As ever, standard disclaimers apply.
Margaret immediately realized this was a terrible mistake as a crowd of men and women dressed in the long robes favored by the denizens of the wizarding world suddenly came running toward them. "Snape Residence!" She hissed into the mike quickly and just as immediately found herself and her still emotionless puppet back before the now dying flames. "I need to think!" She hissed again but this was to herself as she quite forgot the mike was live. She glared at the wizard when his head turned toward her.
The wizard's eyes rolled back in his head and he collapsed in utter silence to the weed ridden ground. "Damn!" She yelled as if to curse whatever deities had the effrontery to be spying upon her. She strode over and gave a sharp hard kick to his lower back. "Get up! I am Control. Get up! Obey or die!" Of course he couldn't and didn't, being genuinely unconscious.
She killed the mike and swore to herself. All right, she'd known magic used energy. She simply hadn't been able to calculate how much. This was a minor setback. If she didn't get them hidden it could become major as sooner or later someone just might chance upon--
Her halfway hysterical thought cut off sharply as the burgeoning morning light revealed small, almost completely overgrown carriage house. "Dammit!" She swore and reaching down, grabbed Snape's collar to drag him towards the small, obviously unused, out-building.
It seemed, at first, that getting inside was going to be something of a chore. Not that the long lean body was particularly heavy; not after being sustained by only intravenous fluids. But the ground was not a smooth floor and an unconscious body was exceedingly uncooperative. Not to mention she had no idea how they were going to get inside.
Fortune, however, was on her side. As she hauled the limp body closer, the sweat soaked, weary Margaret realized that a particularly nasty lacework of thorny weeds masked a collapsed section of wall. She grinned with relief and worked at shoving him through without too badly damaging the protective brambles. That done, the unconscious wizard an ungainly heap on the floor in the darkness, she went back and retrieved the wand.
Finally, she got herself inside (with a great deal more care for her own flesh). Thoroughly exhausted herself, she moved to another corner of the room and sat down on a pile of old carpeting. She shuddered to think what might be living in it, but she was too tired to think really hard about it. She curled up and fell asleep.
--
What a night, Tonks moaned to herself mentally as she peeled off her clothing only to let each piece fall as it would while she made her way to her bed. Not even bothering with the pyjamas scrunched under her pillow, she slid beneath the covers and sighed once as she fell asleep.
"Tonks! Tonks, wake up!"
No, no, no! "Da, just a few more minutes," she groaned into her pillow.
"Tonks, it's Remus. You need to wake up."
"Shite!" The young Auror barely stopped herself from jumping up. But that didn't stop the full body blush that accompanied the memory that she had gone to sleep naked.
With a man in her bedroom.
Wait a bit. What was he doing here? "Remus?" She asked while clearing out the fuzz in her head and mouth.
"Yes. I came by floo powder." Order members were cleared to come through her wards via floo if there was an emergency. "Hurry up and get dressed." He left her bedroom satisfied that she was awake and curious.
She practically rolled out of bed and quickly found some clean clothes that she pulled on after a quick wash. Thankfully her hair was magically manageable (although if she didn't give a good comb through soon that might not remain true). She hurried into her kitchen where Remus had already made tea. "What's going on?" She asked as she pulled on her socks and trainers.
"Snape was seen at the Ministry."
"What?" Her foot dropped to the floor with a thud.
"For all of perhaps a second. Dr Sellinger was with him. At least his companion fit the description of 'blonde woman wearing Muggle clothing.'" Remus carried two mugs of tea to the table setting one of them near the younger witch.
"'Was seen', you say?" she finished with her footwear and reached for the tea, almost knocking it over.
Remus nodded. "They disapparated as soon as the Hit Wizards showed up."
She gulped down the tea, but her mind was on the events Lupin was telling her, not on the warm savory taste in her mouth. "Wasn't his idea, then." She murmured thoughtfully.
Remus' eyebrow quirked upwards and he smirked slightly in a question.
"He'd know better. He'd know that any unannounced entry would summon a pack of Hit Wizards to the very point of entry."
"Indeed. I daresay Albus agrees with that. But with the Aurors and Hit wizards are all on full alert, the Ministry's paranoia is at its fullest. There have been suggestions that Severus was sent to assassinate Minister Fudge."
"That would be Fudge's idea. But even the thickest Death Eater would not expect the man to be there overnight! And Severus Snape is not thick."
"Quite true. Still, with You-Know-Who behind a fortress of his own devising, Fudge is not the only scared wizard -- or witch -- about."
"What does Albus want us to do?"
"You need to get to the Ministry. I'm to investigate a disturbance Albus sensed at the Snape family home."
"Disturbance?"
Remus shrugged. "I guess I'll find out when I get there."
Tonks found the Ministry in a right uproar. A disheveled Minister Fudge was driving everyone to distraction. She snuck quietly into Kingsley's office and, not unexpectedly, found the dark skinned Auror hiding behind an abnormally high stack of parchment scrolls. "Wotcher, Kingsley." She greeted more cheerfully than she felt.
"Tonks. Glad you are here."
She nodded. "Heard about the ...erm..."
"Unauthorized entry. It was Snape, in case you hadn't heard that." He glanced at her unsurprised expression. "But of course you have. The night shift Hit Wizards have all given their statements but they aren't much help. We're part of the 'investigation' because Snape is a Death Eater."
"Not that they realize his companion was a Muggle and she was most likely the one in charge?" Tonks queried curiously.
"Not bloody likely."
"At least we don't have to serve as Fudge's bodyguards."
Shacklebolt gave her a wry look.
"Erm... Do we?"
"You do. I, thankfully, have enough seniority to be able to avoid that."
"Brilliant," she groaned in a tone that belied the word's meaning. "What about You-Know-Who and Stonehenge?"
"Nothing new. So just keep away from the Minister's roving paws and your duty should be a breeze to get through."
"Ugh. I'd rather be with Remus, sifting through whatever disturbance at Snape's that Professor Dumbledore sensed!"
"Sorry Tonks. That's Order work and you are on official time now. But I'm sure Remus and Alastor will tell us all about it later."
--
Remus and Moody stared at the rubble that had once been a small but ancient and formidable manor. "Bloody hell!" Remus gasped softly. He'd seen pictures of the place as had the ex-Auror.
"Maybe something useful survived." The older wizard supposed hopefully and Remus knew he meant evidence that would send Severus to Azkaban.
"Severus never lived here after he was free of his father's control."
Moody snorted derisively. "You belive that?"
"This was never a home to him, Alastor. Ask Dumbledore if you need specifics. He'll tell you that much."
Moody shrugged. "Well it's not worth a knut now. But Dark artifacts do have a way of surviving some of the worst destructive spells imaginable." He looked away from the destruction in order to stare at his companion with both eyes. "Just because he didn't use this place as his abode don't mean he didn't use it for storage."
Remus only sighed. "It's more important that we find out what caused this destruction, Alastor. Who caused it..."
"Powerful magic." The grizzled haired pensioner grimaced while using his magic eye to peer at and through the rubble. "No sense of Dark Arts though." He sounded positively disappointed. He moved closer to the pile of burnt stone and mortar, ashes and dust, and whatever else undefinable remained. Anything that could burn had done so. And yet it had been completely contained so that the surrounding forest and grounds were completely untouched by the conflagration that had burnt seemingly uncontrolled.
"Can you tell what spell started the fire?" the younger wizard asked as he followed along behind the more experienced ex-Auror.
"No. But there was more than just a fire." Moody knelt and picked up a small misshapen and recently broken stone. "There was a massive explosion."
"Also contained then." Remus noted the evidence of lack of said debris strewn about the grounds.
"Yeah." He sniffed. "Can't tell what burned."
"It all burned, Alastor." A woman's voice replied.
Remus jerked around, jumping quickly to his feet. But Moody was not surprised at all. He rose unhurriedly, calmly brushing the dust from his hands as he did so. "Ah. Margaret Alice.I was wondering when you'd come out" His magic eye roved from her to the tall motionless statue at her side. "And I see you have our missing wizard with you."
"You and I have no quarrel, Alastor."
"No. We don't. What are you doing here?"
"Seeing that justice is done."
"By destroying a house?" Remus blurted out.
The blonde's eyes flicked to the younger wizard. "By destroying all that belongs to this Pureblood who murdered my brother."
"And then what, Margaret Alice? I won't let your Muggle espionage authorities have Snape."
"No worries. When I have finished with him there won't be anything for anyone to have."
"What else did you have in mind?"
"Alastor, don't ask me that. I don't want to hurt you."
"Margaret--"
"It's the fault of the Purebloods. They want us dead. You haven't been able to stop them."
"You think you will?" Remus asked harshly.
"I'll stop enough of them," she wore a faint, distant smile, as if seeing the results of her handiwork in the future and acknowledging the world better for it.
"Revenge is not justice, Dr Sellinger," Remus argued.
The woman's expression hardened. "Don't presume to lecture me, wizard. Just stay out of my way." She tapped something in her hand and murmured softly. Then suddenly she and Snape were gone.
"Did you catch that, Lupin?" Moody asked gruffly.
"Malfoy Manor, I think."