Deconstruction
Chapter Nine: Oliver's Confession
It started months before Percy had walked out of the Ministry that day. Oliver had had to go overseas to Europe to play exhibition matches along with real ones. After two months on the road, he returned home to find Percy in a strange state. It was the beginning of a downward spiral.
Upon Oliver's return, he had observed that Percy had started not to eat very often and was steadily losing weight. He spent hours at a time working on extra paperwork from the office just to keep himself busy at night. It seemed that he was afraid to go to sleep at night. He filled himself up with anything caffeinated to keep awake. It wasn't as if he had to bring home so much of his work.
Oliver was concerned, so he was constantly accosting Percy about his physical condition. Percy grew agitated at Oliver and called him a pest, withdrawing all from him altogether. When the news of Voldemort's attack came out, Percy was still working at the offices without much trouble. He managed to keep his condition a secret from anyone who saw him, except for Oliver who started to come up with reasons for Percy to take a break. As a Christmas present, Oliver had given Percy season tickets to go see the Chudley Cannons, so that Percy could take some time off then again. The tickets had gone unused.
"You didn't know what was wrong with him?" asked Tonks as she scribbled some of what Oliver had told her into her notebook.
"I didn't at the time," answered Oliver as he handed her a mug of hot cocoa. He took a seat in the chair adjacent to hers.
Tonks took a sip before she asked, "What happened next?"
"It was the same after that for weeks and weeks. Then two months before he disappeared, it all came down hard," replied Oliver as he set his mug on the side table. "It was raining that afternoon. I was at practice. You know that place where we first met. One of wrist guards broke. It was a custom made one, and I had left the spare one at home. So, I came back to get it. That's when I knew something was really wrong."
Tonks didn't say anything as he paused and tipped his head back a little. He sighed and continued, "I noticed that he was home in the middle of the day. I heard the sound of running water coming from the hall bathroom. That was his bathroom, while I had one in my room. I had the master's, while he took the one down the hall next to the outdoor terrace. So, I left my room to ask why he was home. The door was open and the light was on."
Oliver sighed again as he tried to relax a little more. "Percy was always a stickler when it came to his privacy. He would wake up extra early when we were going to Hogwarts to take his baths and showers alone. It wasn't like him to leave the bathroom door opened, so I went to go ask him what was wrong. That's when I noticed that there was glass all over the place. The mirror was smashed, except for the top part. I panicked. I went to his room and started pounding on the door, but he wasn't answering me." He stopped again.
"Where was he?" asked Tonks after the pause was too long. She repeated, "Where was he, Oliver?"
"He liked to go out onto the terrace. It was his favorite part of this place. He went out there to think all the time or to just get some air. I went to go see if he was there, even though it was raining. I tried the knob, but it was locked. We never locked the terrace before. I had to break the glass around the knob to get my hand through and unlock it. That's where I found him."
One could almost see Oliver replaying it in his mind over and over again. Obviously he hadn't talked about it since then, not even with Percy. "It was coming down so hard. Just like now," he went on. "I couldn't see anything at first. Then I saw a watery trail of blood. You know it's like if you cut yourself and you wash the blood away in the sink. Something like that. There was so much of it. I followed it until I found him leaning against the wall. He had a piece of the mirror. It looked almost like a jagged dagger and he was just sawing it into his wrist."
"Oh my God," gasped Tonks.
"He wasn't wearing his glasses. I don't know if he saw me or not, but I ran up to him. I said, 'My God, Perce, what have you done to yourself?' He passed out just then. There wasn't any way the blood could clot. The rain was washing away any chance of that. I went to feel his pulse. It was erratic. He was so pale and his lips were turning blue from the cold. I pulled him up and tried to help him into the flat."
"He was bleeding so much. I had to go and get some help otherwise he'd bleed to death. He already lost so much blood, so I didn't have a choice. He couldn't Apparate anywhere in that condition and I couldn't risk putting him through the Floo Network. And I had to think of his reputation.
"If anyone found out he tried to kill himself, well, you know how we should all feel about that sort of thing. Only the Muggles are tolerate of such things. The Muggle hospital was just down the street, so I tried to stop the bleeding as much as possible. I went for help and one of the neighbors called for an ambulance to come."
"The Muggles came really fast and took him to the hospital. They put him under a twenty-four hour suicide watch, but they kept him there for three days afterwards anyway. He had lost so much blood that they had to do a transfusion."
Tonks asked, "So, that's why his records show that he was out for three weeks in a row? It was because of this. You also missed a lot of your training sessions as a result. That's why your game has been off, isn't it?"
Oliver didn't answer the question directly. He continued, "The night I came back from the hospital, I moved the furniture around, giving him the master bedroom. I put a shatter proof spell on the bathroom mirror to keep him from breaking it. I had to put a spell on the terrace, so that he wouldn't be able to go out there again. I also kept my door opened at night just in case."
"You could have told someone about what was happening," said Tonks gently. "You should have told someone. Never mind all the stigma. What about his family? His parents?"
Oliver glanced at her and shook his head, "When I visited him at the hospital, Percy told me to not say anything, especially to his dad. He was diagnosed with clinical depression that's what the Muggle doctors said. They showed him much more compassion than any one of the healers at St. Mungo's would have."
Tonks didn't write that down. She didn't have to ask why because she already knew the answer, "His pride. It wasn't just his reputation that was on the line, if people found out that he was depressed it would be a sign of weakness. He didn't want anyone to see that. Or rather, he wanted to limit that as much as possible."
"Why did you bring so many things?" asked Oliver as he looked at her backpack. He seemed to be done talking about Percy. He didn't want to keep going any longer, but she had to keep him going just a bit longer.
Tonks gave him a smile. "Nothing you've just said made it into the official investigation," she assured him as he gave her a perplexed look. "I was taken off the case a few hours ago. I overreacted with the Weasleys when they wanted a progress report. Now, my supervisor has taken over the case. We're only a couple of steps ahead of them."
"Wait, you're no longer on the case, then why are you still investigating?" asked Oliver, utterly confused.
"Because it's my job and I don't give in that easily," replied Tonks. "Now, I need you to give me a tour of this place and also, I need you to answer more questions. I'm not here to hurt Percy or to expose any of his secrets. What you've just said will stay between us, but we need to work fast and get out of here before my supervisor realizes what I've done."
Oliver gave her another quizzical look and asked, "What have you done?"
"Let's just say I took apart what I found and threw in a couple of dead ends in his path. It won't hold for them for long. It won't take him long to figure out that Percy lived here."
Oliver got to his feet and started to pace a bit, "Are you saying I'm a suspect?"
Tonks nodded. "It looks suspicious, Oliver," she pointed out. "Look at all that happened, I mean you have his bank vault. There's a paper trail. Even if you had transferred all the money into your account, someone would have caught on to it. Didn't you know that Percy's oldest brother worked at the bank?"
"I did. Look, Percy gave me his key, but I couldn't have direct access to it without it being under my name. The damn goblins made it too hard," replied Oliver as he flayed his arms around. "I only had it to pay off the medical bills. We didn't want to rouse any suspicion. The bill was huge, even by wizarding standards. Percy couldn't just withdraw all of his savings to pay it off and convert it into Muggle currency would have arouse too much notice, so the only way he could pay the bill back was to do it in the usual installments. The statements come every month on the fifteenth."
"I thought you said that you weren't getting anymore of his mail here," said Tonks.
"I didn't lie," protested Oliver immediately. "I said that he wasn't getting anymore owls here. You didn't ask anything about Muggle correspondence."
"Yeah, I didn't think to ask that. No one would," said Tonks as she shook her head. "Looks like we're ahead, but it won't be for long."
"What did you want to see?" asked Oliver. Tonks got to her feet and set the mug on the side table next to his. "You wanted to see his room?"
"Both rooms if he occupied them and I also want to see the bathrooms and the terrace," she replied. He nodded and he went up the stairs. She climbed up right behind him. "He occupied this place most of the time even if you've lived here longer. He was here day in and day out. There has to be something else left here."
"I don't know what you hope to find," said Oliver as they reached the top of the stairs. "Which room do you want to see first?"
"The one he had before he left," answered Tonks. After his description of the upstairs, she knew where it was, so she stepped up to it. The door was closed and she turned the knob. The room was completely empty as she had expected. She could see from the outlines on the floor from where the furniture used to be. She knelt down to get a closer look to see which lines were deeper and which weren't. "Your bed was against this wall, wasn't it?" she observed, pointing to the wall next to the hall bathroom.
"Yeah, how did you know that?" asked Oliver.
"The indentations in the carpet. The longer a piece of furniture sits in one spot, the more permanent the indentations are. Percy kept his bed in the middle of the room," she replied.
"That's amazing," he compliment.
"He had a dresser where he kept his things and a trunk at the end of his bed," continued Tonks as she walked around. "He had a desk, too, but he wasn't the one who arranged this room. You did. You were the one who moved the furniture in here. There was too much room for his furniture."
"He didn't waste his money on things like furniture," said Oliver. "But you're right. This room is a little bigger than the other room. The layout is a little different because the closet is on the other side. So, I just put the furniture in here and moved it to make it look as much like was in his old room."
Tonks opened the closet and found it empty. She tapped her feet along the floor, looking for loose boards just in case. There weren't any. "You said you put a shatter proof spell on the mirror. Did he try to kill himself again?"
"No. That I know of," answered Oliver.
"I want to see the other bathroom and the terrace. I don't think I need to see your room," she said.
"This way, then," he said. They went to the bathroom and he opened it. "I had to get the glass repaired by ordering one from the landlord. He was pretty mad about it, too, but Percy paid me back for it later on."
"Why didn't you just use the repair spell?" asked Tonks as she looked at their reflection on the mirror.
"You have to see the terrace," answered Oliver. "Do you want to see it right now? It's still raining." She nodded and followed him down the hall. "I never went out there since that day." He stopped at the door and drew out his wand. "The spell is activated by just my voice. Alohomora." He turned the knob and he stepped out first. He led the way. "I found him here."
Tonks saw why Oliver had to order a new mirror. The repair spell wouldn't work unless all the pieces were all there. It was the dagger-like piece of the mirror, the same one that Percy had used to cut his wrist. It was just laying there. Watching the rain bead off it as it came down on them. It was virtually the same conditions the last time that Oliver was out on the terrace. Tonk crouched down and looked at her reflection for a moment. "Let's go back now," she whispered finally.
They stepped back inside and Tonks watched as Oliver placed the spell back on the door. "I understand now," she whispered as he turned to face her. "A part of you doesn't believe his dead."
"What makes you think that?" asked Oliver.
"Because of how you've kept things. You have his owl and you've kept his room open for him. I mean you could say that you haven't found another flat mate yet, but the fact that you kept the spells on the door and mirror. You just replaced the spell on the terrace and you've kept your promised with paying the medical bills. Yet, you won't take his whole bank account."
Oliver licked his lips as he looked away from her briefly, "I just want to make sure that he has something to come back to just in case. But after all this time, I just keep things the way they are out of habit. How do you know that he's not dead?"
"I don't," replied Tonks. "But no one does. We have to keep looking until we find him."
"What are you going to do now?" asked Oliver.
Tonks answered, "I'm going to get dry again and I think you should get comfortable because I have to tell you what I found out. I need you to confirm a couple things."
"I'll get some towels," said Oliver as he went to his room and grabbed two. He came back and handed one to her. "Let's get back down. We can get something more hot to drink."
The following morning Dr. White came as soon as she heard what had happened to her patient. She had to tend to him immediately, so she went there before she even had a chance to drop off her things. The orderlies from the nightshift had gone home, so the dayshift was already there. They opened the door for her and she found him curled in a fetal position. He had just woken up not too long ago.
"I heard what happened last night," whispered Dr. White as she ventured to touch him, but he flinched at her. Pulling her hands back, "What was that all about? What did you see?"
"Don't touch me," he muttered in response. "Just leave me alone."
"I'm here to help you," she whispered. "You have to tell me what you saw." She wanted to hold him and tell him that it was all right, and she was there to make sure nothing would hurt him. She couldn't even touch him. "I'll be right back. I believe you," she said as she got up.
She walked out of the cell and one of the orderlies locked it behind her. Dr. White turned to the other and asked, "I want to see the security tapes from last night."
"Dr. McCoy has them," answered the orderly. "He was here last night and he was the one who had to subdue the patient."
Dr. White angrily crossed her arms over her chest as she pivoted on her heel and stalked off. She couldn't believe that Dr. McCoy would still interfere with her work like that. She should have been called in the moment that it started rather than having them subdue him. She continued until she came to a stop at his office.
Dr. McCoy wasn't there. She stepped inside. "Dr. McCoy? It's Dr. White," she said as she stepped inside. "Where are you?" She wondered why he was at the hospital during the night. She didn't know that he was supposed to work the nightshift, too.
She glanced in either direction and stepped into his office, closing the door quietly behind her. Dr. White saw that his office wasn't as she had expected. She had expected him to have volumes of books, but there was only one incomplete shelf and his diplomas were hanging on the wall as one would have expected. There was a short filing cabinet, too. Something wasn't right either way.
Dr. White went to his desk and saw that there were video cassette tapes sitting on them. They were the same kind that security used to record things through the cameras. In fact, they were labeled and dated with the security codes on them. She didn't touch them, but she did take out a pair of latex gloves that she kept handy in her bag.
Slowly, she opened the drawers on the desk. There was silver flask in the last one with a set of test tubes and stoppers in the bottom drawer. She opened the flask to check what was inside. It was something that didn't smell very good. It was green and almost gooey. She closed the flask again and replaced it as she had found it. There was a funnel that was clean, but she was sure that Dr. McCoy was using it to pour the flask's contents into the test tubes. The oddest thing in the drawer was a velvet pouch that contained a lock of hair.
Come to think of it, it wasn't strange to see Dr. McCoy always returning to his office at any given hour to check up on something. She thought that it was the mark of an awfully busy person, but now that she thought about it was highly unusually. Most of the doctors would remain outside with patients for long periods at a time without returning to their offices for hours. There were times when Dr. White had seen him rush off some place, even if he had no place to go.
Dr. White opened the drawer above and started to go through it. It was the file on her patient. Dr. McCoy was keeping track of her patient. She glanced at the video tapes on the table and to look closely at the time intervals that security labeled. They were the same time intervals that Dr. White and her patient had been meeting along with the time and dates, there were section codes. The section codes gave the location of a particular camera. Dr. White couldn't be sure, but she was positive that those were the same times and places that she was meeting with her patient.
Anger began to surge in her as she opened the top drawer. There were more flasks and a book. She found a mixture of odd things: dried plants along with other things she couldn't identify. She read the title on the book, which was in Latin, Moste Potente Potions. She opened it up and flipped through it.
She gasped when she saw some of the pictures. They were some of people turned inside out and worse yet some were even animated. She carefully just flipped the pages along the edges, not wanting to do anymore than that. Finally, she had arrived at a page that was marked with a thick piece of leather. She read the name of the potion, "Polyjuice Potion." Her eyes read what the potion was for and then skimmed the list of the ingredients. It was the last ingredient on the list that caused Dr. White's eye widened: a little bit of the person who one wished to be.
Dr. White didn't have to go into the other drawer again because she knew that the lock of hair was the same as color as Dr. McCoy's. The realization began to sink in that everything her patient had been telling her had been true. He hadn't told her specifically about this potion, but if this were real, then everything else had to be true. She quickly shut the drawer as she felt her heart thumping against her ribcage. It was suddenly making sense. Everything was making sense, even if it seemed impossible.
She was about to turn the door knob to get out of the office, but just as she got to the door it swung open.
AN: This is the beginning of the end of this story actually. Dr. White will have to do some fancy moving after this as the story progresses towards the next and final arc. I urge anyone with good theories to post a review because it's fun to see if anyone has figured out what's going on.
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Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. This story belongs to me and cannot be posted anywhere else without my permission.