Chapter XXVI - Night Thieves
The night was dark and silent except for a darker and even more silent shadow moving through the room. Outside, pacing nervously was another shadow, occasionally looking up to the window, trying to see something.
"Oh, stop it!" hissed a man's voice.
Ellie looked at Severus, standing a few feet from her, both hiding near the house in a small park, behind the trees. She stopped. But not even a couple of minutes had passed and she was nervously looking at the window again.
"I'll go check around the house again." she said.
"Oh, fine. Check again. I'll be here."
And Ellie paced away, looking carefully, trying to see if it was still safe for Remus. This had to work! The all idea of stealing the photos from Rita Skeeter's house had come to her mind two days before.
"I was wandering if you have any news." Remus had asked. "News?" had she asked, thinking about the Daily Prophet's news. And then it hit her! There was a way to prove that she had been attacked and that she was not transforming: Rita Skeeter's photos of the night of the attack! But for that, they had to go inside her house. And for that, she needed Remus to go in, since he could not be seen. And for that she needed Severus to help her guard such a big house.
She rested her wand on her hand and said "Chronos!" The wand spinned almost half a turn. Remus had been inside for almost half an hour. Why was he taking so long?
She returned to Severus. "Anything new?" he asked. Ellie shook her head and seated on the ground. "We must watch carefully." said Severus. "Rita can be here any moment. We must be ready, both of us, to stun her."
Ellie nodded, but remained seated.
"What's wrong with you?"
"I'm just... worried." she said. "It was all my idea. What if it doesn't work?"
"Why shouldn't it work? Even if she gets home and even if we can't stop her entering, Lupin is still safe because it's like he doesn't exist in her world."
"I wish I was so sure..."
"I'm glad he picked me as his secret keeper, then!" he said, angrily.
Ellie actually smiled. "You're right. I'm just scared. I just want everything to go ok."
"It will. And with the photos you will be able to register the potion and be a recognizable potion maker again. They won't deny registering a healing potion... And a healing potion with that power. Even if its side effect does take care of werewolves... Rita Skeeter will hate you, of course. There probably wasn't a better way to get even with her than to use her evilness to your rehabilitation."
Ellie grinned "There isn't, is there? I thought it was not only useful... it was also enjoyable to watch her face when the whole thing comes out!"
"And... what will you do then?" Severus asked.
"I will try to advertise it as much as I can, so that it can reach hospitals who treat bitten people and werewolves who want a change in their lives."
"And... Lupin... Do you know what he will do? I mean... now the experiment is over..."
Ellie was suddenly so red she seamed a traffic light in the middle of the night. "We... well... I mean..."
"He's going to stay with you." Severus completed, depressively.
"Well... yes. He's got no place to go, has he?"
"When you show the pictures, all the Ministry business will be forgotten, of course. With such an outcome, such a healing potion being discovered, they will eventually drop charges if you wish them to."
"Yes, but he has no job."
"He could work as a lab rat. Joking" he added, seeing her face. "I can try to find him a place at Hogwarts, if he wants to."
"Would you?" asked Ellie, surprised.
"The school year has started, but he could always apply next year. If things go as they have been for the last three years, the post of Defense Against the Dark Arts will be free. And that's an area where he is certainly an expertise." he added with a twisted smile.
"Oh, good. But he will remain with me until then."
Severus was thinking hard. "What about his house? Will he leave it unattended?"
"He needs the potion. He must stay with me."
"You can always send him some potion from time to time."
"Oh, stop it, Severus!" she said, tired of excuses. "He's staying with me because we're getting married!"
And it sure had the effect she expected. Severus didn't say another word for the next few minutes. But then...
"Why?"
"Why what?"
"Why marry? Why this insanity? Why? Don't you know he's nothing but a teenager's crush?" he asked angrily, pointing at the window.
"Oh, stop being such a child, Sevy! Of course it's not a teenager's crush!"
"I don't believe it!"
Ellie looked at him defiantly. "Oh, you will!"
Severus felt his heart suddenly suffocating his throat. "What do you mean?"
"There's something you don't know yet."
Severus felt his whole body going numb. "What?"
Ellie smiled.
***
Remus opened half a dozen drawers before he found out what he was looking for: the pictures that could save Ellie's reputation. There were so many pictures you could reconstruct the scene as a movie. Remus was in shock for a few seconds, admiring the way things had happened: how Ellie had struggled, how he had bitten her face and how she stunned him. And he remembered how coward and malicious a person had to be to watch it all and let it happen, when all of it could have been stopped.
Remus looked through the window and saw Snape talking to someone who was hidden by the trees. He seemed angry and was pointing at the window. "Where was Ellie?", he thought. And he descended the staircase to the ground floor. With the photos in his pockets, he was finally getting away. It had worked!
But, as he was reaching for the door knob... a noise, coming from the same door, froze him. Next moment, Rita Skeeter was entering the house, turning on the lights and... looking straight at him!
Rita was smiling and she asked in the softest voice "What the hell are you doing in my house?"
"I couldn't wait for the morning paper." said Remus, still in shock.
"In did..." she said, with a nasty smile. She drooped her hand bag and said "You never were a good liar, werewolf." and retrieving her wand from the bag she pointed it straight at him "Now stay still while I check if anything is missing." And she looked around, still pointing her wand.
"Who told you I was here?" asked Remus.
"Who do you think?" she said, nastily.
Snape.
No one else could have turned him in. His secret keeper had betrayed him. And it was Rita the one he saw Snape talking to just now. But why did he do it?
Ellie.
Remus knew now that there must have been something between the two of them. And Snape certainly thought that he could get rid of his rival. A terrible rage grew inside him, unlike any other he had felt. And in less than a second he reached for his own wand and "Expelliarmus!" Rita's wand came flying in the air. He ran outside the house, hearing Skeeter's swear, and into the park, where he found Ellie.
"Have you got them?" she asked, and then, seeing his face, "God! What's wrong with you?"
But he just took her by the arm and dragged her deeper in the park.
"Wait! How about Severus?"
"We don't need him anymore."
"Why? What are you doing?"
And he suddenly stopped at a small clearing. Ellie looked at him, puzzled.
"He betrayed me." said Remus darkly.
"What? No. He couldn't."
"Well, he did. Rita Skeeter entered the house and saw me. She could see me, hear me and talk to me."
"No!" Ellie cried, in shock.
"Yes. And since I'm trusting it wasn't you who talked to her-"
"Of course not!"
"It could only be Snape."
"No!" she said in disbelief. "He wouldn't!" But then she remembered his reaction on all she had said... his rage and how he walked away on her. And she wasn't sure anymore.
"Well, he did. Can you explain it in some other way? I'd love to know."
"Ellie!" came a voice from behind some trees. "Lupin! Ellie? Where are you?"
Remus looked straight at her. She didn't know what to do. Then they saw the light from the tip of Snape's wand.
"There you are? Why did you leave? I nearly got caught!"
"Got caught? That's a laugh!" Remus was looking murderous. Ellie was torned.
But Severus was completely at sea. "What?!"
"You nearly got caught?" asked Remus again.
"Yes. There's a dozen Ministry Agents here. I just saw them."
"Rita must have sent for them." Remus said to Ellie. Still she didn't say a thing.
"What do you mean Rita sent for them?" asked Snape.
"She saw me." said Remus, trembling in rage. "She talked to me... Can you explain how that was possible?"
Suddenly, Severus understood what was going on. He turned to Ellie, and remembering all that had happened, his fury, the marriage and her confession, him leaving in pain... and he saw what must be happening inside her.
"Ellie" he said, urgently "It wasn't me! You know I would never-"
"You betrayed me!" cried Remus, in rage. "How could you! I trusted you!"
"No!" said Severus "It wasn't me!"
"Who was it then?" asked Ellie.
Severus didn't know what to answer. It really was beyond him.
"I don't know..." he said, defeated. He knew he seemed not only suspicious but guilty. He knew he wasn't... but he could not prove it. "Ellie, please. You must believe me!"
"All I know was that Remus was seen." she said, trembling. She never thought that it would happen again. She looked at Severus and wondered if it was her fault, telling him all she had, about her marriage, about Remus and... about herself. It was too hard on him... but it still didn't justify what he had done.
Suddenly, a rush of leaves interrupted her thoughts. Severus took her by the arm and forced her to the ground just as they heard "Stupefy"! Remus drooped face-first on the ground.
"No!" cried Ellie. But Severus covered her mouth saying "Ssh! You'll get us caught too!" Ellie was struggling to get free. She wanted to save Remus, to take him away. But next moment, half a dozen Ministry Agents, and Rita Skeeter herself, entered the clearing. One of them turned Remus up with his foot and asked "Is this the man, mam?"
"Yes" said Rita "That's the beast. But I don't think he was alone."
"We'll search the park then."
Two men carried Remus away, while the other four went for more Agents to help them.
"Ellie, we must desapparate now or we'll be caught."
"I don't care." she said, trying to stand up. "I must help him! Let me go!"
"We're outnumbered. There are more of them coming."
"You knew! Remus was right!"
"No! I didn't know! I saw them, remember? I left you to check on the house again and they were already there!"
"How can I believe you?!"
"Listen, it doesn't matter what you believe now. It matters that the only way to save Lupin is to stay out of this for the moment. We must get help. We must desapparate before they return!"
"I must be with Remus!"
"No, Ellie. If you get caught you will go to Azkaban as well."
"Then I will! I'm not a coward."
"No." he said in a serious voice "You're not. But you know you can't go to Azkaban now... It's not just your life anymore."
Ellie stopped fighting and arguing.
"You're right." she said. And she desapparated.
Severus desapparated right after her and when the Ministry Agents inspected the whole park, they didn't found out a thing.
The night was dark and silent except for a darker and even more silent shadow moving through the room. Outside, pacing nervously was another shadow, occasionally looking up to the window, trying to see something.
"Oh, stop it!" hissed a man's voice.
Ellie looked at Severus, standing a few feet from her, both hiding near the house in a small park, behind the trees. She stopped. But not even a couple of minutes had passed and she was nervously looking at the window again.
"I'll go check around the house again." she said.
"Oh, fine. Check again. I'll be here."
And Ellie paced away, looking carefully, trying to see if it was still safe for Remus. This had to work! The all idea of stealing the photos from Rita Skeeter's house had come to her mind two days before.
"I was wandering if you have any news." Remus had asked. "News?" had she asked, thinking about the Daily Prophet's news. And then it hit her! There was a way to prove that she had been attacked and that she was not transforming: Rita Skeeter's photos of the night of the attack! But for that, they had to go inside her house. And for that, she needed Remus to go in, since he could not be seen. And for that she needed Severus to help her guard such a big house.
She rested her wand on her hand and said "Chronos!" The wand spinned almost half a turn. Remus had been inside for almost half an hour. Why was he taking so long?
She returned to Severus. "Anything new?" he asked. Ellie shook her head and seated on the ground. "We must watch carefully." said Severus. "Rita can be here any moment. We must be ready, both of us, to stun her."
Ellie nodded, but remained seated.
"What's wrong with you?"
"I'm just... worried." she said. "It was all my idea. What if it doesn't work?"
"Why shouldn't it work? Even if she gets home and even if we can't stop her entering, Lupin is still safe because it's like he doesn't exist in her world."
"I wish I was so sure..."
"I'm glad he picked me as his secret keeper, then!" he said, angrily.
Ellie actually smiled. "You're right. I'm just scared. I just want everything to go ok."
"It will. And with the photos you will be able to register the potion and be a recognizable potion maker again. They won't deny registering a healing potion... And a healing potion with that power. Even if its side effect does take care of werewolves... Rita Skeeter will hate you, of course. There probably wasn't a better way to get even with her than to use her evilness to your rehabilitation."
Ellie grinned "There isn't, is there? I thought it was not only useful... it was also enjoyable to watch her face when the whole thing comes out!"
"And... what will you do then?" Severus asked.
"I will try to advertise it as much as I can, so that it can reach hospitals who treat bitten people and werewolves who want a change in their lives."
"And... Lupin... Do you know what he will do? I mean... now the experiment is over..."
Ellie was suddenly so red she seamed a traffic light in the middle of the night. "We... well... I mean..."
"He's going to stay with you." Severus completed, depressively.
"Well... yes. He's got no place to go, has he?"
"When you show the pictures, all the Ministry business will be forgotten, of course. With such an outcome, such a healing potion being discovered, they will eventually drop charges if you wish them to."
"Yes, but he has no job."
"He could work as a lab rat. Joking" he added, seeing her face. "I can try to find him a place at Hogwarts, if he wants to."
"Would you?" asked Ellie, surprised.
"The school year has started, but he could always apply next year. If things go as they have been for the last three years, the post of Defense Against the Dark Arts will be free. And that's an area where he is certainly an expertise." he added with a twisted smile.
"Oh, good. But he will remain with me until then."
Severus was thinking hard. "What about his house? Will he leave it unattended?"
"He needs the potion. He must stay with me."
"You can always send him some potion from time to time."
"Oh, stop it, Severus!" she said, tired of excuses. "He's staying with me because we're getting married!"
And it sure had the effect she expected. Severus didn't say another word for the next few minutes. But then...
"Why?"
"Why what?"
"Why marry? Why this insanity? Why? Don't you know he's nothing but a teenager's crush?" he asked angrily, pointing at the window.
"Oh, stop being such a child, Sevy! Of course it's not a teenager's crush!"
"I don't believe it!"
Ellie looked at him defiantly. "Oh, you will!"
Severus felt his heart suddenly suffocating his throat. "What do you mean?"
"There's something you don't know yet."
Severus felt his whole body going numb. "What?"
Ellie smiled.
***
Remus opened half a dozen drawers before he found out what he was looking for: the pictures that could save Ellie's reputation. There were so many pictures you could reconstruct the scene as a movie. Remus was in shock for a few seconds, admiring the way things had happened: how Ellie had struggled, how he had bitten her face and how she stunned him. And he remembered how coward and malicious a person had to be to watch it all and let it happen, when all of it could have been stopped.
Remus looked through the window and saw Snape talking to someone who was hidden by the trees. He seemed angry and was pointing at the window. "Where was Ellie?", he thought. And he descended the staircase to the ground floor. With the photos in his pockets, he was finally getting away. It had worked!
But, as he was reaching for the door knob... a noise, coming from the same door, froze him. Next moment, Rita Skeeter was entering the house, turning on the lights and... looking straight at him!
Rita was smiling and she asked in the softest voice "What the hell are you doing in my house?"
"I couldn't wait for the morning paper." said Remus, still in shock.
"In did..." she said, with a nasty smile. She drooped her hand bag and said "You never were a good liar, werewolf." and retrieving her wand from the bag she pointed it straight at him "Now stay still while I check if anything is missing." And she looked around, still pointing her wand.
"Who told you I was here?" asked Remus.
"Who do you think?" she said, nastily.
Snape.
No one else could have turned him in. His secret keeper had betrayed him. And it was Rita the one he saw Snape talking to just now. But why did he do it?
Ellie.
Remus knew now that there must have been something between the two of them. And Snape certainly thought that he could get rid of his rival. A terrible rage grew inside him, unlike any other he had felt. And in less than a second he reached for his own wand and "Expelliarmus!" Rita's wand came flying in the air. He ran outside the house, hearing Skeeter's swear, and into the park, where he found Ellie.
"Have you got them?" she asked, and then, seeing his face, "God! What's wrong with you?"
But he just took her by the arm and dragged her deeper in the park.
"Wait! How about Severus?"
"We don't need him anymore."
"Why? What are you doing?"
And he suddenly stopped at a small clearing. Ellie looked at him, puzzled.
"He betrayed me." said Remus darkly.
"What? No. He couldn't."
"Well, he did. Rita Skeeter entered the house and saw me. She could see me, hear me and talk to me."
"No!" Ellie cried, in shock.
"Yes. And since I'm trusting it wasn't you who talked to her-"
"Of course not!"
"It could only be Snape."
"No!" she said in disbelief. "He wouldn't!" But then she remembered his reaction on all she had said... his rage and how he walked away on her. And she wasn't sure anymore.
"Well, he did. Can you explain it in some other way? I'd love to know."
"Ellie!" came a voice from behind some trees. "Lupin! Ellie? Where are you?"
Remus looked straight at her. She didn't know what to do. Then they saw the light from the tip of Snape's wand.
"There you are? Why did you leave? I nearly got caught!"
"Got caught? That's a laugh!" Remus was looking murderous. Ellie was torned.
But Severus was completely at sea. "What?!"
"You nearly got caught?" asked Remus again.
"Yes. There's a dozen Ministry Agents here. I just saw them."
"Rita must have sent for them." Remus said to Ellie. Still she didn't say a thing.
"What do you mean Rita sent for them?" asked Snape.
"She saw me." said Remus, trembling in rage. "She talked to me... Can you explain how that was possible?"
Suddenly, Severus understood what was going on. He turned to Ellie, and remembering all that had happened, his fury, the marriage and her confession, him leaving in pain... and he saw what must be happening inside her.
"Ellie" he said, urgently "It wasn't me! You know I would never-"
"You betrayed me!" cried Remus, in rage. "How could you! I trusted you!"
"No!" said Severus "It wasn't me!"
"Who was it then?" asked Ellie.
Severus didn't know what to answer. It really was beyond him.
"I don't know..." he said, defeated. He knew he seemed not only suspicious but guilty. He knew he wasn't... but he could not prove it. "Ellie, please. You must believe me!"
"All I know was that Remus was seen." she said, trembling. She never thought that it would happen again. She looked at Severus and wondered if it was her fault, telling him all she had, about her marriage, about Remus and... about herself. It was too hard on him... but it still didn't justify what he had done.
Suddenly, a rush of leaves interrupted her thoughts. Severus took her by the arm and forced her to the ground just as they heard "Stupefy"! Remus drooped face-first on the ground.
"No!" cried Ellie. But Severus covered her mouth saying "Ssh! You'll get us caught too!" Ellie was struggling to get free. She wanted to save Remus, to take him away. But next moment, half a dozen Ministry Agents, and Rita Skeeter herself, entered the clearing. One of them turned Remus up with his foot and asked "Is this the man, mam?"
"Yes" said Rita "That's the beast. But I don't think he was alone."
"We'll search the park then."
Two men carried Remus away, while the other four went for more Agents to help them.
"Ellie, we must desapparate now or we'll be caught."
"I don't care." she said, trying to stand up. "I must help him! Let me go!"
"We're outnumbered. There are more of them coming."
"You knew! Remus was right!"
"No! I didn't know! I saw them, remember? I left you to check on the house again and they were already there!"
"How can I believe you?!"
"Listen, it doesn't matter what you believe now. It matters that the only way to save Lupin is to stay out of this for the moment. We must get help. We must desapparate before they return!"
"I must be with Remus!"
"No, Ellie. If you get caught you will go to Azkaban as well."
"Then I will! I'm not a coward."
"No." he said in a serious voice "You're not. But you know you can't go to Azkaban now... It's not just your life anymore."
Ellie stopped fighting and arguing.
"You're right." she said. And she desapparated.
Severus desapparated right after her and when the Ministry Agents inspected the whole park, they didn't found out a thing.