Chapter Twelve
A Deception
Messages were brought to the other three Snapes to meet Aurelius in the library after dinner that night. Halbert didn't feel very comfortable with letting Andrew walk on his own anymore and made up an excuse to come along, saying that he still had to write his Mystical Creatures report. But Andrew suspected that wasn't the real reason.
It had all started not long after the Quidditch tryouts, when a Bludger 'accidentally' got loosed in the direction of the Gryffindor team, and had Halbert not seen it coming, it would have knocked Andrew off his broom. Furious, Aurelius promptly threw Eigil Hauk off the team and put Stock in the second Beater position. Jocelyn promptly backed up the decision, and Eigil knew that going to Snape about it wasn't an option. But Eigil knew there was only so much that Aurelius was capable of stopping when it involved members of other houses, and he had a definite bone to pick with Aurelius' reserved younger brother.
The halls soon turned into the last place Andrew wanted to walk, for once they discovered there was truly little they could call him that he would react to, nor would he go to the teachers about it either, they moved onto shin kicks, accidental bumps and any other more embarrassing annoyances that Eigil and his friends could come up with. Andrew was quite sure they would get bored with him sooner or later, but after Halbert discovered the incident where they had magically glued Andrew's robe to the bathroom door, he became much more concerned.
"You know, if you're walking with me just because of Hauk, there really isn't anything to worry about," Andrew told Halbert. "Juliet delivered the message, which means the rest of the Slytherin knows I'm meeting with Aurelius tonight. He wouldn't dare do anything to me before that."
"And the way back?"
"Then I head to the bathroom and sneak out my way," Andrew said. "That should leave them pretty bewildered for awhile. Maybe we'll get lucky and they'll wait in their long enough to get caught out after hours. So if you get done early, go ahead and go on without me."
"All right, Andrew," Halbert said solemnly. "I'll be reading near the door when you're ready to leave." Andrew sighed and went over to the table where the others were. Aurelius glared behind him at Halbert.
"What's he doing here?" Aurelius scowled.
"He has a report to write, so he walked me down," Andrew shrugged, sitting. "So what's going on?"
"I just got some news that I thought the rest of you ought to know about," Aurelius said in a low voice. "Roger Baylor was found dead in his cell in Southport Wizard's Prison in New York. They found an Ivory Skull on his corpse."
"So that's what Moody was here for?" Alicia said, feeling a bit frightened. "To make sure I didn't help him get there to do it?"
"There's no way grandfather did anything of the sort, Alicia," Alex said. "It's got to be some pretender! Just how did you find out about this, anyhow?" Aurelius shrugged slightly.
"Slytherin tends to see the same families within it, and many interrelate over the generations. Suffice it to say there's little that happens outside of the school to or because of an alumni that I don't now hear about," Aurelius said evenly. "Which brings me to my next point. Lucius apparently has given his entire business over to Amadeus Longbottom and no one seems to know where he is. Apparently he and Draco had a falling out that prompted him to disappear off the map and that meant having to give the company to someone else."
"Amadeus Longbottom! Of all people, that's insane!" Alex said, the others hushing her and reminding her to keep it down. "Surely that's not legal."
"He served his full sentence, as meager as it was, and since he's a citizen of this country, they sent him here. Lucius cut the last of his ties when Danny was unmasked. The only other Malfoy with any stock is Mary and her stock doesn't technically count since she's a minor; the principal shareholder votes for her. Now, I have no doubt that the Ministry is keeping a very close eye on Longbottom. If nothing else, they are waiting for him to mess up and lead them to Lucius."
"Well, maybe we should go find him…" Alicia began.
"No," Aurelius said firmly. "Alicia, I'm serious, don't ever even think of it, promise me you won't ever try it. He's much too dangerous!"
"But the curse…"
"Damn the curse and listen to me! You just don't try it! Alicia, promise you won't do it!" Aurelius said fervently.
"Fine," Alicia said with a sigh. "I promise I won't try and look for him." Alex propped her chin up with her hand sulkily.
"Thank you," Aurelius said. "Look, I realize that there is a good chance that Malfoy has something to do with what's going on here. But I'm just as sure Draco suspects it too, and if anyone can catch a Malfoy, it's another Malfoy. So for right now, we should probably do as we're told and stay out of things. We still don't know how Ciardoth fits into all this, and I for one would really like to know what her part is before we consider anything."
"But what about grandfather?" Alex said.
"So far, it sounds like grandfather has his bases covered. Besides, as long as Thurspire's convinced it's got to be him, you can be sure as anything that everyone else will be convinced it's not," Aurelius said. The other three couldn't help but to grin at that.
Jennifer took one last look at the woman snoring in the chair and glanced at herself in the mirror thoughtfully, comparing her outfit with what she was wearing.
"Looks like I need just one more touch. Mind if I borrow this?" Jennifer murmured, taking off the woman's I.D. badge. "No? I thought not," she said, glancing at the name and saying it to herself before putting it on and slipping out the door, reading the doors thoughtfully as she slipped towards the back with her hands in her coat nervously, playing with the gloves inside the pocket.
"Hey Maggie…Maggie... Margaret!" said a guy dressed in aqua, making Jennifer turn around. He grinned at her. "I knew that would get ya. You still haven't given me an answer about this weekend."
"Sorry, John, maybe later," Jennifer said, turning again.
"Oh, don't give me that!" He said, stopping her with a sigh. "And don't give me that B.S. about being too old either. I swear this one will work out. This doctor isn't like the other doctors."
"Yeah, that's what you always say, John," Jennifer said.
"I tell you what. Just play nine holes. If you don't like him, I'll go to the club to get a drink and I'll send you a page. You never know, someone else interesting could drop dead. It could happen," John said. "Come on. I'll pick up the tab. It's not healthy for you to spend all this time with stiffs. Look at this, it's after five now, shouldn't you be out of here?"
"I have something I need to do," Jennifer sighed. "Look, if I agree, will you stop bugging me?"
"Consider yourself not being bugged!" John said, putting his hands up and walking backwards away from her. Jennifer stared at him, and as if egged on by it, he began bowing several times consecutively before finally heading to the front desk.
Jennifer chuckled softly and shook her head. He seemed like a nice guy, she mused, but wondered how confused the real Maggie was going to be when he told her she agreed to yet another blind date.
A set of silver doors got her attention then, and she slipped inside, nervously looking at the stainless steel cubicles as she searched for paperwork, until she found the name she was looking for and glanced over it; Roger Baylor, cause of death decapitation, a case number, and a release date of the next day. Jennifer frowned at the cause of death, wondering if the head had been retrieved. Looking up the number, she followed the ones on the cubicles and fiddled with it until she figured out how to open it, biting her lip hard to keep herself from trembling any more than she was as she slid it all the way out, revealing the headless body. How convenient, she thought, as she was even less sure about his identity than she was before. Would they do one of those Muggle DNA test thingies on it? From the chart there wasn't anything that stood out to tell her if one was done.
Making up her mind, Jennifer put on her gloves and took out a pair of small scissors, carefully pulling his hand back to cut a nail. But then she stopped, staring in disbelief at his hands. They were very heavily calloused and leathery, and his skin, she now noticed, also had seen signs of weathering. Jennifer found herself breathing hard then, for it was not the hand of a man who had relied on his wizard family's connections and fortunes all of his life, but that of a working man. There could be little doubt in her mind that she was actually looking at the corpse of the Red Fist.
Fear suddenly gripped her as she realized that that meant that Baylor was not only alive and well but very much on the loose, and how much danger she would be in at that moment if he knew she even suspected it. Quickly she slid the corpse into place and hurried back towards the woman's office, slipping in the door and taking off the badge. Carefully she began to pin it to the woman's coat when she suddenly stopped and looked at her more carefully.
The woman wasn't breathing.
Jennifer heard the click of the door from behind her and turned quickly around to see a man in each of the corners behind her, both with wands out and pointed at her head.
"Good evening, Jacqueline," Baylor said first, sneering at her. "Out for a stroll? But you're a long way from home, you'll have to be punished for that, you know."
"You won't get away with this," Jennifer whispered softly, and Baylor laughed.
"Did you hear her, Lucius? It doesn't sound like you have her completely convinced yet who's in control," Baylor said.
"Perhaps not," Lucius said thoughtfully, leaning casually against the wall with an excited, dangerous look in his eyes. "But I think it's time that she truly learned just how much more than a dream this all is. Poor Margaret will never know, I suppose. She'll never awaken from that potion you gave her. How very sad…"
"Bastard," Jennifer said. Baylor tsked at her.
"Such language! Shall I break her jaw for you?" Baylor asked hopefully.
"No," Lucius decided. "That would be much too hard for her to cover up, and it's too early in the game for that. But there is something right now I'm dying to know about. Tell me, Jennifer, just how did your youngest daughter manage to get Thomas all the way to Sudan?" Jennifer stared at him, trying to swallow the fear she felt.
"I have no idea what you are talking about," Jennifer said. Lucius snarled angrily and hit her with a glove, but as it smacked her cheek, Jennifer felt the force of the heavy galleons that had been placed inside it.
"Isn't that going to look pretty in the morning," Baylor said snidely.
"You think you can lie to me, Truth Seeker? When I have seen her travel in the blink of an eye? Perhaps she learned to Apparate thought I, but no, because she was not always alone. I once noticed her at Gringotts Bank with the rest of your pathetic clan and the poof… they were home. How very strange, considering I heard later that day that they had disappeared from the vault… not the bank… the vault. Amazing feat that. Tell me."
"I don't know who you've been talking to, but you shouldn't trust second hand information," Jennifer whispered softly. "I know for certain you were nowhere near the bank that day. My father would have known."
"It's true I wasn't at the bank," Lucius toyed thoughtfully. "You see, I didn't need to be. There is nothing that your family does that I don't know about. Shall I let you in a little secret? Just between us, hm?"
Jennifer wasn't looking at him. She didn't want to know anything he wanted to tell her.
"Tell me, Jennifer, haven't you ever not even once wondered exactly what happened to your first watch? Let's see, how does it go? 'When you find me I find myself?' How disgustingly sentimental," Lucius said as Jennifer looked up, her eyes wide with fear. "Ah yes, a light went off somewhere in that cotton stuffed skull of hers. Of course it's several years too late," Lucius said, drawing out the watch while Jennifer stared at it in pure terror. "Just how did you think I was able to corner Aurelius all of those times I wanted to speak with him, hm? Yes, it's come in quite handy, in both finding and avoiding. It'll come in handy again when you finally break down and we start having the fun job of rounding them all up, too. And now that I have divulged one of my secrets, it is your turn to share. How is she doing it?"
"You'd have to kill me first," Jennifer said softly. Lucius and Baylor shared a private smile.
"No, I don't think it's going to be necessary," Lucius said calmly. "You see, if you don't tell me within the next ten seconds, a raging fire is going to break out at a pathetically Muggle café in the heart of the city, and most unfortunately there's going to be a problem with them getting out."
"What?" Jennifer said, staring at his face to see if his threat was real.
"Look in the mirror if you like," Malfoy said casually. Jennifer turned around and saw the image of Kingler's café.
"It's after six, too, that'll be rush hour," Baylor mused thoughtfully.
"Five seconds, I suggest you answer quickly," Lucius suggested. Jennifer Disapparated. Baylor gazed at the spot she had been standing in and over at Lucius questioningly. "It's just as well, it'll be much more fun this way," Lucius decided, turning his attention to the mirror as a sudden burst of flames enveloped the inside of the café with a cloud of smoke.
Jennifer immediately Apparated to the doors, ignoring the shouts of surprised Muggles as she ran up to the door, pulling with all her strength as the Kinglers and their customers gathered at the doors banging on it. With little choice, Jennifer pulled out her wand, the powerful spell shattering the glass and spraying with such force that Jennifer only had enough time to instinctively turn and cover her head as the glass sprayed her left shoulder and arm.
"Come on! Careful, don't push each other!" Jennifer said, helping some of them through. "Tony, help me with Emma!" she ordered, the startled cab driver helping her get the old woman past the glass door.
"Sally? Is anyone upstairs?"
"Yes, one of the new tenants and her little boy! Who are you?"
"Don't worry, it's me, Jackie," Jennifer told her and then Disapparated again.
The flames had already reached upstairs, but she heard crying in the distance. Aiming at the hallway, she cast a foaming spell, insulating the area in between with the fire repellent substance and running through, finding the woman and boy huddled in a bathroom corner.
"Come with me, please, hurry!" Jennifer said. "This isn't the kind of fire I can hold off for long!"
"What do you mean you're holding off?" the woman said, frightened. "You're bleeding!" Jennifer grabbed her arm and the boy and hurried past the stairs, Jennifer blasting the lock off Mycroft's old room to get them to the window. Excited people lined the streets, and she heard sirens in the distance. But as she turned around, she saw that the magic fire was quickly eating her barricade, and glancing at the crowd knew that help would arrive too late. The jump was tentative at best, and feather falling into the crowd might get them hurt as well. Cursing vehemently, Jennifer dug in her coat and got out her broom, the woman and boy looking at her as if she was mad when she told her to get on. Losing her temper, Jennifer cast at them again.
"JUST DO IT! Imperio!"
Immediately they leapt onto the broom and Jennifer ordered them to duck as she soared through the window and landed them at the steps of the apartment building across the street, much to everyone's amazement.
"Sally! Rob! Keep those people away from there! And out of the street!" Jennifer yelled at them. But as the vehicles began to arrive and people crowded around her gaping, Jennifer knew she had no choice but to Disapparate.
Changing her cloak back and throwing it over her head to hide her wounds, Jennifer rushed into the Portkey station, downing a full bottle of a blood-staunching potion on the way. At least the disguise hadn't worn off at that point, Jennifer sighed as she reached the last station, wearily heading home.
But what she had most definitely not expected was that Lunette Vallid would beat her there.
"Jennifer?" Dumbledore said with surprise as she and Lunette made their way up the main stairwell. "Jennifer did it, are you quite sure?"
"She told Rob and Sally it was Jackie, Albus. No one else but Jennifer would tell them that," Lunette said. "If it was a frame up, they'd have said her real name."
"I still find it very hard to believe. It really isn't like her to go off like that without telling anyone," Dumbledore said.
Jennifer hissed softly to herself where she stood at the bottom of the stairs. It was a very stupid thing to do, and Vallid could read her like a book. If only she knew something about Occlumancy, she thought, wondering if throwing it all in a Pensieve would be enough. No, she mused. There was only one choice that she had now, as dangerous as it was. There was only one person she could turn to. Turning around she cut through the secret passages, pulling out a jar of the cream and pouring it on as she went knowing that every second that passed brought Dumbledore that much closer to the map.
Of course, he would stop at their room first, Jennifer thought grimly, wondering if the Sleeping Potion she had slipped into her husband's tea would be strong enough to keep him asleep. But finally she reached the last passage near Slytherin.
"Password," The Grim Grackle squawked.
"Damn the password! I am a member of this staff, this is an emergency, and if you don't let me in I'm going to blast you off the wall!" Jennifer snarled.
"Well there's no need to be rude about it," the bird said, ruffling its feathers and letting her past. Without a pause, Jennifer sped through the common room, taking out two handfuls of dust from her pocket as she worked her way to Aurelius' room and then dusted both Stock and Heph with it, careful to get it all off her hands before shaking him awake.
Aurelius blinked in surprise to see her kneeling there, with a look of fear in her eyes that he had never seen before. It chilled him to look at it, knowing without a doubt now that somehow the cloud of darkness that had been plaguing him was somehow connected to her.
"What is it? What's wrong?" Aurelius whispered.
"Something's come up, and I need your help, something very important," Jennifer said, sitting on his bed. "I need you to hide my thoughts."
Aurelius stared at her; still trying to clear his eyes and make sure this wasn't a dream.
"From who?"
"From everyone… please, I can't explain, that's part of the trouble, you just have to believe that I really need protected right now, because if not it may mean the end of us all. Please believe me, Aurelius."
"I believe you," Aurelius said carefully. "But how can I bind a secret I don't understand?"
"Didn't you do that for Andrew and Dumbledore?"
"That was different, I was already guarding Andrew," Aurelius said.
"What if I tell you a part of another secret. Would that be enough for you to bind all of me?" Jennifer asked.
Aurelius looked at her carefully. There was no doubt of her urgency, or the need. Why did he feel so bad about doing it?
"All right," Aurelius said. "I'll try, at least."
"That's all I ask," Jennifer said, sounding relieved, "This is my battle, not yours, I only need a little time."
"So what's the secret you are willing to give me?" Aurelius asked softly.
"Roger Baylor is alive and has joined Lucius Malfoy's forces," Jennifer whispered quietly. Aurelius nodded as if he were accepting that fact, and Jennifer felt a strange tug on her conscious, and somehow knew from Aurelius' face that he felt something quite similar.
"All right, it's done," he said quietly.
"Rel…no one can know that…not even…"
"No, it's all right," Aurelius nodded in understanding. "Not even father."
"Thank you," Jennifer said gratefully, kissing his forehead as she left the room. But as Aurelius lay back on his pillow, he already found himself wondering if he was doing the right thing.
As swiftly as she could manage, Jennifer swept back into the passages and towards the Potions Lab, intent on a fully numbing painkiller before she was having to face whatever was going to befall her upstairs. So intent was she on the shelves that she didn't feel anything amiss when she entered the room, and it was only after she had the bottle in her hand that she noticed the chair at her desk turn around and Severus' floating head appear from beneath his Invisibility Cloak.
"Back so soon?" he asked dangerously.
