AN: Sorry if this chapter is a bit long and talky. Thanks to Kyntor for attentive, insightful criticisms. You make good points! My thinking is this: True, the Gryffindors would eventually have found a way to take matters into their own hands, but fortunately didn't have to; and per your second point, could they turn Draco in without incriminating Ivy as well, who ACTUALLY stole Harry's wand? You can bet Draco would put as much blame on her as possible. The issue comes up in this chapter. And I think you'll find that Lucius' eventual fate in chapter 18 has a certain poetic justice. NB: Next week look for my short story, "Harry Potter and the Portrait Studio," which takes place the summer after OOTP.
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Chapter 16. An Offer Refused
There was a knock on the door and Harry went over and opened it. Frank and Lucretia Longbottom appeared. "Frank seemed to think …" began Lucretia, and trailed off as her eyes moved from Lucius and Aurelle to the rest of the assembled group.
"He was right, Lucretia," Octavius told her. "It is time for many things to be resolved."
Frank reeled when he saw the number of people in the room. He covered his face, breathing hard and whispering something to himself. Harry couldn't tell whether it was the Opposition Verse or the sprinkling-can version.
"Take them one at a time," his mother advised him.
Frank made a great effort to master himself, and locked eyes with Lucius Malfoy. "You look very like a rat today, Lucius," he said coolly. "I trust you find that satisfactory."
"Your infirmity excuses you from giving offense," Malfoy replied in icy tones.
Harry heard a hissing sound, turned his head, and saw one of Salazara's heads appearing at the neck of Ivy's robes. Ivy listened as the snake whispered in her ear, then undid the fastening of her robe and allowed the Runespoor to unwind herself and drop to the floor, where she glided toward Frank Longbottom with growing agitation, her eyes gleaming red. "Let me kill, let me destroy the monstrosity, the horrible thing," her three heads rasped as she approached. Frank stood his ground and let her come.
"Salazara means you no harm, Frank. She senses the Curser within you," Octavius told him.
"I understand, Octavius," said Frank. All the same, he began to tremble with fear.
"Mr. Snape, do you speak Parseltongue too?" Harry asked Octavius.
"I am not a native speaker, as you might say, but Ivy and Salazara have graciously allowed me to pick up a few words," Octavius replied.
Harry moved to Frank's side and held out his hand. Frank looked at him doubtfully. "Are you sure about this, Harry?" he asked. "You don't know …"
"I know that this is what I'm here for," said Harry. His hand closed on the Trempath and his stomach twisted with hope and mortal fear.
Salazara addressed Harry with her middle head. "It is possible," she told him. "I can free him from the demon he carries, if that is his wish."
"Salazara says she can take the Curser away," Harry translated.
"I've waited for years to hear that," whispered Frank. "I'd given up hoping. Can it really be true?"
"Surely a mere snake can't do what all the most distinguished experts at St. Mungo's have not been able to accomplish in a dozen years," said Lucius Malfoy.
"You don't know Salazara," said Ivy.
"And perhaps," added Octavius, "the unusual powers of the Runespoor have not been tried in this situation."
"This is preposterous," said Malfoy. "This snake is out of control, and it is simply irresponsible to allow it roam unchecked." He pulled out his wand and pointed it at the Runespoor, but Ivy was too quick for him. She stepped between him and Salazara and her left hand bore down on Lucius' wand while she groped with her right for her own wand, hampered by the lack of wand pockets in her candy-striper robe. Luicus' spell misfired and hit the floor, where it made a smoking hole.
Ivy looked at Lucius with wide eyes. "You would have killed her, wouldn't you?"
"If necessary," he answered. "Runespoors can be very dangerous."
"But not as dangerous as a trigger-happy wizard," Octavius pointed out. "Stop waving your wand around, Lucius, before you hurt somebody. Anyone would think you had something to hide."
"Nonsense," said Lucius haughtily.
"It will not be easy," warned Salazara's right head, resuming where she had been so rudely interrupted.
"But it can be done," continued the left. "The conditions are favourable. The host has done what is necessary to prepare himself. He has learned the proper incantations. He knows who the Curser's creator is. He has chosen a Trempath partner who can speak to me, and who has spared the life of the Curser's creator." Ivy translated Salazara's words into English.
"The proper incantations?" repeated Ron. "Does she mean the Opposition Verse and the Sprinkling-Can Verse?"
Salazara nodded her middle head, which went on, "The host's Trempath partner, Harry Potter, has brought an important document."
As Ivy translated this, Harry reached into his robes and brought out the ragged parchment which contained the Marauder's Map. He showed it to Salazara and she nodded her three heads. "The Curser's creator is there too," said the middle head. "And one who has been betrayed by him to death at the hands of the Dark Lord."
"The one so betrayed was James Potter," said Octavius.
"Did you know my father, sir?" asked Harry.
"Indeed I did," said Octavius. "And the rest of the crew as well."
Harry placed the map on the table by the empty bed. Resting the tip of his wand on it, he asked, "What can you tell me about Octavius Snape?"
Words began appearing on the parchment. "Octavius? Mr. Padfoot would say that he's not a bad sort, considering that he's a Slytherin and brother to that slimy Severus."
"Mr. Prongs admits that actually he's been quite helpful."
"It is Mr. Moony's judgment that we couldn't have made this map without him."
"Mr. Wormtail thought that his suggestions were quite interesting." As Wormtail's words appeared, Salazara's three heads let out a slow, ominous hiss.
"So it was you, Mr. Snape," said Ron. "You were the one in the painting who told Fred and George how to work the map."
"Yes, it was I," said Octavius. "The map's makers came to me for advice several times while they were putting it together. And when the Weasley twins found it and I told them how to use it, I asked them to promise that they would someday pass the map on to someone who needed it. I am pleased to see that they kept their word."
Professor Snape wore an annoyed expression. "I remember that parchment, Potter. I knew there was more to it than you told me. I had no idea Octavius was involved, though I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. So it's a map, is it, Potter?"
"Yes, Professor," said Harry, feeling himself turning red as he remembered the Potions Master's first encounter with the Marauder's Map. "But not just a map," he added, and stopped, not wanting to go into further explanations.
Salazara's left head continued, "The host's Trempath partner, Harry Potter, owns a wand that is capable of unlocking Dark secrets." Ivy translated.
Lucius Malfoy gave a start. He said sharply, "Let me see that, Potter."
"What, sir?" Harry asked.
"Your wand, boy! Let me look at it!" Lucius shouted. He held out his hand for Harry's wand. "Now!"
Harry did not hand his wand over. He held it up. "I'll show it to you."
"Keep your hands to yourself, Malfoy. Look, but don't touch," said Professor Snape.
Lucius Malfoy looked at the Potions Master with raised eyebrows, as if the other man had committed a terrible social gaffe. "As you wish, Severus," he growled. He made a show of clasping his hands behind his back, stepped close to Harry's upheld wand, and studied it carefully. Harry turned it so the tiny scar would be clearly visible. "This mark," said Lucius. "When did it happen?"
"Last year," said Harry.
A spasm of fury twisted Lucius' face. "Draco," he whispered. "The boy swore to me that he had done what I asked. He'll answer for this—" he broke off. Harry put his wand back into his robes before any accidents could happen to it.
"Don't blame Draco, sir," Ivy said steadily, looking straight at Draco's father. "He didn't lie to you. He believed he had done what you wanted. I made sure of that."
"You!" Lucius exploded. "What do you know about it?"
"I learned that Harry's wand was in danger, and I did what I could to keep it safe."
Lucius' rage had shattered his habitual caution. "I might have known Octavius' little brat would ruin everything!" He reached for his wand, his face distorted.
Octavius placed himself in front of Ivy. His eyes flamed white-hot, but he spoke quietly. "Never speak about my daughter that way, Lucius. And if you ever lay a spell or a hand on her in anger, it will go the worse for you. I hope I make myself clear."
"My sentiments exactly," agreed Professor Snape, his black eyes glittering like his brother's. Lucius looked from one man to the other and put his wand away with a jerk.
Octavius moved behind Ivy and put his hands on her shoulders. "Ivy didn't have to tell you what she did. She could have let your son Draco take the blame for your … dissatisfaction. But that's not the way she was brought up to behave."
"Naturally she told me when you were here to back her up," Lucius muttered, sounding almost like a sulky schoolboy.
"And what would have become of her if I hadn't been?" Octavius inquired. "You would not have harmed her, would you, Lucius?" He looked pointedly at the hole in the floor.
"Of course not, Octavius," said Lucius impatiently, "but perhaps she needs a lesson in minding her own business."
"I will be the judge of that, Lucius," said Octavius glacially, "yet I might suggest that you could profit from the same lesson. I won't ask you to explain the words you let slip in an unguarded moment, but you will have to account for them one way or another."
"More threats, Octavius?" Lucius had recovered his self-possession and now shook his head, sounding almost sorrowful.
"You seem to be dealing out lessons with a free hand today, Lucius," said Aurelle. "There's no reason why you shouldn't have your share of them."
"It's a good thing Madam Nightingale didn't see you, Mr. Malfoy," said Neville earnestly.
"Yeah, she would have given you a lecture in anger management," added Harry.
Salazara's left head continued, "The special powers of Harry Potter's wand have made it possible for Aurelle Longbottom to be awakened." Ivy hesitated for a long moment before translating Salazara's words. "Everyone here must understand," insisted the Runespoor's right head, and Ivy repeated both statements in English.
Lucius Malfoy looked outraged. "Have you students been meddling in my office?" he asked dangerously.
"Your office?" Ivy asked blankly. "We haven't been to the Ministry of Magic, Mr. Malfoy."
"I mean my office here, at the hospital," Malfoy said impatiently.
"Oh, do you have an office here, sir?" asked Neville, making good use of his talent for looking innocent.
"What makes you think these students have been in your office, Lucius?" asked Octavius.
Lucius, realizing that he was about to implicate himself again, subsided into smoldering silence.
But Salazara wasn't finished. "The host's only other successful Trempath partner is also present," said her middle head, and Ivy translated, looking at her uncle with love and pride.
Professor Snape, finding himself the focus of attention, turned brick-red and lifted his chin.
"Severus," said Frank. "You're here. I hoped you would come."
"So I heard, Longbottom."
"Severus, I never got a chance to thank you for what you did."
"What I did?"
"You gave Aurelle back to me." Frank looked over at his wife.
"I don't—"
"Before you came, I couldn't see her face. All I could see when I looked at her was a rat. By the time you left she had her own face again. I sorrowed and raged over what had been done to her, but at least she was herself. And, Severus," said Frank, "I must ask your forgiveness. I failed to realize what I was doing to you."
"You'll get no forgiveness from me. It's no use apologising, Longbottom," said Snape harshly.
"But I have caused you—"
"I will not listen to such folly," Professor Snape interrupted. "I will accept your thanks, but not your apologies. It is an outrage. You are completely blameless."
"But you are angry."
"Not with you, Longbottom." Severus Snape's eyes moved to Lucius Malfoy, and then back to the door, as a sound from it caught his attention. The knob was turning, and the latch opened with a small click.
"Ah," said Octavius. "At last."
The door opened slowly and a man walked in wearing dark glasses and a surgical mask. He carried a book under his arm. He turned his blank face around the room until he apparently caught sight of Lucius Malfoy, and began walking toward him. When Lucius saw the man his whole body tensed and his eyes widened in alarm, but he tried to conceal his agitation. "Not here," he whispered urgently. But the man continued to approach him with the air of a sleepwalker. "I'll see you in my office later," Lucius added in a low voice, trying to sound offhand. "No need to bother about those papers now; I'll deal with them later."
Salazara raised her heads alertly, and all of her eyes burned with a fierce red light. "The Curser's creator is here," said all three of her heads at once. "The truth will at last be told."
"Are you Peter Pettigrew?" Harry asked in amazement. But the man shook his head wordlessly.
"Who are you, then?" Hermione asked. The man stood without answering, though Lucius Malfoy was signaling to him to leave the room. Hermione shrugged, pointed her want at him and said, "Diffindo!" The strings of his mask snapped and it slipped from his face. Hermione continued, "Accio Spectacles!" and caught his dark glasses as they sailed toward her. A pale, freckled face came to light, with vacant eyes and a slack expression.
Harry whispered, "It's Barty Crouch's son."
"Minus his soul, I do believe," said Ron.
"He's supposed to be in Azkaban!" said Lucretia Longbottom severely.
"But, Salazara, the younger Barty Crouch did not create the Curser in Frank Longbottom," said Harry in English.
"That is correct," Salazara's middle head replied.
Ron grasped the meaning, though not the words, of what she said. He went over and stood in front of the soulless man. "Give him to me, Barty," he said. "He used to be mine, you know." Young Crouch reached slowly into a pocket, pulled out a grey rat looking much the worse for wear, and handed it over. Ron flinched at the touch of Crouch's hand.
"No!" exclaimed Lucius, as if the word were yanked out of him.
Ron turned to Lucius Malfoy, the rat beginning to twist in his grip. "Do you know anything about this rat, Mr. Malfoy?" he asked.
Malfoy's hands clenched at his sides as he strove once more to calm himself. "Rats aren't allowed at St. Mungo's," he said. "Most unsanitary."
Ron lifted the rat and studied it carefully. "Definitely unsanitary, you're right about that," he agreed with Lucius. "No, you're not going anywhere," he told the rat as it tried desperately to escape. "One toe missing on the left," he observed, "and the right front paw seems to be made of some kind of metal."
"Pettigrew's right hand is made of silver," Harry told him, looking at the limb in question. "I wondered if it would stay that way when he turned into a rat again." The rat began to fill Harry's vision and his stomach churned with fear and hatred, both his own and Frank Longbottom's.
"I know that rat," muttered Frank. "It is really a rat, isn't it? Not just one of my delusions?"
"It's really a rat, Frank," Lucretia told him in a voice of disgust.
"I should like to step on it," Frank said decidedly.
"Go for it, dearest," said Aurelle.
"I recognize that rat myself," said Professor Snape. "Trampling's too good for it."
"So this is the notorious Wormtail," said Ivy with interest. "I've heard so much about him. None of it good."
"I know just what to do with him," said Ron. "Rats aren't allowed here, so we'll have to make him stop being one." He put his free hand in the pocket of his medical uniform and pulled out the mass of leeches he had picked up in the examining room.
"What are you doing with those?" demanded Lucius Malfoy. His hand moved toward his wand, but Octavius stopped him with a look. Professor Snape had his wand out, just in case.
"You'll find out if you just watch, Lucius," said the Potions master.
Ron held the handful of slimy, squirming, hungry leeches close to the terrified rat in his other hand. "One of these would bleed you dry in about a minute, I'd say. Would you like to try one and see? Or will you change into your human shape? You'd better decide quickly."
The rat continued to writhe and squeak in panic. As one of the leeches began to fasten itself to the rat's side, Ron loosened his hold just a bit, and the rat exploded into a full-grown man, though not a very tall one. His left hand clutched his side and he shrieked, "Get it off me!" Hermione used her wand to persuade the leech to let go, but she said, "It's not very dangerous to humans, you know."
Peter Pettigrew clearly didn't care. His watery eyes looked with horror at the leech and down at the oozing wound in his side. He looked much as Harry remembered him from their previous encounters: short, balding, unkempt, and ratlike.
"Well now," said Octavius, scanning the room. "I believe everyone is here. Isn't that so, Salazara?" She nodded her heads at him, and he shut the door and locked it, adding an interruption-repellent spell for good measure. "Lucky thirteen, plus a highly knowledgeable Runespoor."
"I remember your face. The Curser won't show me his face, but I can see yours, Peter, and it's a guilty one." Frank was shaking with anger as he looked at Pettigrew. "Do you know what you did to Aurelle?" he demanded. Pettigrew couldn't hold Frank's gaze, and dropped his eyes. "No, you look me in the eye and tell me whether you deserve have done to you what you did to my wife and child. And don't turn back into a rat when I'm speaking to you!" he added.
Pettigrew's eyes moved to the leeches Ron was still holding. "I'm n-not," he said in a wavering voice.
Frank rubbed a hand over his eyes and looked again, murmuring something about submarines. "Right," he said. Harry started reciting the sprinkling-can verse under his breath.
"I gave him a dose of Severus' potion before we came," Lucretia told Harry in an undertone. "And an infusion of horseweed and fairy butter, too. I don't think more will help him right now."
"He's doing just fine," Harry whispered back between lines.
"Whatever you think I did, you're wrong," muttered Pettigrew, staring at the floor. "You can't trust your memory, you know."
Frank grabbed the front of Pettigrew's shirt and pulled him close. (Pettigrew had on a few rags of nondescript clothing.) "How dare you lie to me, after everything you've done?" he said through his teeth. "You have no shame, have you? No depths are too low for you, are they?"
"It wasn't me, it was Barty," whimpered Pettigrew. "Everybody knows it was Barty."
"I've heard that one before!" Frank roared. "I'm sick of it! I don't ever want to hear it again!" Pettigrew flinched away from the blast, but Frank held him fast.
"That line only works when everyone thinks you're dead, Wormtail," said Ivy. "Come here, Salazara," she addressed her pet, still speaking in English. "Keep holding onto him, Mr. Longbottom, until I'm finished." She picked up the Runespoor and draped her over Pettigrew's shoulders, and Salazara poised her right head near Pettigrew's neck. Harry saw Neville shiver as he remembered being threatened the same way. Frank released his grip on Pettigrew's shirt.
"Don't move, Wormtail," Ivy warned him. "Salazara knows whether or not you tell the truth, and if you lie, she'll bite you. The bite from a Runespoor's right head is dangerous and very painful. It won't kill you, but it causes …"
"Mental aberrations," said Neville with a shudder.
"Take it away," gasped Pettigrew, not daring to lift a hand to the Runespoor himself.
"Stupefy!" shouted Lucius Malfoy. He had quietly drawn his wand during the confrontation between Frank Longbottom and Peter Pettigrew, and now made his move. Salazara sagged into limpness as the spell hit her left head, and Pettigrew pulled her from his shoulders and flung her away from him—straight to Lucius, who caught her and held her by her middle neck, not gently. Pettigrew saw Professor Snape lift his wand, and before the Potions master could disarm Malfoy, pushed young Crouch in his direction. Crouch, who wasn't all there to begin with, stumbled and dropped the book he was holding. He toppled into Professor Snape, sending him off balance, spoiling his aim, and making his wand fly out of his hand and land on the floor.
"Leave it, Severus," Lucius warned, as Professor Snape shoved Crouch out of the way and made a move to go and pick up his wand. Lucius took two steps and placed his foot on the wand. "I think this absorbing little drama has gone quite far enough," he added softly. "Threatening people with snakebites is simply not acceptable." He looked around the room, holding Salazara in one hand and his wand in the other. "Nobody move. I can kill this snake in an instant, and I will if I have to. That wasn't bad at all, Peter, but you'd better not funk it now. You'll regret it if you do." Lucius had apparently forgotten that Pettigrew was supposed to have died a hero's death.
Everyone who had come to help the Longbottoms stood frozen with horror. Ivy chewed her knuckles, blinking back tears, and Octavius slowly eased an arm around her. Harry's vision wavered, and the faces around him rippled as if seen under water. Rats … humans … He felt the black despair of the man who saw his sudden chance for escape hanging by a thread, and sensed the return of the Curser, which had been weakened by hope. A red-hot bolt of pain shot through his scar, and he staggered, clutching his head. He began reciting the Opposition Verse, and Frank joined in. "You may think you can torture me into submission…" Frank withdrew into the private world of his inner combat. Harry dared not take out his wand even for that purpose. He tried to reserve a sliver of consciousness for what was happening around them.
After all, there were nine of them ranged against Lucius Malfoy—ten, if they counted Aurelle in her hospital bed. Could he keep all of them at bay, even with Salazara, who must on no account be risked further, as hostage? Perhaps Lucius could be drawn into an argument and distracted long enough to let at least one of them catch him off guard.
Octavius said, "I should have told Ivy to keep your wand, Lucius. You're a public menace."
"I, Octavius?" Malfoy challenged him. "Am I the one who lets Runespoors—which aren't legal pets, by the way—have the run of the hospital and threaten to bite people? Am I the one who keeps leeches in his pockets? Am I the one who snuck into the hospital under an Invisibility Cloak?"
"No, Lucius," Octavius acknowledged, "but you're the one who threatened to strike Aurelle Longbottom. You're the one who involved your son in some underhanded plot against Harry Potter. You're the one with your foot on Severus' wand. And you appear to have Peter Pettigrew for a partner. That will do to start with. Shall I go on?"
"It makes no difference, Octavius," said Lucius. He pointed his wand at Ron, who was trying to edge behind him, and said sharply, "Don't try anything, Weasley, or Miss Parkinson's familiar will be history." Ron shrugged and stayed where he was.
Luicus was not looking at Salazara as he spoke, and failed to notice that her right head was showing signs of recovering from the stunning spell. She didn't stir, but her eyes moved on that side.
"And then what, Lucius?" asked Professor Snape. "You will have lost your main advantage, as I'm sure you realize."
"True, Severus," said Lucius thoughtfully. "I suppose I could destroy it a third at a time."
"No," whispered Ivy.
"What do you want, Mr. Malfoy?" asked Hermione reasonably. "What will it take for you to let Ivy have Salazara back?"
"You seem to think I have some sinister design that I could be talked out of, when I am merely trying to restore some kind of order and control in this hospital. I have no intention of returning this dangerous creature to an irresponsible student. I plan to turn it over to the Ministry, where it will be properly disposed of."
Ivy twisted her hands together.
Neville opened his mouth and tried to speak, without success. He licked dry lips and made another attempt. "What if—what if I made you an offer, Mr. Malfoy?"
"An offer, young Longbottom?" Lucius Malfoy repeated with amused scorn. "What could you possibly offer that would interest me?"
"Me," croaked Neville.
"You," remarked Lucius in disbelief. "You. What would I want with you? Do you have any remarkable skills or knowledge or connections?"
"No," said Neville, "but I'm worth something to my parents. You could use me as a hostage, to buy their silence. I've had some practise at that."
"He's really good at it," added Ivy.
"Much better than a snake," Neville assured him.
"Ah, I begin to see what you're getting at," said Lucius. "You think I'm the kind of monster who would deal in human flesh." He shook his head at such foolishness.
Harry could feel the room snap back into focus for Frank Longbottom. "Neville," said Frank. "Neville, what are you doing?"
"Dad, I just—" began Neville. "I just want you to get well," he gulped.
"And do you think I'd let my only son hand himself over to Lucius Malfoy for that?"
"Well, not really," Neville admitted. "I just thought I'd mention it and see what happened."
"But you would really do it, wouldn't you?" Frank asked, and Neville nodded. "It's the kind of thing your mother would do. You're very like her, you know."
Neville's ploy had at least brought his father back to himself. Frank looked at his son and said slowly, reluctantly, "There's something I think you need to know, Neville. Something I've never told anyone. I couldn't speak of it or even think of it."
"Dad, are you sure …?" Neville asked nervously.
"Yes, Neville, I want you to understand as much as possible." Frank turned to Pettigrew. "What you did to my wife and child, Peter, is beyond abhorrent. Worse than hideous."
"I never touched your son!" objected Pettigrew.
"Peter," Lucius admonished.
"I'm not talking about Neville," Frank went on. "When you came on your dreadful errand, Aurelle had been carrying our second child for three months." Frank ground his teeth, and continued in a shaking voice, "When you tortured her, she miscarried. The last thing I saw as I was carried away was her blood on the floor. She could have died." Frank turned back to Neville. "Because of Pettigrew, your sister died unborn. Aurelle had told me it was a girl. Losing you as well doesn't bear thinking about, Neville."
"I knew that I was expecting a grandchild," murmured Lucretia Longbottom.
"But that's awful," said Ivy. Her tears, already close to the surface, spilled over.
"You're a rat, Peter Pettigrew," growled Frank. "You're a rat through and through. I can see right into your ratty soul." Harry could, too, as the rat phantoms crowded into his vision again. But Frank refused to lose himself in his rage, although Harry knew that he would have taken great pleasure in beating Pettigrew to a pulp. Somehow the real Pettigrew wasn't even worth taking revenge on.
Aurelle had been quiet so long that Lucius had forgotten she was awake. Now she sat up in bed. "You didn't know, did you, Lucius?" she asked.
Lucius turned to her in surprise. "Aurelle, I—"
At that moment Salazara raised her right head and fastened her fangs lightly on Lucius' left wrist, right behind his grip on her middle neck. Feeling the sudden prick, Lucius looked down and gave a start. He raised his wand for another stupefying spell, but Octavius, stepping closer, caught the tip and held it. "Now, Alastor," said Octavius urgently. Young Crouch grasped Lucius' left arm and started prying his fingers off of Salazara. Professor Snape gathered up the coils of the Runespoor and bore her to safety, but as her fangs released Lucius' wrist, they left a few long scratches. Lucius, trying to wrench his wand away from Octavius and take Salazara back, lunged forward and caught his toe in the hole he had blasted in the floor. He threw his arms out to break his fall, and lost his hold on his wand. Ron and Harry kept a tight grip on Wormtail, to make sure he didn't try anything else.
Professor Snape handed Salazara, who was still two-thirds unconscious, over to Ivy, before retrieving his own wand and pocketing a small bottle which had fallen on the floor. Ivy examined the Runespoor carefully, murmuring reassurances to her right head, and concluded, "I think she'll be all right."
"She'd better be," said Neville.
Lucius Malfoy picked himself up from his hands and knees, nursing his scratched wrist, his pale hair falling over his face and his chest heaving. He looked murderous. "You still insist … that Runespoors aren't dangerous?" he panted.
"They don't like being held up by the neck, Lucius," said Octavius mildly, "any more than you would. Salazara could have bitten you outright instead of just scratching you, but she didn't. She's more civilized than you are."
"Still posing as the injured party, are you, Lucius?" said Professor Snape acidly, keeping his wand trained on Malfoy.
"You're not going to give Mr. Malfoy his wand back this time, are you, Father?" asked Ivy.
"Not today," said Octavius grimly, putting it into his robes. "I think he's done enough damage for the time being. I've already given him one chance too many."
"That's because you're more civilized than he is, too, Father."
"I suppose you expect me to stand here and be insulted, now that you've disarmed me, Octavius," said Lucius through tight lips, shaking back his hair.
"Yes, Lucius, I do," said Octavius seriously. "You may not be the kind of monster who would deal in human flesh, as you put it. That would be too obvious. But you do deal in human suffering."
Professor Snape asked, "Do you have any idea what it's like to have a Curser in your mind, Lucius? Do you? It's not pleasant, I can assure you, because I've felt it through the Trempath, and that was bad enough, but nothing like what Longbottom has been through. Do you know what it's like to have anything in your mind that doesn't belong there?"
Hermione took this as her cue. She quietly sidled out of Lucius' line of sight, then pointed her wand at him and whispered, "Phonoperpetuate!" without his noticing. But in a few moments his brow furrowed and he raised his hands to his ears. "What … ?" he asked in astonishment and growing annoyance. "What is this?"
"Does it sound like this?" Neville hummed a few bars. Lucius stared at him balefully and jerked his head in agreement. "Oh, that's the Broken Record Spell, sir," Neville told him. "I don't think I'll ever be able to forget that tune."
"A corker, isn't it, Mr. Malfoy," said Ron happily.
"This is an outrage," fumed Lucius Malfoy, still holding his ears. "I insist that you stop it immediately, Severus."
"Do you?" remarked Professor Snape. "All of these students put up with it for a full twenty-four hours as part of their training. It's a highly educational exercise. As a specialist in the case of the Longbottoms, Lucius, can you do less?" Malfoy glared back without answering. Professor Snape added, "More would be even better. Ten years would be about right."
"I refuse to submit to this kind of treatment! I will notify the Ministry!" Lucius blustered.
"I suppose you'll tell them you can't get that tune out of your head," taunted Professor Snape. "I will release you from the spell when you choose to explain your role in the torture of the Longbottoms, Lucius. I think that's fair and fitting."
"What absurdity is this?" Lucius asked contemptuously. "My role?"
"Lucius, your stubbornness astounds me," said Professor Snape. "I know. Octavius knows. Pettigrew knows. The Longbottoms know. Why not give up and stop pretending you're so noble and innocent?"
"Oddly enough, Severus, many wizards are inclined to take my word against yours," Lucius said smugly.
"I have had occasion to observe that fact," agreed Professor Snape.
"Maybe that's because you're so good at sucking up to people and buying them off, Mr. Malfoy," Ron suggested.
"I think Wormtail might be able to tell us a few things," said Harry. "Let's go back and start with him." Pettigrew looked anxious; he saw that his reprieve had fallen through. Harry and Ron still held him firmly.
"Yes, indeed," said Ivy. "Salazara still has the use of her right head, and the rest of her is bound to wake up soon."
"I don't feel quite right," Salazara's right head complained.
"I know you don't, dear. Just do the best you can."
"Salazara will know if you lie," Harry reminded Pettigrew. Actually, he wasn't sure if this was true, with her middle head still out of commission. But he forged ahead anyway. "Admit it, Pettigrew. You tortured the Longbottoms, didn't you?"
Pettigrew was sweating and his face looked grey. He looked from Salazara's right head to Ron's leech-filled left hand. "It isn't fair," he whined. "You already know what you want me to say."
"Damn right," said Frank Longbottom.
"If you refuse to answer, you get the leech treatment," said Ron. "Wonderful how a touch of bloodletting can clear the head." He moved his hand until the leeches were almost touching Pettigrew's arm.
Pettigrew made a futile effort to shrink away, looking revolted. With his back to the wall, figuratively speaking, he finally muttered almost inaudibly, "Lucius made me."
Salazara's left head stirred and lifted, blinking.
"I told you not to funk it, Peter," Lucius snapped. "Well, that's a coerced confession if I ever heard one. It would never hold up in a court of law. Peter's a coward and a liar, and you can't believe anything he says, performing snakes notwithstanding."
"Except when he's telling the truth," said Harry. "That is the truth, isn't it?" he questioned Pettigrew. "Lucius made you torture them." Pettigrew gave a faint, frightened nod.
"That is consistent with what I know," said Professor Snape. "By the way, I believe you dropped this, Lucius," he added, holding up the potion bottle he had rescued from the floor.
"That's the potion he was trying to make my Mum drink," said Neville.
Lucius, pausing, appeared to be deciding whether to claim that he had never seen it before in his life. "Merely a soothing draught," he finally said dismissively. "Completely harmless. Nothing to make such a fuss about." He winced and looked down at his wrist.
"A soothing draught, Lucius?" echoed Professor Snape. "Perhaps you would like to demonstrate by taking a dose yourself. You seem a bit tense."
After giving Malfoy a few moments to reply to this, Hermione said, "If you'd rather not, Mr. Malfoy, we can test it. I have a bottle of Clabbert pus with me."
Lucius probably wished he had denied any knowledge of the potion after all. He watched without a word as Professor Snape handed the potion bottle over to Hermione. She unstoppered it, placed it on the table next to the empty bed, opened the pottle of Clabbert pus, and poured a single drop from the smaller bottle into the larger. When she lifted her wand and chanted, "Venomonstrate!" the flashing yellow beacon was unmistakably clear. "Completely harmless … I don't think," was Professor Snape's verdict. "Perhaps you weren't aware of all the ingredients it contained. You always were a little shaky in the potions department."
"Are you licensed to carry around and administer controlled substances like that, Lucius?" asked Octavius. "I think not."
Malfoy shifted his head uneasily, as if worried by flies. One of his eyelids twitched and he raised a hand to his ear again. He appeared to come to a decision. "So you want the truth, do you, Severus?" he asked.
"Better late than never," acquiesced Professor Snape.
"The whole truth?" Malfoy looked significantly at Octavius, Ivy, and Neville. "It might ba a bit more than you bargained for."
"The whole truth, Lucius." Professor Snape appeared to be bracing himself.
"Very well then, Severus. The whole truth. And you'll …?" He gestured to his head.
"I will remove the spell."
Lucius turned to young Crouch. "Barty, you made a mess of it. You thought it would be quick and easy. A few hits with the Cruciatus Curse and Frank would beg for mercy and tell you everything. But it didn't work that way, did it? Frank's an Auror, and they have to be tough. You lost your nerve just when you should have taken a hard line." He paused and glared at the Potions Master, raising his eyebrows.
"Phonoterminate," said Professor Snape, his wand outstretched, and Lucius let out a breath of relief.
"I talked Barty out of it myself, Lucius," said Aurelle from her bed. "He still had enough humanity left for me to reach him." Crouch's face stayed blank and unresponsive.
"And you, Peter," Lucius went on. "You saw the job through, but the results weren't quite what we hoped for, were they? Your methods were messy and appallingly inefficient."
Pettigrew said in indignant self-defense, "I didn't torture Aurelle because I thought she knew anything. I did it so that I could put my Curser in Frank Longbottom and keep him from giving us away. It should have killed him years ago. And I didn't know she was pregnant."
"You're a fool, Peter." Lucius shook his head, then addressed Professor Snape. "Yes, you should have been the one, Severus. You would have done a proper job of it, and so much suffering could have been avoided. You had the right temperament for it, a way of intimidating people and bending them to your will that I always admired. You had done excellent work for me in the past, Severus. I asked you first for that very reason. Such a waste."
"Oh yes, you flattered me and offered me plenty of enticements," Severus Snape said thorugh his teeth.
"You considered my proposal very carefully."
"I told you it wouldn't work, Lucius," said Professor Snape disgustedly. "It was an ill-conceived idea and I thought I had convinced you to drop it."
"When you refused, Severus," said Lucius, "you turned your back on what might have grown into a brilliant collaboration between the two of us. Things were rather difficult for you after that, were they not?"
"If they were difficult, it was because of the penance that Severus took upon himself," said Octavius.
Ivy looked shaken. "Is it true, Uncle Severus? Were you—did you—Mr. Malfoy asked you to—?"
"I never wanted you to know," her uncle told her bitterly.
"But you didn't actually do it," she persisted.
"He didn't do it, Ivy," Octavius assured her.
"Not the tiniest bit," said Aurelle.
"And you knew, Father?"
"I've known for many years, Ivy," he told her gently.
"And so have Aurelle and I," added Frank. "Severus explained everything to me when we worked together."
Lucius Malfoy actually looked a bit deflated. He had clearly expected to shock more people with his racy revelations.
"Professor Snape," said Harry.
"Yes, Potter."
"Hadn't you stopped working for the Dark side by then?"
"Yes, Potter." Snape forced himself to meet Harry's eyes as he said this.
"Well—excuse me for asking—but why didn't you—"
"Why didn't I turn Lucius Malfoy in, you were going to say?" Professor Snape asked with a sour laugh. Harry nodded. "Who would have believed me if I had?"
"Yes, there's the little credibility problem," Lucius put in smoothly. "Indeed, some of you may think that what I've told you today will change things. But not one of you has the same standing at the Ministry of Magic as I have. Certainly not you, Severus. Not even you, Octavius. You can tattle on me all you like, and it will make no difference."
"Perhaps not while Cornelius Fudge is Minister," Octavius concurred. "He is not even yet convinced of Voldemort's return."
"No more than a wild rumour, Octavius," said Lucius. "Completely unsubstantiated." He drew his breath in sharply and cradled his wrist again.
"So much for the whole truth," shrugged Ron.
"But things might change if more people knew that Pettigrew is still alive," Hermione speculated. "That's why you had to frame young Crouch, isn't it, Mr. Malfoy?"
"And," Ron went on triumphantly, "that's why young Crouch turned your son Draco into a bouncing ferret last year, when he was pretending to be Professor Moody!" He looked over at Crouch's dead eyes. "His finest moment. He must have been really mad at you, Mr. Malfoy."
Malfoy's face darkened at the mention of the ferret incident. He looked as if he returned the feeling, with interest.
Salazara's middle head popped up, wide awake. "That's enough truth for now," she said.
"Time to get on with it," added her left head. Ivy translated.
And Frank Longbottom began to shake again.
"I won't leave you until it's over," Harry promised.
"Nor I, my love," said Aurelle—not that she was likely to be going anywhere.
"I'm with you, Frank," said Lucretia.
"Me, too, Dad," added Neville.
Octavius walked over and stood at Frank's shoulder. "I'm right behind you, Frank," he told the afflicted man. Harry could feel Frank drawing strength from each declaration of support.
"And I'll keep an eye on this … riffraff," added Professor Snape, referring to Malfoy, Pettigrew, and young Crouch. "Granger, Weasley, perhaps you would be willing to assist me."
"Gladly," said Hermione.
"With pleasure," Ron said emphatically. He still held Pettigrew by the arm and kept his handful of leeches at the ready.
"Do your stuff, Salazara," Ivy encouraged her Runespoor.
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AN: Yes, the next chapter actually contains the climax of this long, wordy, and convoluted story.