Chapter Eleven

Where Loyalties Lie

Morning dawned bright and sunny. Ratfly was quietly sleeping on his perch, Jennifer's ankle was less swollen, and for a moment everything that had happened the day before seemed quite far off and unimportant. She had little idea that the entire day was going to turn into a nightmare.

Jennifer went down to her office to see just how badly her equipment was broken this time and to get her class notes, which hopefully were not too out of order. Jennifer had a feeling that when Severus ransacked a room he really ransacked it. Unlocking and opening the door, she knew at once something was very seriously wrong.

Everything was almost exactly as she had left it.

She frowned and stared inside the room, afraid to step in. She knew without a doubt that Severus had done what he said. Did the House Elves fix it? No, they would have reported this to someone before doing that. Surely she would have been told….

"Is something wrong with your office?"

"Uh, no, Minerva. I was just thinking." Jennifer turned, looking at her. She knew then that she was in trouble, for there the older professor was quite easy to read in that moment. Minerva knew that the office had been ransacked, and knew that Jennifer was trying to hide it. She was upset, and perhaps a little hurt at the apparent deception.

"You will come with me immediately, please. Dumbledore wants to speak with you concerning an item belonging to the school that has come up missing. He seems to think you may know something about it." At this point, Jennifer's jaw dropped. A group of students passed by, glancing at them curiously. One of them, Draco Malfoy, she thought, had slowed down a bit. "Well don't just stand there, Professor Craw. Close the door. We're keeping him waiting."

Why in the world was Minerva treating her like a misbehaving student? Closing the door, Jennifer followed behind her. This was really confusing. And where were they going, Jennifer wondered. Dumbledore's office isn't this way… Severus was walking down the corridor, and as they passed Jennifer glanced back at him, hoping that he'd see something was wrong.

"Keep up, Professor Craw. I can't tell you how extremely disappointed we are with you."

Disappointed? Jennifer tried to get another glimpse at Minerva, but she was a step ahead of her and not looking at her. Jennifer picked up the pace, trying to get even with her, but every time she did, Minerva matched it, always staying one step ahead. Blast, how was she going to figure out what's going on if she couldn't see her face, Jennifer thought with irritation. After passing the Great Hall, Jennifer realized they were walking towards the library. As they entered, Hermione looked up from one of the tables, watching curiously as they walked past her. They went to the back door, Minerva having her enter first. There stood Albus Dumbledore in the same place the Mirror stood, looking more somber than she ever seen him.

"Jennifer Craw," Dumbledore said sternly as she approached. Jennifer frowned. She couldn't read his face. What was going on? Sure, there were times when everyone was hard to read even with her ability, but she'd never gotten a complete blank before. "Were you in this room yesterday afternoon?"

"Yes," Jennifer admitted.

"What were you doing here in this room?" he asked. She still couldn't read his face.

"I cannot say," Jennifer answered carefully. She was suddenly wondering if this hadn't been what Dumbledore meant a few days ago. Trust them with what you won't tell me.

Minerva looked at her with a shocked expression, but didn't say a word.

"Why can you not say?" he asked. Jennifer said nothing. "Jennifer, what happened to the Mirror in this room?"

Jennifer didn't answer. She was confused as to why this was coming up; for she was sure Dumbledore had given Severus permission to take the Mirror, that truth had been quite clear. But Severus had told her not to say a word about anything they did except to him, and she wasn't about to.

"Jennifer, aren't you listening? Professor Dumbledore, the Headmaster of this school your employer, just asked you a question. Aren't you going to answer?"

"No," Jennifer replied. "I cannot."

"I would also like to know about the copies you made of the confidential documents you took from my study. I would like to know where they are now." Dumbledore added. Minerva turned to look at Dumbledore aghast. Apparently she was not privy to that information beforehand.

"I'm not sure," she admitted.

"Were they taken when your office was searched this weekend?" Dumbledore asked. "Or was the office ransacked to hide the fact that they were given to someone else before it happened?"

Jennifer looked up at him. Nothing. She could read nothing in his face at all. She looked back down.

"She did know about the office, Headmaster. You were right about that," Minerva said. "As we had guessed, she was quite surprised opening her office and finding that we had straightened it." Dumbledore nodded to Minerva, then looked back at Jennifer.

"Jennifer… dear Jennifer, where did we go wrong? I am utterly saddened by your actions this first month. Although I have great faith in your teaching abilities, you are walking a very, very thin line as far as your personal endeavors are concerned."

Jennifer kept looking down. He could say that again, she thought bitterly. Why couldn't she see what he was thinking? She didn't know how to react to him. Jennifer shook her head slightly. It didn't matter. Now that she had agreed to go along with this, backing out would be risking a lot more than just her own life. It was the safety of the school she was protecting, because there was little doubt that if word got out what Severus was doing… she looked back up at Dumbledore again with a determined look on her face.

"I will do what I must do," she answered at last. Dumbledore nodded slowly at her, frowning.

"Yes, and we must do what we must do. To think, I had thought that you were a Truth Seeker. But you are not a Truth Seeker." Jennifer blinked. "Truth Seekers do not use their ability to manipulate their situation for their own benefit, nor do they use it to determine what to say based on what the person they're studying wants to hear. Truth Seekers do not use their ability for personal vindication. They do not steal knowledge, and they do not make up lies and pass them off as the truth. But you are not a Truth Seeker. Your mother was, bless her spirit. But she is gone, leaving nothing behind but a child who tries to play people like a game."

Silence set in. Jennifer stood numbly looking at him, angry, hurt, and in a way, betrayed. Somehow, from the moment she had met Dumbledore, she had always thought that he was going to stick by her no matter what... but now it was apparent that wasn't true at all. She was just another employee to him, she thought, and a very new one at that. She was an outsider, and she had pushed her luck in faith.

"You are now officially on probation until further notice. If you wish to keep your position here, you will concentrate on your students and your teaching and nothing else. You are further instructed not to leave the premises without a staff escort. If I hear one rumor of complaint from anyone, student or staff, then I will have no choice but to let you go. Furthermore, if you discuss this conversation with any member of the staff, I will immediately ask you to pack your bags and get out of my school."

Jennifer's fear was apparent, she knew. She, who feared nothing but perhaps a high-speed broom, suddenly feared to lose everything she had gained in the short weeks she had been here. Even if another school had the nerve to accept her, she would never be happy teaching anywhere else.

"Do you understand the rules I have set forth, Jennifer Craw?" Jennifer nodded.

"Yes, sir. I will follow them," she replied evenly.

"Good," Dumbledore said, his eyes growing just a tad gentler. "So long as you do as I have asked and manage to make it to the end of the school year, we will then review your progress and decide whether or not we want you here after that. You're dismissed."

Trembling slightly, Jennifer walked out of the room, gritting her teeth to keep from eyes from watering. She whisked up the back steps to the second floor and straight towards her office, not looking in either direction. She was aware of quickly paced footsteps behind her, and wasn't surprised when Severus stopped her from opening the office door.

"What's wrong, what happened?" he asked in a low voice. Jennifer looked up at him, but really couldn't tell anything about what he was thinking.

"Please don't ask, Severus. Even if I could say… I really don't want to talk about it." Jennifer went into her office then, shutting the door in his face, sliding against the door as she wept softly. On the other side, Severus listened quietly for a moment before striding back down the corridor towards the stairs.

Jennifer was quick to return to work, glad to get back to her students. She had gotten them through all of the perceptions, finishing the section off with having them write another essay. No more problems of any note happened in her class because of Slytherin; in fact, they were more obedient when it came to her classes. Weekends were spent riding with Hagrid, or studying Apparation with Severus, who was, she quickly learned, a very demanding teacher.

"This isn't a skill to be messing with if you're not one for perfection, Professor Craw. One mess up and you might show up somewhere you weren't planning to go… or worse, half of you might show up where you weren't planning to go," he warned her.

It took several weekends before she was successfully Apparating to Severus' assigned positions without messing up and with complete ease. Finally, they made arrangements for a Ministry agent to come down one weekend to test her.

At her weekly dinner at Hagrid's, she announced to Hagrid, Harry, Hermione, and Ron, about the test the next day. Hagrid was delighted.

"I'm go'in ta bake ya a speshul Forestfern fungus pie jus' th' way ya' likes it, for after ya've passed!" he promised, beaming. "I wish I coul' take my exam, wunner if I could, bein' as I'd not officially graduated an' al that."

"Hey, you told me you couldn't Apparate!" Jennifer said, frowning at him.

"Wull I can't. Officially," Hagrid winked. Hermione, Ron, and Harry chuckled at that.

"Oh Hagrid, your pies are simply fantastic now," Jennifer told him. The students agreed. Ever since Jennifer had started coming to Hagrid's for dinner and suggesting he add an ingredient one week and subtract one the next, it had been getting a bit more palatable eating there. "I only have one more suggestion left to make it just 'perfect.'"

Hagrid looked at her suspiciously.

"Oh, no, y' ain't gonna tell me t' take it out, are ye. Y' can't do that. Uh mean, how can we call it Forestfern fungus pie when there's no Forestfern fungus in it!" Hagrid protested.

"Why don't you put the fungus on top for decoration and garnish. It's nice and bitter; it'd be perfect to garnish it. And just rename it Hagrid Quiche. It'll be smashing. Then I can write it down and pass it along, and everyone will ask, 'what's the secret?' and you can tell them it's the Forestfern fungus. It just ain't the same without it." Jennifer smiled at him.

"'Ey, tha's not a bad idea!" Hagrid said brightly.

"That's not just not a bad idea, it's positively brilliant," Hermione said, who had been admiring Jennifer's tactics for a while.

The test the next day was simple enough… a series of preset locations that she had to Apparate to following an instructor, and then a couple she had to do on her own, collecting flags and bringing them back. After Severus' stringent, exhausting drills, the test was no challenge at all, and Jennifer annoyingly realized that she probably could have tested for it after the first weekend of practice and passed. Of course, she definitely wouldn't have been as quick, she thought. She barely had to think about doing it anymore, she just did it, which was probably what Severus had aiming for. It was as if he had this constant need to teach or be one step ahead, if not several steps ahead, than necessary.

By Halloween, Jennifer had covered all of the basics she had wanted to teach, and the upper classes were already getting excited over what was to be the next half of Jennifer's plan for the older students.

"Next week, I'm going to begin teaching you some spells that are, by definition, Dark spells," she told them. "I think you are going to be very surprised about how many spells created for and were once used for evil intent that have come to be very effective defenses against the Dark Arts that created them. We're going to go through a lot of them, so be prepared for a workout," she warned them. "I also want to caution you ahead of time that many of these spells are extremely dangerous if used improperly. Some of them, unless used as the way I teach them, are also illegal. Misuse of them will most definitely get you expelled. I ask only that you bring with you the same serious work ethic you all have shown me in the last few weeks. Dismissed, and enjoy the feast."

The class filed out, excited over what was to come. Jennifer was looking forward to the material too, although she was slightly concerned about the pleased looks that Slytherin house had been giving her for her choice of topics. She wasn't sure whether she was hoping that they'd just behave, or that they'd mess up and get expelled so she didn't have to worry about them in her classroom.

As she stacked up her books to take to her office, a note she had not seen before appeared on her desk. Odd, she hadn't seen an owl, she thought, because it wasn't there when she started the class. Unfolding the letter, she quickly read it.

I have something that I need you to do for me that must be done now. Apparate to the Dark Forest and someone will be there to guide you to a new location. Come immediately without fail. –S Snape

Jennifer frowned. Strange note… it seemed wrong somehow, but it was definitely his normal illegible handwriting. Well, she knew better than to ignore it. Quickly slipping the note in the stack of books on the classroom, Jennifer slipped out one of the side gates of the school, Disapparating.