Deconstruction
Chapter Ten: Escape Plans
Dr. White stood frozen as she waited. She didn't get any relief because it was Dr. McCoy who had walked in. He had a startled look in his face, but recovered enough to ask, "What are you doing in my office, Dr. White?"
"I came here to see you," she replied. "I wanted to know what you did to my patient exactly."
Dr. McCoy looked at her suspiciously for a moment and asked, "You wanted to see the videotapes?" His eyes fell on the videotapes. It was a good thing that she hadn't touched them.
"Yes, the orderly said you had them," replied Dr. White. "I just got here and I was about ready to leave because you weren't here."
He gave a smile that gave her an unsettling feeling, but she tried as hard as she could to look as innocent as possible. It seemed like the pocket that her gloves were in felt heavier than normal. He seemed to look straight through her for a moment, but she strengthened her resolve as she stared back at him. The air hung heavily with tension around them. He closed the door behind him.
"I can tell you exactly what happened," he said as he offered her a chair. He went to his desk and sat down. "I would have called you last night, but with the storm, I thought that it wouldn't be safe or wise of you to drive down here. I thought that you'd be thankful that someone took care of it for you."
"And I am," said Dr. White accommodatingly. "Of course, I'm grateful that someone was looking out for my patient. It's just that it sounded like he caused a lot of trouble for the orderlies, and was such an inconvenience for you."
"It wasn't at all inconvenient," Dr. McCoy assured her. "However, I feel that I must express some concern I have for you. I know that I warned you before about your selection of patients."
"I only have one patient," said Dr. White. "I have to go and take care of some things." There was nothing more she wanted to do, but escape from Dr. McCoy and to assure herself that her patient was safe.
"I wanted to tell you," he said pausing briefly, "that you should be careful about how this is affecting you. I can see it."
"What do you see?" Her skin was starting to crawl, yet she kept herself still as he got to his feet. He went to the window and faced it. Then, he turned and looked at her.
"I think that you've over involved yourself with him," he whispered as he leaned in closer. "You're getting too close too quickly. You're young and he is taking advantage of your obvious inexperience."
"How would you know? I have everything under control." She froze again because he had come up from behind her. He placed his hands on her shoulders. She pressed her lips together as his lips came close to her ear. She drew a ragged breath. "Do you?" he hissed into her ear.
"From what I've seen, he's the one in control. It's so obvious. You've spent your entire life looking from the outside in. You're looking for a kindred spirit whether or not you're willing to admit it. You are so unaware of how deep you are. You'll drown before you know it. It's all him." His fingertips grazed along her cheek as her blood had gone cold. "I can see it. You're just letting yourself drift farther and farther away."
Dr. McCoy pulled away from her suddenly. "I'm just concerned about you, Gwen," he said in a friendly tone. "One might think that you have feelings for him."
She got out of the chair as quickly as she could without looking overly eager. She moved the side, so that he wasn't behind her anymore. "I appreciate your concern," she whispered as she started to back away from him.
"Oh my," he whispered, "it seems that I've over step my bounds. Is there anything else?" Dr. White shook her head and stepped back until the door was behind her. "Here let me get that for you." He reached and turned the door knob for her.
"Good day, Dr. McCoy," she said as she turned and made her way down the hall.
Dr. McCoy glanced at his watch and said, "Not a moment too soon." He closed the door and locked it.
"I guess Tonks must have been mad about being forced off the case," said Arthur as he looked at the package that Tonks had sent to Kingsley. They were all gathered at 12 Grimmauld Place after Kingsley picked up all the other files that were in Tonks' desk as well. Remus was present, but observing with his hands folded over his chest, looking almost impassive about the whole situation.
"It looks like she got a lot of things together," added Bill as he picked up the photo that Tonks had tacked on her cubicle wall. "But it's all a big mess."
Charlie leafed through one of the personnel file and stopped at the resignation letter. He read it out loud and added, "Short, but sweet. That's the most concise I've ever seen Percy."
Fred looked through the file on Penelope Clearwater, "Penelope Clearwater's been dead for over a year. Oh God." He closed it and looked a little green as he put the file down. "Why do Muggles take pictures of that sort of thing?"
"What?" asked George as he picked up the file and looked for himself. He saw the first picture and looked through the others. "Percy was the one who identified her body. He knew she was dead."
"What was going on?" asked Arthur.
Kingsley opened the other package that Tonks had sent him. He found the notebook and flipped through it. "I looked up the information on the other person in Penelope's file, Alistair Xavier. He's out of the country right now, and no one has seen him either."
"It looks like she took apart the puzzle before she let you play with it," commented Remus blandly.
Kingsley smirked at Remus' words and said, "Tonks gave me the notebook she wrote her notes in for the investigation." He looked through them. "She just wrote down what she had done after each lead and interview, but nothing else it seems."
"Maybe you should go back and ask her, if she knew anything else," suggested Remus.
Fred gave a sharp laugh. "After what Kingsley did to her, what makes you think that she'll be willing to say? She just left us what she had and told us to go through it."
"Maybe one of us should go and talk to her," offered Remus. "I could go and talk to her for you and see what else she found out."
"Penelope Clearwater was Percy's girlfriend in school, wasn't she?" asked Bill and he sighed. "Maybe he was in more trouble than we realize."
"And his other friend isn't anywhere to be found," added Charlie. "I mean if this Alistair Xavier and he are friends."
"What about Oliver?" asked Fred. "Didn't she interview Oliver? Where is that?"
Kingsley flipped through the notebook and skimmed the page, "She did interview him and there was nothing. He saw him on the last day, but nothing else."
What they didn't know was that Tonks had carefully chosen not to include the Oliver's personal file, which included the information about the bank vaults. It was mentioned that Percy had a bank vault, but she didn't include what happened to it exactly. "It doesn't say if he knew that Clearwater was dead," said Kingsley. He glanced at Remus and nodded, "You should go see if she's all right at least. I know that she didn't want to take any time off, but she didn't give me much of a choice."
"I'll be back as soon as I can," said Remus as he Disapparated out of the 12 Grimmauld Place kitchen.
"I didn't know that Penelope was dead," said Oliver quietly as he finished packing up some of his things. After what Tonks had told him last night, he decided to join her for the rest of the investigation. They were going to a different place for a while just in case.
Tonks also found out from Oliver that Percy had been seeing a psychiatrist at the recommendation of the doctors from the Muggle hospital. She wanted to do some research on the doctor before going off to meet her. So she nodded, and said, "Yes, but Percy must have kept it to himself. He didn't tell the Ministry either. By the way, what was the name of the doctor that Percy was seeing to help treat his depression?"
"I have her card somewhere," said Oliver as he looked through his desk. He was currently in his room, while Tonks ended up sleeping the couch. "I didn't really meet her, but I had it just in case. Percy was also on medication, some antidepressants. That's what the Muggles call those kinds of potions."
"Drugs," corrected Tonks. "That's what the Muggles call their potions. So, he was on medication. Did it do him any good?"
Oliver found the card and handed it to her. She was sitting on his chair that was in the room. She accepted and looked at it, "Dr. Maya Shah."
"I don't know if the medicine did him any good," said Oliver. "But, I don't even know if he took them, but he refilled his prescriptions when they emptied, so I guess he was. I think it was the sessions with Dr. Shah that helped him the most." Tonks gave him a questioningly look as he continued, "At first he was only seeing her once a week, but eventually he started seeing her three times a week towards the end."
"Are you also trying to pay those sessions?" asked Tonks. "Muggle medicine isn't cheap, especially the services of a talking healer like Dr. Shah."
"Percy paid her for each session," said Oliver. "It was the hospital bill that was big to start with."
"Good point," said Tonks. "By the way, do you know any good defensive spells?"
Oliver nodded, "Yeah. I do. Why?"
"Because know that for the past couple of years the teachers of DADA in Hogwarts haven't been permanent, so there must have been a lot of switching around."
"Funny, you should say that because Percy felt the same way in school. He used to have advance DADA books and even some dark magic spell books. He started going through those in our last year."
"Really?"
"I think he decided to do that after he found out that his sister was almost killed in the Chamber of Secrets, but sometimes he and I would do some of the spells in the books. He spent more time with Penelope talking about it though."
"Did he have those books by any chance? I saw an outline for a bookshelf in his room."
Oliver nodded, "Yeah, he had lots of those books. I don't know, but I think he sold them to a second hand shop and put the money into his vault. Come to think of it, he had lots of books. Some rare ones for potion brewing, transfiguration, and charms, but the majority of the books were about defense."
Now, that was fascinating to Tonks because she herself had made the comment earlier about the fact that Percy's background was perfect for someone who wanted to be an Auror. He even continued his education after Hogwarts. "Did he ever brew potions at here?" she asked.
"I wouldn't really know. I wasn't here that often until after he tried to kill himself, so I'm not sure," answered Oliver. "So, you're expecting some trouble from the other Aurors."
"Maybe," said Tonks.
"Then, we'd better get moving before they realize what's happened," suggested Oliver. "I'm ready if you are."
"Then, we should move along."
Dr. White went back to the cell where her patient was after she had taken care of some preparations. The orderlies were making other rounds, but she flagged one down to come down with her to her patient's cell. "Are you sure you want to do this?" asked the orderly.
"Just open the door," ordered Dr. White. She swallowed as the orderly opened the door. She walked up to him. "I'm going to take you to the infirmary to see if you have any injuries from last night," she told him as soon as she was inside his cell. "Please."
"I don't need any help," he murmured as he remained curled up.
Dr. White came down close to his ear and out of the earshot of the orderly at the door, she whispered, "You need to get out of here. Dr. McCoy isn't what he seems. I believe you, and I need you to trust me now." Her patient looked more alert. She turned and ordered the orderly, "I need you to get me a wheelchair, so that I can take him to the infirmary." The orderly nodded and left.
"I don't know if there is a Dr. McCoy, but that man there isn't him," whispered Dr. White. "I can't tell you how I found out, but we need to get you out of here."
"How do I know you're not lying?" whispered Percy.
"Because you know me," retorted Dr. White as the orderly came back with the wheelchair. Dr. White got to her feet. "Let's take you to the infirmary now. I'll take care of this." Her patient got to his feet and took the wheelchair. "Don't worry. We'll be fine," Dr. White assured the orderly as they walked out of the cell. The orderly locked the cell door behind them.
Dr. White wheeled him down the hall towards the infirmary, which was empty. There was a nurse there and she greeted them with a smile. "Is there anything wrong?" she asked immediately with concern.
"I just need to look over my patient after last night," explained Dr. White. "I don't need any help, but would you mind going and pulling his file, please? I need to make sure he's not allergic to anything."
"Sure, anything you'd like, Dr. White," agreed the nurse and she left.
"We don't have much time. The only thing I can do is make it so that you get out of here," said Dr. White.
"What were you saying about, Dr. McCoy?" he asked again.
"I looked through his desk. It was pretty stupid and pretty dangerous. He had a bunch of vials and a flask. There was a pouch of hair that was the same color as his."
"Was the potion in the vial kind of green?"
Dr. White nodded. He looked around and held out his hand. He narrowed his eyes and Dr. White heard a distinctive click. "Did you just do magic?" she whispered.
"Not exactly," he answered. "It will keep the nurse out for a bit, but not much. She'll probably think the door's stuck." He was breathing hard. "It wasn't all in my head. She was right."
"Who?"
"My last doctor."
"Your last doctor?"
He held up his hand and shook his head. "I'm not going to indulge any of your questions right now, Dr. White. You were saying that I needed to get out of here, so do you. What are you going to do?"
"I was going to say that you needed to go to another hospital for treatment because of injuries from last night."
"Good," he said. "You'll come with me."
"All right."
The nurse came back and tried the door handle. He held up his hand and the door opened the second time the nurse tried the knob. She nearly tripped inside and gave Dr. White a startled look. "Here's his file," she said.
"Thank you," said Dr. White. "However, I would rather have him go to one of the local hospitals for a more thorough check up."
"I think I can handle it."
Dr. White shook her head and insisted, "I'll take care of the arrangements. Don't worry about it, Vanessa."
The nurse shrugged and said, "Whatever you'd like, Doctor. Besides, I do have other patients to attend to. Would you like to use the phone here?"
"Thanks," said Dr. White as she picked up the phone and started to make the arrangements.
A couple of hours had passed when Tonks returned to the safe place that Oliver and she were staying at. He had spent the good amount of time just trying to go over what Tonks had to see if he could fill in any of the blanks. When she came back, he had a set of notes of his own written out. He wasn't sure how to really do it, but it was close to what she was doing.
However, along the way, he got bored. He still had Dr. Shah's card among the notes that Tonks had left behind. Oliver decided to play detective for a while himself, but he had never ventured so deep into Muggle London. But, if Percy could do it, so could he. So, Oliver decided to find a map, which wasn't too hard to find.
It turned out that the safe place that Tonks had picked was in Muggle London. Her father owned it, but not a lot of people knew that. She had left Oliver by himself to go and check out Dr. Shah. She also had to look up Alistair Xavier. He figured that she was never the type of person who just jumped into a situation. However, Oliver was the opposite and he didn't want to keep sitting around doing nothing.
Oliver decided that he would talk to Dr. Shah himself and establish a repertoire with her before Tonks could. He set out after taking a look at the map of London that Tonks looked at earlier. He decided to go by foot because he didn't have any Muggle money, and he really wanted to go exploring.
After forty minutes of wandering about, Oliver found the offices of Dr. Shah in an upscale neighborhood. The building was almost indiscreet, so people wouldn't know that it was an office for treating the mentally ill. He took a deep breath before, he opened the door.
A secretary greeted him and he asked to see Dr. Shah. To his surprise, she was very accommodating. She wasn't a very tall woman and she wasn't very old either. She looked like she was in her mid-thirties. "You wanted to speak with me, Mr. Wood?" she asked in a welcoming tone. "I have some time in between appointments. Please a seat."
The room had two armchairs. The one opposite Dr. Shah's was empty, so Oliver sat down. "You know me?" he asked.
"Yes, I do. I was wondering when you would come to see me," replied Dr. Shah.
Oliver felt a little uncomfortable, wondering if Percy felt the same way. "You were expecting me?" he asked.
Dr. Shah nodded and gave him a gently smile. "Percy said that you would come eventually looking for him." Oliver gave her a puzzled look as he shifted a little bit. "I'm not at liberty to give away what he said. In my profession, I have to protect the privacy of my patients, so much so that the laws protect that right."
"Then, you can't tell me anything?"
"I didn't say that, but I can tell you what he wanted you to know. All you have to do is ask the right question first."
Oliver let a minute past as he thought about which question mattered the most. Then he asked very simply, "Is he alive? Is Percy alive?"
AN: This is turning out to be quite a mystery if I do say so myself. We still don't know why Percy is the way that he is currently. The next chapter should open answer some questions, but I left an opening for Kingsley to be able to catch up with Tonk easily. That won't last for long. Who is Dr. McCoy really?
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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.