Harry and Ron still hadn't stopped laughing by the time they had all apparated to their location. The D.E.A.D (Death Eater Arrest and Disposal) raids had thrown up some interesting clothing combinations; Minerva in Doc Martins and cut off jeans being possibly the most memorable. When the Dark Mark Tracer had pinged up a hit outside Amsterdam, they had all been about to head off on a picnic together (Hagrid's choice of how to celebrate his engagement to an outsized dragon tamer) and they decided that as they were all there and it was half term, they would all go. Hagrid stayed behind to meet Talitha and let her know about the change of plans. After rushing off to change into Muggle gear, they had gathered outside the school wards to apparate. It was Dumbledore's appearance that had precipitated the hilarity. He had never been on a raid before and from what they could gather from his choice of outfit, he had never had to blend into Muggle society before.
Dumbledore seemed completely oblivious to the giggling men. Hermione tried to hush them but the smirk behind the scowl seemed to hamper her chastising abilities. Dumbledore wandered away following the Dark Mark signal, orange kimono skirt flapping around the tops of his furry boots. The accompanying Hawaiian shirt clashed garishly pink against the tangerine skirt. He had rolled his beard up till it had the appearance of being an ordinary length, but two plaits hung out the back of his straw sunhat.
Composing themselves they followed in his wake. As Remus passed them he leaned in slightly to whisper, "This is Amsterdam you know!" As this was only met by bemused stares, he clarified, "He may not 'blend in', but he won't stand out either."
They came to a ramshackle building that reminded Ron somewhat of the Burrow, only more colourful. The place had obviously started out as a large but dilapidated house. At various times it had been 'added to', none of it necessarily in keeping with the rest of it. The main part of the house was painted with a cream peach base over the top of which had been painted Picasso style beasts from Muggle mythology. The original shutters had been replaced with wrought iron constructions that were comprised entirely of snakes and there were iron sculptures jutting out from random points all over the house. On the left side of the house a circular stone tower had been added, it would not have looked out of place at Hogwarts, here however it looked bizarre.
A large studio had been added onto the right side of the house, mostly wooden with a front made entirely of glass. The studio was filled with large scale paintings and sculptures of glass and metal. Dominant through the arched window was a three dimensional recreation of the Dark Mark.
Sirius cursed, "Shit. That is so blatant."
"Bit weird though," Ron put in, "I mean, you wouldn't put Art and Death Eaters together would you? If you tried to think what job a Death Eater might go for, you might think prison warden or psychiatric nurse or social worker but artist wouldn't spring to mind."
Hermione tutted loudly, "What about Damien Hirst? He was a Death Eater and an artist. He opened his exhibition of pickled foetuses and excretion murals on the same night that he slaughtered five families in Birmingham. The Aurors were still trying to get the Muggle government to release the foetuses to them to match them up to women who were believed to have been held in the dungeon at Malfoy Manor when the storage facility was burned down. That was the second time they'd covered up his 'art' with a fire."
"Oh. Yeah. Right." Ron decided action was probably better than musing and opened the gate. They all moved towards the front door, as Ron knocked loudly and moved back to stand with the others.
A small woman in paint stained overalls answered the door and smiled welcomingly. She had dozens of tiny multi-coloured plaits coming off her head in all directions, like a rainbow Medusa and had the look of someone who went on Peace protests. There was some humming and haing from the assembled Order members and much shuffling of feet.
"Hello? Can I help you?"
Dumbledore stepped forward and extended his left hand. The woman seemed nonplussed for a moment before extending her own left hand. Everyone could clearly see that there was no Dark Mark on her arm.
"We are looking for a particular person and we believe that they might live here. I wonder if you can help us dear? This person used be a kind of soldier, but they might not have told you this."
"Sure. If I can, but there's only my husband and I and our kids here. I'm an artist and my husband writes fantasy novels. Neither of us have ever been soldiers, Sebastian used to be a teacher and I've never done anything else for a living. Do you want to come in?"
"That would be most kind. Perhaps you know who used to live here. Have you lived here long?"
The Order followed the woman through to a large living room. They sat or perched on the odd collection of beanbags and sofas whilst she grabbed jugs of homemade lemonade and a stack of plastic beakers.
"I hope this is okay, we don't really have enough proper glasses for this many people."
"This is wonderful. Did you make this yourself?"
"Uh, no. My daughter Livia made it. She wants to be a chef, she's very good actually."
"How old is your daughter?"
"She's nearly eleven. Um, you wanted to know about the people who lived here before but I don't really know a lot. My husband bought the house before we met; it was a complete shell. Apparently it had been abandoned for about forty years. There had been squatters but we've been here for twelve years now. Sebastian bought it fourteen years ago."
"Just after the war," Harry muttered. Sirius nodded and Remus looked quizzically, he hadn't caught what Harry had said. The woman had though.
"War? What war? Oh, you mean The Gulf War? Is that where this soldier served then?"
Hermione attempted to move the conversation away from the war.
"This soldier is electronically tagged. We picked up the signal located in this house very recently – today in fact."
The woman frowned, "But nobody has been here today. Nobody at all, except the postman this morning."
"Perhaps your husband had a visitor that you were unaware of. Would it be possible to talk to him?"
"Of course. He just went to get some shopping, he should be back any minute. I'll go and ask the kids if they've seen anyone hanging around, they might have noticed something."
She headed for the large wooden staircase at the end of the room, she glanced back briefly.
"My name's Jude by the way. Jude Bezoar." Then she disappeared up the stairs calling for "Livia", "Alban" and "Zinia".
Minerva looked thoughtful, "Bezoar. That's a tad Wizardish for a Muggle family, don't you think?"
"Absolutely Minerva," smiled Dumbledore, "We do not, however, know anything about the family, so it would be unwise to make assumptions. Sebastian could be a squib, or a wizard who opted out into Muggle society. His wife seems to know nothing of wizard-kind."
Remus frowned, "Well, that isn't exactly true Albus. She has made a whopping great sculpture of Voldemort's calling sign."
"True true. It is possible that Sebastian is the one we seek. I am merely trying to suggest that we keep our minds open until we know anything for sure. Innocent until proven guilty and all that."
The front door slammed shut and a tall man came in laden with shopping. His long black dreadlocks obscured his face and he was facing away from the visitors as he dumped his packages on the long table that occupied the other end of the room.
His dreadlocks hung limply down his back over a simple green linen top. He was wearing patched over-worn wide legged jeans, scuffed and torn around the bottoms; he kicked off some well scratched boots and padded barefoot to the merchants chest bureau in the corner to pour himself a glass of cider.
They had all seen the Dark Mark, unobscured by the sleeves hiked up above his elbows. Tonks silently rose to her feet, wand in hand and edged towards the man. They all stood; Harry and Ron edged in with Tonks, Remus and Sirius moved in back up behind them. The man turned and dropped his glass in shock as he saw the Order members closing in around him.
"What the hell are you doing?" he shouted.
"Severus, my dear boy. How wonderful to see you."
Dumbledore pushed past the Tonks, flattening her wand back against her forcefully as he moved to grasp Severus in an embrace.
"Sebastian. My name is Sebastian now. Do not call me Severus. What do you want? Why are you here?"
Footsteps on the stairs heralded Jude's return.
"Ah Seb, you're back. These people came looking for some missing soldier, something about a tag and following it's signal to here. Apparently he's been here today. The kids haven't noticed anything by the way."
As Jude mentioned tags, Albus motioned towards Severus' Dark Mark, making quite sure that Jude didn't see him do it.
More footsteps on the stairs caused everyone to look round. Three black haired, wide eyed children met their gaze. They came tumbling into the room full of toothy smiles and excitement. The eldest girl spoke first,
"Hello, I'm Livia. Are you the ones looking for the soldier?"
"I'm Alban, I'm six and three quarters" started the boy, only to be interrupted by his little sister.
"I Zinya, I four," she declared proudly. Alban scowled at her, a perfect imitation of his father.
"Is the soldier dangerous? Does he kill people? Are you going to stay here and protect us? I can do kickboxing," he demonstrated, "I won a medal. But I might need help against this soldier guy 'cause Mummy and Daddy don't think you should hurt people, not even if they've been bad."
Livia nodded, "Mummy helps the people who want to ban the death penalty all over the world. She had "Love and Peace" painted on her car. We're 'hippies'."
Severus groaned and Jude fixed him with a quizzical look. He turned it into a cough.
"Jude. Why don't you take the kids out to get some ice cream and I'll see if I can help these people. Okay?"
"Okay. Come on kids, grab some sandals and sunhats." There was instant activity as the kids ran past her towards the front door, waving goodbye to the visitors. Zinia climbed on a chair to kiss Daddy goodbye and he wrapped her in a warm hug before kissing her and sending her for sandals. Jude kissed Severus/Sebastian as well,
"Do you want anything darling?"
"No, I'm fine. Have fun."
Looking concerned, she gently stroked a dreadlock behind his ear and kissed him again.
"Okay, back soon," and with a swish and a bang of the door they were gone.
Severus just stood there for a moment, not knowing what to do, then he gestured to the sofas and everyone returned quietly to the living room. He sat cross legged on the floor and poured himself a beaker of lemonade. He nursed the cup for a minute in the following silence before speaking.
"You followed some signal from the Dark Mark?"
"Yes," answered Tonks, "we found a way to track them. Same energies that Voldemort used to signal but without activating the Mark itself. We've tracked down a lot of Death Eaters this way and brought them to justice."
"Sent them for 'the Kiss', like they deserve," Sirius added.
Severus mused for a moment, "I assume that this is a mistake; you haven't come after me specifically?"
Dumbledore beamed brightly at him, "No Severus, we did not come for you. I am ever so pleased to find you well though." A little sadly, he added, "We did wonder what had become of you. After you disappeared..."
"I thought I was quite clear. I wanted to change my life and that is what I did. I came here to Amsterdam, changed my name, bought this house and started anew. What did you think I meant?"
"Severus, you tried to commit suicide."
There were a number of startled looks at this information, Ron and Tonks had known what had occurred but no-one else had been let in on the secret. Sirius looked horrified but remained silent.
"You were depressed, guilt and grief ridden, suicidal and you disappeared leaving all your belongings and a cryptic note that could have been interpreted as a suicide note. You broke your wand." Dumbledore's voice was breaking, uncharacteristically, with emotion. Severus looked up, stunned.
"Albus, I never meant for you to think that. I swore to you that I wouldn't kill myself, when have I ever broken a promise to you? Breaking my wand was supposed to be a sign, to show that I had left the wizarding world. I haven't done any magic for fourteen years. I live as a Muggle. My family doesn't know anything about the wizarding world. My wife only knows that I was a teacher in a private school in Scotland, I never expected to encounter anyone from my past. Never have in fourteen years, before now of course. Amsterdam doesn't have a wizarding school, so the children didn't need to know – there will be no letters flying through the window after they turn eleven. Damn."
The front door had slammed. The children sounded hysterical and Jude was trying to calm them down as she ushered them into the living room. Severus jumped up when he saw her face, she was plainly terrified and had a gash on one side of her face.
"There were these men, they looked like the Ku Klux Klan, only they were dressed in black – like executioners or something. They shot something at me, it it .." she collapsed in tears against Severus as he wrapped his arms around her. He shot an alarmed look in the direction of the Order. Harry and Tonks had already moved towards the window to check out the street outside. Albus held up his Death Eater Detector; it was glowing and humming.
"They had wands Daddy, like wizards in films" Alban cried. All three children had gathered round their parents, clinging close to the couple who were now sat on the floor. Severus tried to stop the bleeding from her cheek. Minerva had had enough, she pointed her wand and uttered the healing charm. Jude's cheek healed itself back up in moments. She and all three children stared at her, incapable of processing what was happening.
"Death Eaters. Four of them. They've marked the property in some way and then apparated. They obviously mean to come back when we aren't here." Tonks was bristling efficiency. "Severus, you and your family can't stay here, it's not safe."
"They will come to Hogwarts." Dumbledore declared.
Severus was furious, "We will not. This is our home. We can't be forced out by...by..." Words failed him, he didn't know what to say without sounding like a lunatic in front of his already frightened and confused family.
"Who's Severus?" Jude asked looking directly at her husband.
Severus sighed. Albus laid a hand on his shoulder and then sat down on the floor with them.
"Sebastian is Severus. There are things about your husband that you do not know. Things that you might never have known if we had not come here today. He didn't want you to know because he wanted a new life when he moved here. Unfortunately, these people have found him here and they will want to hurt you all, if not kill you. I wish I could make this easier, but Sev...Sebastian will explain more when we get to Hogwarts. You will be safe there."
"Hogwarts?"
"It is a school, in Scotland. Your husband used to teach there, I am the Headmaster."
"I thought you were with the army, looking for soldiers."
"The people who hurt you are the soldiers that we are looking for."