Chapter 8: Into the Dungeons

Days began to flap past at an alarming rate as Derek had come to one last decision that he needed to make. It was unfortunate that this one was the one that would decide whether he lived to see twenty… or nineteen… or worse. A very delicate question that required a very delicate answer. Unlike the first question that Derek had finally answered when faced with a furious pureblood witch raising hell after her son… he didn't have three years to answer this one. This one was a now or never proposition with a huge time-bomb on it, fully ready to explode.

A time-bomb that had a clear label gleaming on the front of it:

August 31st, 1977

"Aaah!" Derek gasped, thrusting himself into an upright position. He groaned. Why had Sarah told him about time-bombs? He would never be free of that vision again, he knew. He only hoped that he could get some other dream from time to time.

Derek threw off the covers of his bed and began the routine that he had always done in the morning this summer, ending with being dropped off by the Knight Bus in front of the Leaky Cauldron. He made like to go inside as usual, but when he heard the tell-tale BANG of the Knight Bus departing the street, Derek abruptly turned to head down the crowded Muggle street.

Knowing how to blend into a street full of muggles had been a matter of pride for the Fugue family, and prided themselves in the best spells and enchantments to keep Muggles in the dark about wizarding activities. Naturally, there was also a huge wardrobe of muggle clothing in the Manor, and each Fugue was brought up to know how to hide among Muggles when necessary. Upon reaching age, they were taught the secret spells of the clan… but that had not yet occurred for Derek.

So Derek's slacks and light blue collared shirt painted him as going to a slightly above casual affair, and no one paid him any notice. This, of course, also had something to do with the charms on the clothing itself. Derek had a small collection of real muggle clothing. Everything else just was spelled to transfigure into whatever clothing was needed by the wizard at the time. Derek would make his own clothes when the day came that his parents taught him the spells.

If they taught him the spells at all.

It was about a six minute walk from the Leaky Cauldron to the Spinner's Web. It was a bright little place, especially just as the lunch rush was coming into full swing. Thank Merlin it was a Thursday, or it possibly would have been impossible for the meeting to have taken place as planned. But, be it the day of the week or some other reason, there was no hitch in the plan. Derek was able to walk right in, and after looking around only once, found his brother giving a casual wave from one of the booths. Derek moved to join him.

Derek slid into the opposite side of the booth and looked at his brother. Theo had not wasted the past years, it seemed. He was a muscular one… A man at this point, he was… nineteen… wow, it certainly had been a long time. His brown hair was cut short, cropped to less than an inch, and the glasses did not detract from the overall impression that it did not matter that he was a Squib. He could take you out with his bare hands. Derek found a glimmer of happiness that Theo had been able to fill his years with something.

Derek ran a hand through his wavy brown hair. Not that anyone really thought it was wavy; it never did anything that was recognizable. It would lay flat from time to time, but Derek liked it in its perpetual half-curly half-wavy state more than he did it flat. Unlike his brother, he was in no way buff. He was a skinny kid, with freckles specking his cheeks and nose. Not the bright freckles associated with redheads, but the dark ones that looked more like paint splotches.

But none of that mattered. Both of them smiled at each other, and it was Derek who found his voice first. "It's been so long…"

Theo nodded, his smile fading. "Too long… After I had been gone for a year, I thought that you would never get the guts to contact me. I thought you had fallen too far into the blood knowledge that they kept so tight to themselves…"

Derek shrugged. "You were right, at the time."

Theo leaned in. "What changed your mind?"

Derek also leaned in. "You'll never believe me."

Theo barked once. Derek recognized it as laughter after a moment's thought. "Try me."

"A mud-" Derek coughed. "A… muggle-born witch," he amended quietly. "It's hard to not use that word…"

Theo blinked, and then leaned back in the stall. "It's hard to come back to everything in that world when I haven't been a part of it for so long…"

Derek nodded. "I wouldn't know, but I imagine so." Theo merely nodded, and Derek took this as an indication that he should continue with his story. "Anyway… it started in Third year, when we saved each other's lives. She saved me from a rather…interesting…predicament."

Theo nodded again, and Derek launched.

Rain was obviously coming down from the sky, and it was fun to watch. As a bonus in the Great Hall, Derek did not have to worry about the drops actually striking his face. It was an enjoyable way to pass time as he waited for dinner to end. He wasn't doing anything wrong, and he wasn't doing anything that would anger anyone around him. There was no disadvantage to the activity. Derek took a sense of pleasure from the fact that no one could berate him from what he was doing. What he was doing was his and no one could do a thing about it.

The cue that he was waiting for finally came as Dumbledore and the rest of the staff rose to leave the Hall. On cue, all of the students left in the hall stood and followed suit. Derek was no exception, and he tagged along the end of the group of Gryffindors as they headed in a large mass up to Gryffindor Tower. Near the back happened to be the Third Year girls, who were talking in low voices about something. Derek really didn't care what, but it often made things less boring when he could hear their conversation, no matter how mundane it was.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, Derek found himself pulled aside between two of the suits of armor, and a hand was clapped over his mouth. He let out a shrill yell, but it did not last long, as his captor quietly muttered "Silencio" behind him. He tried to move, but then he was hit with a full-body bind. Derek was forced to wait for his captor to do something. After some time had past, Derek was never sure how long, he was hauled out from the hiding place and was being floated back down the stairs, and further down the stairs when they came to the great Foyer. Into the Dungeons.

Once down in the dungeons, Derek lost count of the amount of turns that his captor had made sure that they had made. He was completely lost, and that was probably his captor's intention. Derek knew that the traveling part was over when he was floated up right next to one of the dungeon's walls and stopped moving. He suddenly collapsed in a heap, and he felt desperately for his wand.

"Want this?" a cold, silky voice asked behind him.

Derek turned quickly to find himself face-to-face with seventh-year Narcissa Black, her sister Bellatrix and Severus Snape glowering in the background. Narcissa seemed to be the leader of the whole outfit, while Bellatrix was the one waving a second wand in her off-hand. "I don't think we'll be returning this, blood-traitor," Bellatrix continued, looking like a cat who was not about to kill the mouse in front of him… but only because that meant that it would no longer be a fun toy. "After all, you might be tempted to use it against those who are better than you."

Derek did not speak, but instead let out a low growl. "Oh?" Bellatrix looked absolutely delighted. "Does little Fugue want to play?"

Derek's heated glare was fixed on Bellatrix's face. "I've never had impure thoughts about blood, or you. Now will you tell me why you felt it necessary to capture me? Or will you be killing me for something that I never did?"

Narcissa was the one to respond, and it was this more than anything else that caused Derek to recoil to the wall. "You never did?" she spat, her wand trained on him, "if you haven't done anything wrong, why are you in Gryffindor? Why aren't you in the noble House that is dedicated to the blood that you taint within your veins!" As her voice progressively rose, Derek got progressively closer to the wall.

"I… I don't know…"

"Not good enough! Furnunculus!"

Derek let out a shout as boils began popping up all across his face, and he barely restrained another shout as boils began popping up everywhere on him. The pain was burning him, and it was all he could do to keep himself silent.

"Ready to tell us, yet?"

"I told you! I don't know!" Derek bit back the pain, and only let out a moan from the effort that he had exerted. He felt a flash of pride.

"You think we believe that?" Derek's head shot up to look back at Snape. "That idiot 'Black' and the other moron Potter have their own reasons to be in Gryffindor. They are the epitome of blood traitors. That's all you can ever say about any pureblood in Gryffindor…"

"No…" Derek whispered.

"What?" Bellatrix snapped, raising her own wand to join Narcissa's that was already pointing at Derek.

"Tha-That's not true… I'm no-not a blood traitor…" Derek coughed.

"Incarcerous!" Narcissa shrieked. The ropes that bound Derek rubbed against the boils, and this time he could not help but scream. Bellatrix's angry demeanor faded as she enjoyed the sound. Narcissa simply looked like this was normal, and Snape had no readable reaction at all.

"Scream all you want," Bellatrix told him, her smile not at all reassuring, "No one can hear you down here."

Derek was laying on the floor of the dungeon, the ropes binding him tightly. He was bleeding in several places, and he could feel his robes dampening. He felt his mouth was full, and he spat to clear it. He didn't look at what color the spittle was.

"What do you want from me!" He gasped at them.

"Your life," Bellatrix replied, raising her wand once again.

Narcissa pushed it down. "No. We want you to renounce your House. We want you to become a spy against the Mudbloods and Muggle-lovers that populate the place where you sleep. The place that taints you. Maybe you can be of use, instead of being a piece of slime on the bottom of Potter's boot."

Derek spat again, coughing. "And why do you want that?"

"A new age is rising, Fugue," Snape said quietly. "An age where we will have the chance to rid the world of the muggles and muggle-borns that are plaguing the halls that great Slytherin built. If you can help us, I imagine that he will reward you."

"He?" Derek asked, "Who are you talking about?"

Narcissa opened her mouth as if to answer, but then something happened. There was a flash of some sort of light, and the next thing that Derek remembered he was rolling out of the uncomfortable position that the ropes had bound him in, and the ropes were gone. His eyes wandered the space above him, wondering what had just occurred.

Am I dead? He asked himself. But it seemed that that was not the case, as there were faces that were swimming into view above him. He could hear voices discussing things just beyond the range of his senses.

"Goyle must…warned…"

"Get…Hospital Wing…just in time…"

He felt people moving him, and heard himself scream before he remembered nothing more.

"How did the witch you were talking about work into that?" Theo asked.

"When I woke in the Hospital Wing the next day, she was coming into the Hospital Wing to see me. When she noticed I was awake, she smiled and walked over. Before the Nurse noticed that I was up, she told me that she was glad that I was awake, and that we would talk. It wasn't then that she told me that she was the one who had told the staff that I was gone, but I figured she had something to do with it."

Theo nodded. "And you say you saved her life too?"

Derek also nodded. "Yes, though it was a little later before that happened. She had been out on the grounds one night, brooding because of one of the recent Muggle-killings had hit very close to home to her. At the time we didn't know anything about this 'Voldemort' character that has suddenly made the news these days, but the killings were just as real…"

Derek had just retired to his dormitory for the night, and he dropped his bag into a heap that had accumulated next to his four-poster. He flopped onto his bed, thinking about the past few weeks since the attack. Narcissa had lost her prefect status and been placed in a weeks-worth of detentions, while Bellatrix and Snape had received a few detentions each because their involvement had been minor. Derek snorted to himself. If only they would be sent to Azkaban…

He didn't feel tired, but he didn't want to have to deal with the Marauders, who had decided to take up most of the space in the Gryffindor Common Room. He settled for a look out onto the grounds. The vantage point from Gryffindor Tower gave him a sight of the hut of Hagrid, and a little bit of the lake. Beside Hagrid's hut was the figure of the groundskeeper himself. He was rather hard to miss. But next to the lake was a figure of much smaller stature. A figure that could be missed.

It was Lily Evans.

Derek had to do a double take to make sure that it was her, and not some other third or fourth year. Once he had realized who it was, he remembered her reaction to the Daily Prophet that morning. With each morning came new killings, and yet no one yet knew who or what was behind it all. When the Mark was found… Lily had read about the latest victims, but instead of informing the rest of the table about it, she paled and ran from the Great Hall in a fright.

The girls had exchanged looks and gone after her, while the Marauders had snatched up the paper and read it through. They all looked thoroughly confused by the whole thing, save Remus. He paled a bit, though Derek had to really be studying his face in order to see it. Derek had simply made note of it, and now the memory was coming in handy. A Fugue always pays his debts. He left the dormitory and sauntered through the Common Room, somehow dodging ridicule. He left the Tower and headed out to the grounds.

When he got to the outside air, he understood why Lily had chosen the lake as a good place to muse. The night was cool and clear, with the bare whisper of a breeze that just barely teased the wisps of brown hair Derek had as he hopped down the steps. However, when he got to the bottom, he froze. He saw three familiar figures that were heading toward Lily's hunched form near the lake. What was that about debts? He asked himself as he hesitated, not knowing what to do. Suddenly, his eyes swung to Hagrid's hut. He knew he was there…

As soon as the decision was made, he sprinted to the hut, casting looks in the direction of the other four students on the grounds. He reached the door and knocked. He heard that boarhound that Hagrid kept start barking and Hagrid appeared in the immense doorframe a second later. "What can I do ya fer?"

Derek, panting from his run, simply pointed to the lake where the three had almost reached Lily, and she still had no idea. Without another word, Hagrid bounded out of the hut and across the grounds toward the figures. Derek ducked around the side of the hut, peeking around the side as he watched Hagrid sprint after the three. Derek was happy when he saw Hagrid bodily fetch the three of them at the same time and carry them back to the castle, despite the protests and exclamations of his victims. Lily simply looked up, and Derek was too far away to see her face. When Hagrid was gone, Derek headed over to Lily, who had not moved.

When Derek sat down next to her, Lily reacted, sharply turning her head to face him. Derek shook his head. "I'm not hear to hurt you. You know we're even now?"

Lily blinked. "What?"

"I told Hagrid about those hooligans coming after you out here. I have a feeling they wanted to do something other than chat."

Lily's head returned to regarding the scenery on the opposite side of the lake. "I see…"

"You should come back to the Tower, Lily, it's getting late."

Lily didn't reply, but when Derek rose, she rose with him. They both walked up the winding path to the Castle and then the same path up to Gryffindor Tower. Side-by-side, neither one minding the other. When they reached the Fat Lady's portrait, Lily grabbed Derek's arm as she stopped, and Derek stopped and turned to face her.

"You're a better person than they are, Derek," she said simply.

"I don't know about that," was his only reply.

"And that's what started it all?" Theo asked after Derek had been silent for a time.

"Yeah. It's taken me two years to get to the point where I can actually come to accept that I'm… different. All the things that our parents said not to be, in order to not end up in the same boat as you, I am beginning to do. I'm different than they are… I don't hate you because you're a Squib… I hate myself for not contacting you sooner."

"No worries, brother. It's not exactly an easy task to disagree with our parents."

"Especially not since they joined up with that 'Voldemort' character…"

Theo suddenly clasped Derek's wrist, and Derek was so surprised at the movement that he had his wand pointing at his brother before he had even thought about what was happening. "You aren't… joking…?"

"No…" came Derek's cautious reply.

"Then this may be harder to fix than we had originally thought. The penalty here isn't banishment anymore, brother, it's death."

"I know. They relayed it as much."

Theo slowly released Derek's wrist. "This… I don't think I can help you with."

Derek felt his heart sink. "I thought…"

"Remember, Derek, I had no choice in the matter. I can only tell you some things about surviving banishment. I can't tell you anything about trying to avoid death by your parents when you aren't yet of age."

Derek sighed. "Will you at least keep in touch?"

Theo nodded and reached over to squeeze Derek's shoulder as he rose. "I will. Just don't let our dear mum and dad know, or your death will come much faster. Goodbye, Derek."

"Goodbye, brother…"

After a few minutes passed, Derek whispered. "…What has my life come to?"