Whirlwind of Events
In the aftermath of the events in the shrieking shack rumours about what had happened quickly flew through the school. Ron had been seen hurrying through the castle with purple bruises around his neck. Later, glimpses of Ron, his neck healed, and two seventh year Slytherins were seen as they were escorted by two aurors through the castle to the headmaster's office. Hermione was observed going towards the headmaster's office, and when neither she, Ron the two Slytherins or Draco Malfoy were seen over the weekend the ideas about what had happened to them became more and more far fetched.
The additional absence of both DADA teachers was not initially commented on, since neither of them were usually in the castle over the weekends, but when a first year was overheard to say that on Friday evening she had heard Ron Weasley give Professor Lupin a message from Auror Tonks that Professor David was in the shrieking shack and he had immediately left not to return, the general consensus was that either Professor David or Draco Malfoy or both had been murdered. Opinion was divided as to whether the Ron and the Slytherins were responsible, according to the Gryffindors Ron had been framed, and according to the Slytherins he had framed Crabbe and Goyle. The Ravenclaws talked about polyjuice, noting the bruised and unbruised Rons who had been seen, but the rest of the school ignored them.
Rumours were circulating furiously at the Ministry as well. Three Hogwarts students were being questioned by aurors concerning attempted murder. There were rumours about rapes as well. Percy Weasley had been seen looking shaken and being fed sweet tea by one of his colleagues giving rise to the idea that his younger brother or sister were among the detainees. The panic alarm for the Minister's residence had sounded and Lucius Malfoy had been brought in, protesting loudly, by the aurors who responded.
While his colleagues collated evidence and tried to locate Narcissa Malfoy, Kingsley Shacklebolt went to Grimmauld Place and was introduced to Harry Potter from whom he took an unofficial statement about the events of the summer of 1995 to help with the interrogation of Draco Malfoy.
At breakfast on Monday Ron, Hermione, Remus and David reappeared at Hogwarts. Nobody involved would discuss the events of Friday evening, but the morning's Daily Prophet contained the information that three Hogwarts students had been detained by aurors 'on suspicion of serious crimes.' The arrest of Lucius Malfoy and the hunt for his wife were also mentioned and a connection was suggested.
After seeing the paper the headmaster made an announcement to the effect that Draco Malfoy, Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle were the students in question. He reminded the school gravely of the need to presume innocence until guilt was proven and asked informed them that some aurors would be present at lunch time to explain the situation and ask anyone with relevant information to come forward. He ended on a happier note by announcing that the new potions master would be arriving that evening, and if the sorting hat decided he was a Slytherin he would take over the housemaster duties too.
"He was recommended to me by a member of staff," said the headmaster, "and his qualifications are excellent. Once I heard that his first name was Severus I knew he was just who I was looking for!" The school as a whole seemed unsure how to greet this recommendation. Some looked shocked and horrified at such an arbitrary reason, while others recognised it as simply part of the headmaster's sense of humour and general eccentric nature and smiled indulgently.
David's students that day were a bit depressed and asked him several times if he could not remain as their teacher. The older ones pointed out that Professor Lupin had taught by himself when he had been their teacher four years before so he did not really need to teach DADA. David was touched that they liked him, but did recall that in comparison to the persona his father had used almost anyone would be better liked. He assured his classes that their new professor was better qualified than he was to teach potions, and even admitted that he had been teaching them several potions that he had never made before. None of them seemed to believe this even when he explained that he knew a lot of the theory behind potion making but had not much practical experience. He told them that Professor Antirrhinum was well known to him and eminently suited to the job.
His sixth year class recognised the name as being the same as one of the visitors over the Yule exchange and David confirmed that the new professor was David Antirrhinum's father. This seemed to put their minds at rest since they could not imagine that the friendly young man's father would be anything like Professor Snape. David heard several comments to that effect and had great difficulty not to smile.
After supper the staff gathered to induct their newest colleague. Since it could not be admitted that Severus had been a Hogwarts student when many of his colleagues would have had to have taught him, he had to be sorted again.
"You're up to something!" Remus sent telepathically to David as they watched Albus place the hat on Severus's head.
"I might have had a little chat with Alph," agreed David through the bond.
"Bribing the sorting hat to make him a Gryffindor?" returned Remus his amusement obvious.
"Interfering with the outcome of a sorting would be unethical," David sent back. "But I might have persuaded Alph to outline Father's Gryffindorish qualities and imply that he was a Gryffindor. The eventual decision will be unchanged. Besides, I have a sneaking suspicion that Father tried to interfere with my first sorting. He suggested that Alph push me towards Slytherin if I was a borderline case. I'm just returning the favour."
"I suppose Severus really is quite Gryffindor at times," mused Remus as he watched the man in question pale. "It would take great courage to spy as he did. He also gave up the chance to be Crimson Sire for years which would suggest a lack of ambition making him less Slytherin than he was at school."
"True," said David. "But if he doesn't come out as a Slytherin there'll be no living with him." Thankfully it was only a few moments later that the hat cried 'Slytherin' and a very relieved looking Severus handed it over to the headmaster. As part of his new character Severus had stopped keeping a mask up to hide his emotions making it much more fun to tease him since he would actually react. While his appearance had changed he had lost none of his intelligence and he glared at David as he sat down. David smiled sweetly back confirming his suspicions. Perhaps he could get the lad to scrub his cauldrons again. Yes, that was the answer; he could have the first years do some experimental brewing first.
David became extremely jumpy as Wednesday and his visit to Azkaban approached. On Tuesday evening Remus found himself considering physically tying him down just to get him to stop pacing and half an hour after they had retired to bed he snapped and gave David the ultimatum of drinking a sleeping draft or returning to his own rooms so that at least one of them would get some sleep. David looked at him for a few moments and then apparated away.
The next morning David did not show up for breakfast. Remus was not too surprised since he knew he had left Hogwarts the previous night and there was no reason for him to return until after he had been to Azkaban. As it was he was glad David was absent since it meant that he did not hear Remus's exclamation when he opened and read his post. The letter was from the werewolf registry office in the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. Remus and David had visited the office over the Christmas holidays to register their intention to marry. They both had to be interviewed to prove that David was aware of Remus's status and was not being coerced into anything.
The elderly witch who had conducted the interviews was sympathetic. She assured them that the interviews and application forms were a mere formality and that she would be sending her recommendation that approval for their match should be given. They just had to wait for the official letter from the department head before they could actually hold the ceremony. The letter had still not arrived, instead Remus's post was a notice of a new clause to the Werewolf Code of Conduct that would come into force on the 1st of April to the effect that werewolves would no longer be permitted to marry witches or wizards. The code already forbade them from marrying muggles due to muggles lacking any ability to protect themselves from a werewolf at close quarters. Due to this change the department would no longer be granting marriage permissions.
"What's up?" Severus asked Remus in a very unSnapelike way. Remus handed over his letter. "They're targeting you specifically," commented Severus when he saw the date. "I'll bet it was Umbridge who drafted the new clause. She caused Albus a lot of trouble when he found a way around her last law to enable him to employ you."
"How on earth do I break it to David?" asked Remus forlornly. "Were it anyone else we could just live together or have a muggle ceremony, but he can't do that in his position."
"Actually, this might be the rope to hang the Ministry with," said Severus. "If you look at it closely the clause does not apply to David." He pointed the word 'wizard' out to Remus and gave him a significant look and dropped his voice. "Technically he's not. I don't know why you even bothered to go to the registry in the first place; the rules didn't apply to you."
"After our engagement was publicised things would have looked odd if we hadn't," said Remus equally softly. "We also wanted to make sure that they couldn't claim we didn't notify them."
"Tell Viddy tonight," Severus advised, he had taken to calling David 'Viddy' since that was what his son supposedly called him. "He knows all the laws on the books backward bless his photographic memory. I'll be very surprised if he doesn't immediately list all the possible loopholes you can make use of."
Remus went off to his classes feeling only a little bit better than he had on first reading the letter. He was furious that Umbridge would target him like that, agreeing with Severus's assessment of how the law came about. He was also not convinced that the marriage would take place since there was over two months for her to come up with more laws to prevent it.
David, in his teenager guise, sat in a small wooden boat with Albus, Fudge and two aurors, the aurors just happened to be Kingsley and another member of the Order. He had made sure to cast a mild confundus charm on Fudge when they met that morning so that he would not connect Crimson with the young man he might have noticed across the great hall on Christmas Day. They crossed the North Sea and arrived on the Isle of Azkaban. Fudge had been keen to 'educate' the new Crimson Lord and had welcomed the opportunity to explain the justice system to him and show him around the prison. Justice was one of the areas the zia houses always took an interest in since part of their oath was to uphold the law. In this assessment Fudge was not entirely correct; zias were sworn to champion justice not the law. They were part of the checks and balances of society to keep out unjust laws.
As they approached the fortress David grew pale and shivered slightly. Fudge patted him on the shoulder in a fatherly way and commended him on his dedication to duty in personally inspecting the prison. They were greeted at the dockside by one of the prison wardens who they simply referred to as 'Warden.' The wardens of Azkaban, like executioners, were never identified by name lest ex-prisoners or their families try for revenge. The short visit Fudge had envisioned started to go wrong when Crimson requested a list of all the prisoners from the warden. When he was given the list Crimson asked specifically whether all the inhabitants of the island were on the list.
"Apart from myself and my two colleagues and the dementors that's it," the warden assured him. "From time to time we get an auror trainee on work experience but we've got none here at the moment."
They entered the prisoners' part of the building and Crimson stopped at the first cell they came to. He asked to talk to its inmate and when the warden opened the door he and Albus entered. Crimson produced a notebook, and to Fudge's disgust, a ballpoint pen, with which he took notes on the condition of the prisoner, Reginald Smith according to the list, and asked him some questions until it became clear that he was completely mad. As they passed each cell Crimson would check off the prisoner inside and make a brief note of his or her condition. If the prisoner was lucid he or Albus would pause to ask questions or exchange a few words.
By the tenth prisoner Fudge realised that the visit was not going to be concluded any time soon. He was torn between wanting to leave the dreadful place and a need to cultivate a concerned statesman image for the sake of his young companion. His cautious suggestions that they move on a bit quicker were ignored by both Albus and Crimson. In the end Fudge decided that although he usually made his annual inspection visit in the summer when the dreary place seemed less foreboding, he would count this in its place this year. The thought of it being at least eighteen months before he next had to set foot on the accursed island sustained him through the rest of their tour of the cells.
Several hours later Fudge was feeling decidedly hungry but the others showed no sign of stopping. He asked the warden about the possibility of getting some lunch when it was served to the prisoners and was informed that the inmates did not eat lunch. They received their nutritional replacement potions in the evening. "You sleep better if you've something in your belly," explained the warden. "I'm not heartless. Black suggested it when he was an inmate and it made them all a bit calmer and easier to deal with. I always said he shouldn't be in here you know…" He went on to list all the things he had noticed about Sirius while he was a prisoner and how nobody would believe him when he had said it did not make sense for him to be a murderer. Fudge tuned the man's ramblings out and tried to quell his growling stomach. He did not want Crimson to question why the prisoners did not get fed. He just hoped that he was right in thinking this was the last corridor of cells.
As it was none of Fudge's companions seemed to notice the lack of food. Crimson marked each prisoner off on his list and they were all accounted for. His rough calculation was that about half of them were currently mad, rising to nearly three quarters of those who had been there more than a year, although they might recover with treatment. He had noted that the cases of madness grew fewer as the day wore on. Since the dementors were away from the prison while the visitors were there to make their visit less unpleasant he hypothesised that the madness receded as the time since a prisoner's exposure to dementors increased.
As they walked down the corridor back towards the wardens' quarters Crimson paused suddenly and placed his palm against the grimy wall. He stood still for a long moment as if listening to something, before exchanging a significant look with Albus and turning to the warden. Crimson thanked him for his hospitality. "Are you certain there are no other prisoners or inhabitants on the island?" he asked looking deep into the man's eyes.
"Just me, my two fellows and the dementors," said the man.
"And the cells you directed us to are the only ones here?" pressed Crimson.
The man assured him that they were. "Really my boy," said Fudge patting Crimson's shoulder, "we've kept the warden and the dementors from their duties long enough. You've seen all there is to see and I look forward to hearing you considered view on the subject and I'm sure the prisoner's families will be grateful for any messages you take them, but it's time we were heading back to the mainland."
"Minister, to speak plainly I don't believe we've seen everything," said Crimson. "You might have noticed that I paused in the corridor? There's a hidden door in the wall. I want to know where it leads and what is being hidden behind it."
Fudge saw Albus was watching his reaction intently. He did not know what to say. He did not believe that there were any people hidden on the island, but now that he thought about it when he had approached the wardens about keeping Potter here without anyone knowing they had had no problem doing so. He had not seen Potter when he came for his annual visit during his incarceration. His mind turned to the possibility that there were other 'unknown' prisoners. There had been rumours of such people, dark prisoners he believed they were called, circulating through the Ministry every so often, but he himself had issued a statement that they did not exist. What if he were wrong? Could he afford to be proved ignorant? Or worse be accused of complicity? Would it be best to try to cover this up or to go in wand blazing and become the saviour of the unfortunates hidden below? A glance towards the now shifty-eyed warden confirmed that there were indeed people hidden away. Crimson left Albus to deal with the undecided Fudge and the warden and walked back to the door he had found. By the time he had forced it open the aurors had signalled for backup and joined him. They lit their wands and accompanied Crimson into the tunnel beyond.
"How did you know?" asked Kingsley a quarter of an hour later as he supported Crimson back out of the tunnel past the contingent of aurors who were pouring in to arrest the wardens and take over the running of the prison.
"I was one of them," said Crimson weakly. "I remembered where I'd been kept." Kingsley's grip on him tightened as he helped Crimson out of the fortress and into the open air. The cool air revived Crimson a bit. It also helped Kingsley who, had he had paler skin, would have looked decidedly green. Kingsley had a vague impression that the knowledge that Crimson had been a dark prisoner should mean something to him, but as he tried to remember what the notion slipped through his grasp. He thought no more about it.
"I didn't know," said Kingsley in self recrimination. "I should have known. I've heard the rumours. I've been here enough times. I've even interviewed some of the wardens as part of their performance evaluations."
Crimson flopped down on the rocks and looked out to sea. "It was hidden. You know now and you helped to reveal it and end it. There's no point dwelling on what might have been. Best not to think about what you saw either."
"How are you coping?" Albus asked Crimson kindly as he came up behind them.
"Not well," said Crimson truthfully. He was shaking violently despite his thick winter cloak and the windshield charm around them. "But I feel much better now I'm outside. Are they who we thought they were?"
"Of the twenty, eighteen are. I don't even recognise the names the identification spell produced for the other two. They may not be British nationals.
There was a shout behind them as a witch in auror uniform came running out of the fortress. "Auror Shacklebolt? We need you back here. Carter tried to kill one of the victims. Hart has him restrained but if he's in on this conspiracy then…"
Kingsley jumped up and ran back towards the fortress his queasiness forgotten as his training kicked back in. Crimson started to rise too but he was still shaking uncontrollably. Albus laid a hand on his shoulder and gently pushed him back down, then with agility which belied his age Albus sat down beside Crimson.
"When is the last time you ate?" he asked seriously.
"Supper last night," answered Crimson sheepishly. "I didn't think I'd keep the food down if I ate this morning."
Albus pulled a paper package out of his pocket and unwrapped the oiled paper to reveal a stack of sandwiches. He offered them to Crimson and then conjured him a cup of tea. The concept of eating, what turned out to be cucumber sandwiches, and drinking tea out of a fine boned china cup was too much for Crimson on top of everything else and he started to giggle hysterically. Albus simply encouraged him to drink his tea. As the calming potion which was obviously in the tea began to effect him Crimson considered idly that the Hogwarts house elves probably did not know quite what to do when asked for sandwiches. Sandwiches do not feature in the general run of cooked breakfasts, lunches, suppers and feasts, but the idea that perhaps fifty years previously the headmaster would have offered his afternoon guests cucumber sandwiches to go with their tea was feasible. They were not exactly filling but he guessed that that was not the point.
There was a muffled explosion behind them which did not bother Crimson in the slightest but had Albus back on his feet in an instant. Auror Hart came running towards them. "Professor Dumbledore? Auror Shacklebolt wonders if you'd lend us your expertise. There seems to be some kind of curse on the prisoners which prevents them leaving their cells alive."
"We'll be right there," said Albus and then he turned back to Crimson. "Come on lad, we're needed elsewhere. Stand up and come with me."
Crimson obediently went with Albus back into the dank tunnel Kingsley had recently had to help him out of. He did not even feel mildly uneasy and a very quiet voice at the back of his mind commented that Albus must have mistaken him for Hagrid when he dosed him. His mind was on how many Crimson sized people could fit in a Hagrid sized coat as he walked into the cells which had earlier affected him and a seasoned auror so profoundly. He did not even blink as he passed a couple of aurors cataloguing the jumbled remains of the man whose demise had been caused by the earlier explosion.
Crimson stood in the corridor humming slightly to himself as Albus talked to Kingsley as they both looked through the doorway into one of the cells. Albus drew his wand and started waving it around the doorframe and then after several minutes entered the cell and examined the prisoner inside instead. At length he reappeared and had another quiet conversation with Kingsley. Both wizards glanced towards Crimson as they spoke. In the end Crimson raised his hands in submission and Albus approached Crimson.
"Now my boy, I think you can help us with something," he said gently. "You'd like to be helpful wouldn't you?" Crimson nodded, yes, he would like to be helpful. "I want you to look at this doorway and these walls," explained Albus slowly taking him by the hand and leading him over to them. "Can you tell me if there are any magics on them?"
Crimson closed his eyes and reached out to the magical field around them. He could detect the field around each of the wizards and also the field the fortress was producing. He placed his palms against the wall of the cell to connect to the fortress's magic. After a minute of so he removed his hand.
"Lord Azkaban has not been talked to for years. He is very lonely," said Crimson simply.
"Has he been asked not to let the prisoners leave?" asked Albus as Kingsley looked at Crimson as if he had grown two heads.
"No," said Crimson firmly. "Lord Azkaban will not harm a human. He has been trying to protect them from the dementors but he was forced to allow the dementors inside."
"Thank you," said Albus and he led Crimson over to the former prisoner who was sitting wrapped in a blanket and talking to another auror. "Crimson, this is Mr Williamson; could you see whether he has a curse on him?"
Crimson nodded and knelt down beside the wizard, heedless of the blood and grime he was getting on his robes. "Please relax Sir," he said as he placed his palms a few inches above the blanket over Williamson's chest. "Sir, you have five active curses on you. There is one to ensure that you can only sleep for half an hour at a time. The second is keeping your blood pressure low so that you become dizzy easily. The third is disrupting your eyesight. The fourth will kill you if you leave this room without the caster. The final one has caused boils, er, in a private area. Would you like me to remove them?"
Williamson looked disbelievingly at Crimson and then questioningly towards the two aurors before finally settling on Albus. "Dumbledore?" he asked.
Albus instructed Crimson to remove the curses. Crimson in turn asked Williamson to relax and not to resist him. He replaced his hands and the muddy Crimson glow once more lit up the room. It was still muddy when he allowed his hands to fall. "Sir, you have several injuries. Do you wish me to heal you?" he asked Williamson.
"I'm sorry Angus," said Albus immediately, "but we need Lord Crimson to remove the curses on the other prisoners. He can do it more efficiently then the rest of us. Now that you can leave Auror Hart will take you off the island to a safe house where you can recover." He exchanged a few more words with the man and the auror helping him before leading Crimson from the cell. Auror Hart made to help Williamson leave the cell. He insisted that he would walk out under his own power and there was a collective holding of breath while he passed through the doorway. On seeing that he was unharmed Kingsley's scepticism was forgotten and he led Albus and Crimson on to the next cell to repeat the procedure.
Removing the curses took a lot of Crimson's energy. His method required the cooperation of the patient and these dark prisoners had learned to fear everyone they saw. They were weak but their wills were strong to have survived this long and they fought him as he manipulated the magic around them. During the interschool duelling competition Crimson had removed countless hexes and curses but the current conditions were less than ideal. After the tenth prisoner he was stumbling. He withdrew a dose of the revitalicorpus potion that he always carried but Albus confiscated it. He did not know how it would react with the potion Crimson had already ingested. The need for Crimson to remove the curses had not been foreseen. Given time Albus himself or one of the aurors who specialised in curse breaking would be able to do so but they had to know the specific counter curses. Crimson could manipulate the magic at the intention level and so he could remove them much quicker; the prisoners needed to be out of the fortress and in a safe house as soon as possible.
Kingsley had to almost carry Crimson between the last three cells, but fortunately in his altered state Crimson was extremely amenable to being hauled around and then told what to do. As soon as the final prisoner was able to leave Albus removed a piece of paper from the notebook Crimson had been using earlier and penned a note to whichever house elf found their master and placed it in Crimson's hand before activating his emergency portkey to take him to Lions' Den. Albus himself needed to stay and ensure the prisoners were safe and the investigation was started. In his current state Crimson could no longer help. He imagined whichever of Molly or Sirius the house elves contacted would have strong words to say to him about his actions, but at the time Crimson had been becoming hysterical and drugging him had been necessary. He also consoled himself with the probability that given Crimson's knowledge and paranoia he would have been aware he was being drugged and would not have taken the tea if he had not wanted to. Albus had not tricked Crimson; he would have known what was going on.