, you do not want to handle Mr. Nott."

"Mr. Nott?"

"Yes," he said sharply. "Nott is going to give us a very complete report and we are going to have a meeting with everyone."

"Fine. Daphne's in the archives. I'll call her."

"Everyone, Bulstrode."

They stared at each other stubbornly for a long moment.

"I didn't bring Longarse in," said Bulstrode.

"He's in now. Get him."

Bulstrode sighed and turned to the Floo while Theo began his account, starting with everything he hadn't told the Aurors. By the time he'd described the code and the second letter, Bulstrode had Daphne in from the archives and Neville in through the Floo.

"I was trying to ask my dad about the letters," Theo was saying, "and… his face just slid down, sir, I thought he was having a stroke. And then his whole head caved in like an empty bag -"

"What?" said Neville.

Snape spoke over him. "That was not your father."

"But he, it, spoke to me. Is he still alive?"

"You didn't see anything die. That was nothing but an effigy running out of power. A rather crude simulacrum. First principle."

Neville wasn't sure what he meant by that.

"You said there was a coded message in the forged letter," said Snape.

"Yeah. 'We have G G. Follow orders. Him or you.'"

"Damn it, it fits," muttered Snape.

"But we don't know what the orders would be," said Theo.

Snape sighed. "We do. And he did. Benedict Crabbe committed suicide two days ago. With a sheet."

Theo sat heavily at one of the empty desks. "Oh, no."

"Oh, yes. And that wasn't your father. It was a sheet with your father's blood on it. As well as a small patch from another sheet, at the hand. In order to apparate without a wand, to break through Azkaban wards, and to animate an effigy, your father needed a tremendous amount of power. A willing life sacrifice. If the willing sacrifice of a hand can bring someone from the dead, imagine the power from a life. That would be more than enough."

"But how -" began Neville.

"First principle of dark magic," said Snape impatiently. "The part stands for the whole and the whole the part. A patch was sewn on the effigy sheet. If it came from the sheet Mr. Crabbe used to take his life , then magically speaking, those two sheets were one and the same. And Mr. Nott's blood on his sheet… the sheet symbolically was him. No wand needed. He may as well have had his hands around Crabbe's throat."

Theo looked sick.

"The release of energy at Crabbe's death would give Mr. Nott all that he needed to apparate and more. No doubt your father intended the effigy to remain in place indefinitely, but that amount of power… did it actually speak to you?"

"A few words."

"That may have been enough to collapse it. In any case, your father has been out for two days."

Theo looked sicker.

"A willing sacrifice?" said Neville. "But why on earth would Crabbe agree?"

"The letter was threatening Goyle. He loved Goyle," said Theo quietly.

"He must have made the mistake of letting your father find out," said Snape.

"If Dad's been out for two days, do you think Goyle…"

"There's a good chance he's still alive. Crabbe wouldn't have agreed to the bargain without some assurance of Goyle's safety if he followed through. In the long term, though, Goyle would be a liability. We won't have much time to find him."

"Where do we start?" said Bulstrode.

"He had to have help from the outside. Someone sent that letter," said Snape.

"Oh, we have that," said Daphne casually. "Bulstrode and I got it from Dodger. It was some old woman."

"Old woman?"

"We don't have her name yet, that's why I was going through the archives. Dodger showed me his memories. Forties, fifties, maybe, I can give you her description."

"If your idea of a description is 'old woman' for a forty-year-old, you'd better show me."

"Pfff… fine," Daphne sighed.

It was less dramatic than Harry made it sound, Neville thought. Snape approached her, cast Legilimens, and they both stood rather stiffly immobile until Daphne's face twisted into a smile and Snape broke contact.

"Right," he said.

"You know her? Who is it?" asked Theo.

"Yes. Stephanie Coates. Lower-level supporter. Yaxley's, uh, personal assistant. She was released from Azkaban about three years ago. Right. They'll have gone to ground. Somewhere the Ministry can't put a tracker on Nott." Snape tapped one of the desks sharply. "The first step is to find any properties or locations that Coates would have access to. Bulstrode. Archives. Look for any addresses or family holdings. Greengrass. Now that we have the name, you can ask on the Alley and the dark market. Longbottom -"

Neville looked at him in surprise.

"Use your Auror connections. Find any addresses or family listed in Ministry records or her parole checks."

Merlin. It would be back to Harry again.

"Sir," began Theo.

"I know someone who'll know the family," Snape went on. "I'll get information from them."

"Sir," said Theo again.

Snape glared at him and shook his head sharply.

"Sir, don't cut me out," said Theo.

"What does he need now? To evade the Ministry? To leave the country and cross the border wards without detection?"

There was an uncomfortable silence as Snape stared Theo down.

"Unregistered portkey," said Theo finally.

"You are his target."

"But -"

"Or do you know another source?"

"He might try to buy one on the dark market."

"No. Not without great expense and the risk of exposing himself. Once he has you, he has a source of unregistered portkeys, made to order. And once he gets what he wants and has an avenue of escape, Goyle will be even more of a liability. You need to be in a secure location. Not your flat. And not here, McGonagall will toss you out on your ear if she finds you."

"Sir, I don't need -"

"Would you rather I arrange a Ministry safehouse for you?"

"No!"

"He can stay at mine," said Daphne sweetly. "Your dad doesn't know about me, does he?"

Theo shook his head.

"I have it warded, sir," she said to Snape.

"Be sure it is. Bulstrode. You're point of contact."

Bulstrode gave a short nod. "Get out then," she said. "Got work to do."

A/N: Thank you so much for reading!

A couple of sentences were accidentally deleted when I uploaded this morning, the chapter is now updated.