Chapter Eleven
A Death
A group of students had gathered at the Ravenclaw table the next morning as several copies of the Daily Prophet were being passed around the breakfast table.
"See, Alex, there's no need to worry," Mandria said, pointing out the third paragraph. "'Although Thomas Craw, who himself once claimed to be the Ivory Skull, has been questioned on the incident, the Minister of Law Enforcement has admitted to the paper that Mr. Craw has produced reputable alibis during the time of the Red Fist's disappearance. However, Minister Thurspire has also stated he is not yet prepare to completely rule out any suspect due to the fact that the case is now being treated as a homicide.' Well, of course he'd say that, he isn't particularly fond of your family, is he?"
"Why is it being treated as a homicide?" Jason Evans asked.
"The blood came back as positively being Fyren List's," Alex explained with a sigh, "Not that he probably didn't deserve it, but who would want to implicate my grandfather in it?"
"Shall we make a list?" Alex looked up to see Aurelius standing there, several of the students around them deciding quickly to head back to their tables. "You know as well as I do that grandfather's not a popular man," he said.
"Yes, and we can't forget who's just gotten out of jail either," Alex said darkly. Aurelius looked thoughtful, and then shook his head.
"Amadeus Longbottom has very little reason to want revenge on our grandfather, Alex, he hasn't even met him."
"Yes, but what if he's working for Malfoy again?" Alex said softly.
Aurelius pursed his lips.
"We'll talk about it somewhere less public," he decided, speaking in a low voice. "I'll arrange for someone to set up a family meeting as soon as our schedules don't conflict." With that, Aurelius turned and walked to his own table, waiting as a pair of seventh years made room for him to sit between them.
"He'll arrange for someone to set it up?" Alex repeated in disbelief.
"You know, Alex, you're brother has always creeped me out a bit," Mandria admitted, glancing at the table. "But since he's become a Prefect, he's really creeping me out."
"It's amazing he can walk straight with that bloated fat head of his," Alex said irritably.
"Alex!"
Alex looked up to see Zoë standing there, nodding to some of the other students sitting there. Grudgingly they acknowledged her with a wave and went back to what they were doing.
"Hi Zoë. Are those actual schoolbooks in your hand?" Alex said, raising her eyebrows and smiling.
"Um…one of them, I have history coming up, but never mind that. I need to ask you something about Omnivoxes."
"Sure, ask me anything!" Alex said enthusiastically. "I love to talk about myself!" Several of the other students quickly excused themselves, professing to have early classes. Taking advantage of the space, Zoë sat down.
"I was wanting to know if it works both ways," Zoë said.
"Um, what?"
"Like…when you talk to someone, they understand you in their own language, right?"
"Right," Alex nodded, "Although I just hear it in English."
"Right. Well, what if you write to someone? Do they see it in their language too?"
"No, I don't think so, I think it still comes off as English," Alex decided, and Zoë slumped. "See, Mum says it's a telepathy. I'm reading the thoughts behind what they wrote, and I can get across to someone else what I'm thinking too somehow, but I don't think it works long distance or anything. I mean, I can read anything because I can see the thoughts of the writer behind it, but if I sent it, and I wasn't actively there saying it..."
"Damn, then that's not going to work!" Zoë frowned.
"What's not going to work?" Alex asked.
"Oh, well, I happened to make a couple of friends at Durmstrang and want to write to them, but they don't know any English, and I definitely don't know any Norwegian."
"Eigil Hauk does," Mandria pointed out, "But I doubt I'd trust him to write a letter for you."
"Not without me reading it first, anyhow," Alex said.
"No, it's… it's more private than that," Zoë said. "I don't know him except for the fact that he and his gang seem to like to give Andrew a hard time because of what happened last year. Zack told me about it," she grinned, and Alex grinned back, remembering exactly how Eigil looked in pink tights and a tutu. "Does anyone on staff know Norwegian?"
"Not that I know of," Alex said, glancing at Mandria questioningly.
"Well, there's a lot of eastern European countries that send students to Durmstrang, maybe there's some other language they know?" Mandria suggested.
"Father knows German," Alex said brightly. "I've been told a lot of students from Northern Germany go there too, perhaps…"
"No, no, no. I am not going to Snape about anything, most especially not this!" Zoë said firmly.
"Wait! I've got it! I should have thought of it before!" Alex said brightly. "Latin! Zoë, most of the older spells we learn in school have Latin roots, which means they'd still have basic Latin vocabulary in their Charms class!"
"Brilliant! You're right, I do know a little Latin!" Zoë said, "Great idea! I'm going to try that, Thanks!"
"Wait just a minute," Mandria said, putting and arm on her hip and looking at Alex puzzledly. "Just how do you cast those spells if they translate to English on you?"
"Oh! Good question. They don't," Alex explained. "Because you use the same spell words no matter what language you're in. It's like…" she looked around and grabbed something off her plate, holding it up.
"What is this?"
"A croissant," Mandria shrugged.
"Exactly. It's a croissant," Alex repeated. "Did I just hear you say it was a flaky crescent shaped roll? No, I heard you say it's a croissant, because that's what we call it normally, in English. And wingardium leviosa is what we say in English to cast the Levitation spell. Does that make sense?" Mandria nodded, then shook her head, and then nodded again.
"Yes. No. Sort of," Mandria said.
"Glad to have clear that up for you then," Alex grinned at her.
Jennifer stepped into her office after classes broke for lunch, immediately slipping off her shoes and grabbing a painkiller, frowning at the scraped elbow before reaching for the cream. But as she put her hand in the jar her fingers touched the bottom, barely getting enough on her finger to cover it.
"Oh, great, now what am I going to do?" she murmured to herself.
She had already tried to work out the formula to make it herself with no success so far; whatever the main ingredient it was, it was as elusive as the cream itself. The idea that the bookshop would have more was ludicrous…of course, an alchemist would have…she snorted a bit, imagining Corey's reaction to her buying beauty cream, knowing he'd probably protest as loudly as Severus had. And then what would he say when she kept coming back for more? They were but two weeks into school, and in the month since the curse took hold she had been using a little more of it every day as she began to realize just how common bruises were. A paper cut had inspired her to already buy several jars of finger wax, and her heavy gloves were getting a workout in the potion room.
She shook her head as she thought of the ordeal, but then bolstered herself with a deep breath. There had to be some solution, and the quicker she could find it the better. Already warm baths had become out of the question, and she was tired of fearing every little table edge in the classroom and feeling intimidated by the idea of spending time with her husband. As if he had heard her thoughts, a gentle knock caused her to quickly hide the jar in a desk drawer as he came in.
"Oh, hello, Severus. I thought you were having lunch with Dumbledore today," Jennifer commented.
"He made other plans," Severus said in annoyance, Jennifer looking questioningly at him. "Zoë managed to talk him into it. I don't know what game she's playing now, but if she thinks she can get around me by going to Dumbledore she is going to have a surprise coming today."
"Well, if it's any consolation, when Sally Scribe came to pick up her potion between classes today, she said that the report Zoë turned in on Durmstrang was the best work she's seen from her, and that she seemed a lot more attentive in class today. I think that day there must have really made an impact on her."
"Perhaps, but she still has a long way to go, I'm sure of that," Severus said, bringing the tray over and sitting it on the table. "You are planning to eat lunch, aren't you?"
Sheepishly, Jennifer put down the book and picked up one of the offered sandwiches.
"More books on curses eh?" he mused, glancing at the new book. "Researching anything in particular?"
"Well, I am the Dark Arts Sentinel, I do need to keep up on the subject, don't I?" Jennifer snapped so defensively that Severus gazed at her fixedly.
"I wasn't questioning it. I was merely curious," he said, watching her carefully.
"I'm sorry, it's just… been a long week," Jennifer said quietly. "Yes, I was just looking into different aspects of what Hexendaas has been researching."
"Oh, yes, from the magazine you 'borrowed' from the post," Severus said sarcastically. "Mind if I borrow it back, since it's mine and I don't want to go to a meeting with a colleague without having any idea what he's into right now?"
"Oh, um, yes, as soon as I figure out where I misplaced it at," Jennifer said. Severus sighed at her and glancing at her disarrayed desk. "So, do you suppose Rolanda, Alvin and Hans would be interested in coming to the Spectral Ball on Halloween? I'm sure Rolanda would love it at least."
"Very well. I'll speak with Dumbledore about it and see what he thinks," Severus said, glancing at his watch. "Time to come up with another fear spell to petrify the first years with again, it seems."
"Vertigo?" she suggested wickedly.
"No," Severus said. "Don't you remember the last time I tried that spell right after lunch? I'll reserve that one for my late afternoon class," he said. Jennifer grinned at him as he got up and headed out the door. The moment he was gone, Jennifer got into her bottom drawer and fished out her copy of the Dark Quarter Quarterly and threw it into the fireplace, immediately setting it ablaze, somberly watching as it burned into ashes.
It wasn't until dinner that Severus had a chance to talk to Dumbledore, but Dumbledore who was in much higher spirits then he had been in awhile took to the idea immediately.
"I think that it is wonderful idea, Severus. In fact I was thinking about inviting them for that occasion myself," Dumbledore said as they went to sit down.
"What occasion, Professor?" Hermione asked curiously as the food began to appear on their plates, the rest of the Professors sitting down as well. Fleur smiled shyly at Severus and Jennifer, a little uncomfortable about what had happened the day before.
"The Spectral Ball, Hermione. Severus has proposed that we might invite the Headmaster and Deputy Headmaster of Durmstrang over for the occasion," Dumbledore said.
"What a great idea! It'll be fantastic to see them after all this time!" Hermione said enthusiastically. "But what about Hexendaas? I mean, I thought he wasn't much of a mixer."
"He's always been all right with us," Jennifer frowned at Hermione, and she looked a bit apologetic.
"Well, yes he would be, with you," Hermione said.
"Hexendaas wasn't very supportive of Hermione's appointment to the position," Dumbledore admitted, but his eyes were twinkling with amusement. "Perhaps, however, if he meets you in person we may be able to remedy that."
"Professor, do you suppose it would be too much if we would have Madame Maxime Hagrid and her husband join us then as well?" Fleur asked wistfully.
"Why, Fleur I think that's a very splendid idea! Not only that, but it'll help out a little project that has come up," Dumbledore said.
"Please don't tell me this isn't another attempt at those tri-wizard games," Severus said with a frown.
"Ah, no, Severus, I did say a little project, and by that I mean a student product, not even of my own making," Dumbledore said, Severus squinting in response. "Zoë Black has come to me and expressed interest in starting a scholarship for students abroad who may have qualified to attend the school but because of financial reasons could not. Although we have a number of scholarships for students in the country, there really aren't any for those students, or even to support students wanting in on the foreign exchange program. I think by having the heads of some of the other schools here, perhaps we could not only help her with her little project, but encourage the others to help start foreign exchange scholarships as well."
"So that's your definition of a little project," Severus said starkly. "I'll keep that in mind."
"I think that's the best idea I've heard in a long while! I hope you gave her points for it!" Hermione said enthusiastically. Severus gave her a dirty look.
"I hope twenty was enough, I'd hate to think I was being stingy," Dumbledore said innocently.
"You? Never." Severus said dryly, and concentrated on his food.
"You are doing a very good job with her, Severus. There can be no doubt about that," Dumbledore said.
"Oh, this isn't over, sir, just a momentary setback on her end of the court. She is not out of the woods yet," Severus said darkly.
"Yes, you're right," Dumbledore said with a gentle smile. "But at least perhaps she can see a bit of sunlight through those trees."
"She'd be better off if she could see the axes coming towards her if she doesn't have enough sense to turn around," Severus said darkly.
"How serious you always are, Severus! Do you never let your hair down?" Fleur chastened him lightly. Jennifer glared at her.
"Or push your spectacles up?" Dumbledore teased, knowing full well at least he wouldn't get accused of flirting.
"Not in public," Severus said evenly before turning to his soup.
Jennifer stared out at the storm rolling in, the thunder echoing strange in her mind as she stared at the droplets forming upon the sill she was standing next to. A cold wind blew inside, but she made no move to close the window, staring into the pre-dawn sky as if in a trance and wondering if the sun would ever come up.
In the next room, Severus successfully rolled over in his sleep, and the oddity of that caused him to wake up, hazily looking around and letting his eyes focus in on the clock. Soft rain dripped outside, and part of him didn't want to leave his bed, his nose indicating just how cold it was in the room. But the dark cloud that had been pestering him lately was more persistent that morning than it had been before and he forced himself to sit up and look over at Jennifer's sitting room door. There was no light but it was slightly ajar, so Severus slipped on his robe and gently pressed against the door to see Jennifer there, standing in the dark looking so hopelessly lost that a strange chill went down his spine.
"Is something wrong?" he asked and she jumped in a panic. "Sorry."
"Why must you do that?" Jennifer said, holding onto her beating chest.
"Why must you stand in the window in the freezing rain? Not even a fire in here, aren't you cold?"
"I… I suppose it is cold in here," Jennifer admitted.
"You could at least have some feeling for your familiar at least," he chided her, and Jennifer looked over to see Ratfly had huddled at the very end of his stand away from the window.
"Oh!" Jennifer said and closed the windows as Severus lit a fire. She moved the stand over closer to it, and Ratfly opened his eyes long enough to shake out his fur and go back to sleep again. "He should have let me know. Poor Ratfly! I think he'll be all right though."
"And your skin is probably as cold as ice as well," he said, moving to feel her hand. She flinched as he did so and he frowned at her. "Do you mind telling me what this is all about?"
"The storm woke me, that's all," Jennifer said, glancing at the window. "And I felt like I needed a bit of air."
"It's been some time since you've felt like doing that," Severus murmured. He grabbed a blanket off the back of a chair and threw it over her shoulders, coaxing her to sit down. "Did you have another nightmare?"
"I don't really recall," Jennifer said, staring at the fire to avoid Severus' frowning gaze.
"I think perhaps you've been using too much Subtle Slumber lately," he decided, going to the tray to get them some tea. "Perhaps we should think about working on those relaxation exercises Sagittari's always harping on us about, or doing some of the meditation level forms every day."
"I really don't want to do forms every day," Jennifer said, still looking in the fire.
"I see," Severus said thoughtfully then came back over, holding a cup out to her. But instead of automatically taking it, Jennifer took out her wand and brought a saucer from the tray into her hand, ignoring Severus' raised eyebrow as she carefully set the cup on it before taking it. "You know, I've heard that talking is a very good cure for stress as well, and it just occurred to me that you've been doing very little of that lately."
Just then, there was a rapping sound at the window. Panicking, Jennifer nearly spilled the tea on herself trying to put it down and tried to beat Severus to the window, but it was too late; Severus had already opened it, staring at the rather large box that an oversized eagle with a rather ridiculous looking pink ribbon dropped into his hands. He stared at the side of the box then over at Jennifer, hardly believing what he was reading.
"It's from Bently Bewitching Beauties Company?" he said, opening the invoice reluctantly. "A year supply of Bently's Invisibility Cream? Jennifer!"
"It's for my fourth year Potion's classes!" Jennifer blurted out, her cheeks growing pink as she went over to try and get the box from him. "Let me have that."
"If it's for your class, why didn't you bill it to the school instead of to us?" Severus said, squinting at her.
"You know, you're right, that was really silly of me. Why didn't I think of that?" Jennifer said, giggling nervously. "Might I have the box?"
"No," Severus said. "Because despite your claim that this is for the school I don't believe it in a moment. You have that funny look on your face you get whenever you tell an enormous fib, and I think you bought this for yourself and you just didn't want to have to go to Corey's for it. I can't believe you're still going on about this Fleur thing!"
"It's for my fourth year class," Jennifer said firmly.
"Then why, may I ask, was it delivered before dawn instead of with the normal post?" Severus asked.
"Who knows, Severus?" Jennifer snapped irritably, trying to get the box again but he walked away, opening the invoice up. "Maybe they just wanted to…"
"'Special delivery instructions; Craw Sitting Room. Please Deliver Before Five A.M.'" Severus read.
"Fine, I'll admit I was going to keep one for myself," Jennifer got out. "Now may I go put this in my office?"
"No," Severus said.
"Then I'll let you tell Dumbledore why I let my classes go early today. I had this sent special delivery so it would get here on time, and I'm sure he'll interested in about how I canceled classes because you were being nosy," Jennifer snapped.
Taken aback by her change into a professional argument, Severus stared at her for a long time.
"This is about Fleur, isn't it?" Severus mused unsurely.
"Give me that," Jennifer said taking the box out of his stunned hands. With a quick flick of her wand she changed into her Hogwarts robes and headed out of the room before he could say another word.
Jennifer hurried down the hall to take the first available shortcut to her office, locking the door behind her before stuffing the cream under her desk, quickly taking one out and liberally covering what she needed to cover with it before searching through her fourth year agenda, pulling out what she had truly planned to teach. She quickly worked it in, wondering just how much of the stuff she would have to use to cover up her lie.
She stopped then, completely angry at herself for even having to lie at all. Some Truth Seeker she was, she thought, taking a few deep breaths to keep her emotions in check. But then, wasn't the very reason she decided not to get certified in the first place was to protect Severus? But then, this was different. She didn't have to lie to him to do it. What would happen, she wondered, if she did tell them? What proof did she truly have that Ciardoth even had a way to gather them from Hogwarts and carry out her threat? But then, what proof did she have that she couldn't? Jennifer shook her head. Perhaps with Severus' help they might somehow find an answer, if it were a matter of just the two of them. But attempting to safeguard herself from injury and trying to safeguard four headstrong children from them were two very different things.
Angrily, she turned her attention to finishing the plans and calculating what the minimum amount of the cream they would need for the tests she wanted to run. As she put a kettle of coffee over the fire and the class began to assemble, she wasn't all too surprised to catch a glimpse of Severus wandering by the doorway, as casually as if he had some other purpose in the dungeon other than to spy on her. Halbert and Andrew smiled warmly at her as they took their seats, and Jennifer smiled back as she got a few jars ready and set out samples.
"Everyone pass up your homework. I hope you were thorough, because I have a surprise lab today," Jennifer said with a smile.
Andrew opened his book to get it out but then had to jump back as what appeared to be hundreds of insects crawled out, leaping up on the table behind him and getting a wand out as quite a number of other students screamed and backed away.
"Wait! Stay where you are!" Jennifer sighed, pulling out her wand and casting a counterhex at the book. The beetles suddenly turned on their backs and spun around, each one turning into a tiny piece of paper. "Your homework, I presume, Andrew?"
Andrew slowly stepped off the table as a nervous chuckle came from the Ravenclaw side of the room, unwadding one of the larger pieces before nodding.
"Professor!" Halbert said, waving his hand. "I think Eigil or Meyers might have done it when they intentionally bumped into us in…"
"Did anyone see them cast a spell in the hall?" Jennifer asked, glancing around at their faces. Quite a few of them had been witness to them running into them, it seemed, but nobody had seen the spell. "I see. Halbert, I understand why you may believe that, but unless someone can provide proof that it was them, I can't really do anything about it without seeing it. Andrew, I'll give you until tonight to turn your homework in. You might want to keep your homework somewhere a little safer from now on."
"Yes, Professor," Andrew sighed in resignation, but Halbert frowned. He wasn't used to getting knocked down by anyone.
"Halbert, is your homework all right?"
"Um…yes, Professor," Halbert said after he opened his book.
"Good, then let's start, shall we? I mentioned before that we might get into testing different potions this year to determine their contents, so I've had the liberty of acquiring some beauty cream made to cover up blemishes…"
"Good, because some of the girls in here could really use it," Terrence Nickleby quipped, causing a laughter to ring up.
"And that's five points off Ravenclaw for speaking out of turn," Jennifer said with a stern smile as she passed out some slips of paper. "I'll give each table a set of tests to run. You shouldn't have to worry about poisoning or bad reactions since obviously it's non-toxic. There are your lab assignments, go ahead and begin setting it up while I pass out the samples. Is there something you need, Professor Snape?" Jennifer added, tired of feeling eyes upon her.
"Not right now, but if I think of anything, I'll let you know," Severus said evenly. Jennifer passed out the last piece of paper and went back to her desk, picking up her wand long enough to slam the door in his face before handing out the samples. Andrew and Halbert exchanged a private look, but Andrew merely shrugged and turned his attention to the lab.
But it wasn't more than twenty minutes into the class when a familiar knock sounded on the door. Irritably, Jennifer went over to answer it, but what she was going to say to Severus died on her lips when she saw Alastor Moody standing beside him and Hermione right behind him.
"What now?"
"We need to talk," Alastor murmured. "Dumbledore's office. He went to get Alicia."
"Alicia?" Jennifer said with surprise, glancing at Hermione.
"I'm just here to watch your class," Hermione said. "What are they doing?"
"Um, experiments on over-the-counter products."
"How fun! Thought you don't normally do that until just before Christmas," Hermione said.
"I got a good deal on something they can't blow up the lab with," Jennifer said, Severus squinting at her as she came out.
"So what's this all about?"
"Don't look at me. You may want to sit down for this one," Alastor advised as they headed up the stairs.
Alicia was just as surprised to find herself being brought up to Dumbledore's study than Jennifer was to see her there, but didn't feel quite so nervous after Dumbledore allowed her to raid the candy dish.
"This will only take a moment," Alastor assured her parents when they arrived. "All I need to do is ask you a simple question, Alicia, and it's very important that you're truthful about it."
"All right," Alicia said, getting nervous again.
"Have you helped any member of your family get out of the country in the last twenty-four hours?" Alastor asked. Alicia blinked at him.
"No, none of us have left the castle since we came here," Alicia said.
"What about your grandfather?" Alastor asked. "Did you help him go anywhere?" Alicia shook her head, frowning. "Has he asked you to help him go anywhere?"
"He hasn't written this week. That's not unusual. He doesn't write much," Alicia said with a shrug. "Is he in some sort of trouble?"
"No, not exactly. At least…not as far as I'm concerned, at any rate," Alastor said, patting her on the shoulder. "Just eliminating a possibility, that's all. Thank you."
"Help yourself to another piece for the walk down," Dumbledore smiled at Alicia softly.
"Thanks," Alicia said, glancing between her parents who moved out of the way of the door so she could leave.
"Now will you tell us what this is all about, Moody?" Severus said impatiently.
"Sorry, I really didn't want to say it in front of the girl," Alastor said, looking even older than usual as he took a seat by Dumbledore's desk. "Apparently Azkaban isn't the only prison this new Skull of ours can break into. Vallid sent an International Tube to report that Roger Baylor has apparently been murdered."
"Are you positive?" Severus asked evenly.
"The report she sent was an official police report, she hadn't gone down there yet at the time she sent it because she was worried about the other prisoner in the case…"
"Mark? Is he all right?" Jennifer said in alarm.
"Well, she hasn't sent back any more tubes, so I'd assume so. But she was very concerned with getting him moved to somewhere a bit more safe…strange as it may sound, it seems that it's the prisoners that need protecting this time."
"Oh, I don't know, so far it sounds like whoever this is keeps doing us a favor," Severus mused. "I for one will sleep better tonight knowing Erascus is gone."
But Jennifer didn't say anything. No matter how much she wanted to believe Erascus was dead, something kept holding her back. It was then that Erik's words at the meeting came to her about Malfoy; until I see a corpse, I don't believe he's dead.
"And I for one feel better that I personally know that Thomas didn't leave the country, even if he didn't have an alibi this time," Alastor said.
"Professor, is there someone around that we're not aware of?" Severus asked. The other three turned and stared at him in surprise.
"Why do you ask that, Severus?" Dumbledore said with alarm.
"Because my chain seems to think that we're being watched."
"In here?" Dumbledore said. Suddenly, Alastor brought in a large rod out of his pocket that was flashing brightly, but as they all leapt to their feet, it suddenly went out.
"But how is that possible?" Jennifer whispered as Dumbledore brought out the map, but no one was in the area.
"Alicia?" Moody mused, exchanging a look with Severus. But when Severus checked his watch and Dumbledore glanced at the map, Alicia had already returned to Transfiguration class.
