November 17, 1996. Hogwart's Castle.

Severus Snape had been summoned by the Dark Lord three days ago, and had only now been dismissed and permitted to return. He was so weakened by his treatment at Voldemort's hands that he was barely able to apparate to the borders of the wards that surrounded Hogwarts.Snape collapsed immediately after doing so, and like so many other times, picked himself up off the ground after an indeterminate length of time, and staggering and crawling, made his way to the Headmaster's office.

He summoned Madame Pomfrey, of course, who treated him for the Cruciatus, and other scarcely less unpleasant curses. She shook her head in silent disapproval as she did so. There was only so much punishment a human being could be expected to take. For the life of her, she did not know why Albus kept sending the poor potionsmaster back to that brute, Voldemort. She knew he had ways of hiding people from Voldemort, if he wanted to.

Snape's body quivered in pain as the curses were removed. There were several large bruises and cuts on him as well, indicating that either Voldemort himself, or one of his appointed minions had indulged in mundane physical, as well as magical forms of torture. Albus looked at it and guessed that it was probably either MacNair or one of the LeStranges. Though it could have been any of the Death Eaters, really. They all had a sadistic bent that was encouraged by the Dark Lord.

"What happened, Severus?" Albus asked. The punishment inflicted on the Potions Master was far worse than it had been for some time, which indicated that Voldemort was extremely displeased about something. It obviously could not be the discovery that Snape was a double agent, or the potions master would not merely be punished, he would be dead. Had he perhaps, found out about the Horcrux memories of his early years Albus had so carefully collected for nearly half a century? That would be very bad, and put not only himself, but young Harry Potter in extremely grave danger.

Snape looked up, slightly resentful that Albus could not even wait 12 hours, after he had had a chance to be treated by Pomfrey and get a little bit of sleep, to begin his interrogation. In his own way, Albus used him just as brutally as Voldemort did. He could not be too angry, though. If it were not for the headmaster, he would have long since felt the Dementor's kiss in some dark cell of Azkaban.

"The Dark Lord is furious, Albus." He told the headmaster, wincing as Madam Pomfrey swabbed some stinging sort of potion onto a cut on his arms.

"I can see that." Albus nodded sadly.

"I have not seen him this angry since he discovered what Lucius Malfoy did with..." He trailed off, glancing at Madame Pomfrey. "Did with the you-know-what three and a half years ago."

Albus crossed his arms and looked thoughtful for a moment. Madame Pomfrey said nothing at Snape and Dumbledore's references to things they did not want to speak about in her presence. She was used to it, and was probably safer not knowing about whatever it was they were referring to.

"What is he angry about. Has something similiar to what occured at that time happened again?" He could only be so lucky. He was nearly certain that Voldemort had made several different arrangements to preserve his life, and they would all have to be dealt with if he were to be killed.

"No." Snape shook his head. "We should only be so lucky. What happened was either a random attack by some madman, or more likely an overly enthusiastic auror. I don't know. Neither does the Dark Lord, or anyone else. But whoever it was, the Dark Lord is determined to find him. He wants him dead. Preferably in a painful as manner as possible."

"Wants who dead? Severus, you're not making any sense. What happened?"

Snape shook his head wearily. The Dark Lord had shown all his followers what happened, before interrogated all of them in a painful manner. It availed him nothing. It was not possible to get information from people about something they knew nothing whatsoever about. He turned back to Albus. "Some... maniac... for lack of a better word, carved up Rodolphus LeStrange like a Christmas goose. The Dark Lord showed us what happened. First he showed us LeStrange, who still looked like a peice of raw meat after the healers had been working on him for three days. Then he showed us LeStrange's memory in a pensieve. Albus, as much as it galls me to admit it, I do agree with the Dark Lord on one matter. The wizard who did this needs to die. Not as painfully as possible, but as fast as possible. He is an extremely dangerous man. Almost as dangerous as the Dark Lord himself."

Albus pressed his healthy hand against his withered one in a pensive gesture. "Knowing you as I do, Severus, I know that you would not say such a thing lightly. What did you see, that disturbs you so?"

Snape thought back to the gruesome sights the Dark Lord had forced all of his followers to see. He had promised great rewards to whichever Death Eater brought him back the wizard who had done this, and terrible things to anyone who failed to do so.

"Well, first of all," He began, "LeStrange was not carved up at random. The wizard carved a message into his back, and told LeStrange to go show it do Lord Voldemort."

"What did it say? Anything significant?"

"Well, that's the strange part." Snape said. "The message was meaningless. It said "Where is it?" Even the Dark Lord didn't know what it was supposed to mean. Where is what? It could mean anything under the sun."

"Very strange indeed. Why go to so much trouble to inquire where something is, but not specify what it is you are looking for. Unless the person you are speaking to already knows what you are talking about, or you believe that they should." Dumbledore mused. "But do go on."

"It gets weirder." Snape said. "This wizard did not use a knife, or any of the usual spells to cut up LeStrange. Instead he apparated strips of flesh right off his back..."

"Apparated them, you say?" Albus interrupted, pouncing on this bit of information like a cat on a bird.

"Yes, why, is it important?" Snape knew Albus well enough to know that the man had genius level intelligence and a broad range of information on a vast variety of subject.

"Quite possibly." Albus said. "I've heard of something similiar being done, once before, a very long time ago. Tell me more. Did this wizard do anything else involving apparating?"

"As a matter of fact he did." Snape said, fully aware that the Headmaster apparently knew far more about this matter than he was telling, in order to ask such specific questions. "According to LeStrange, he tried to cast the Avada Kadavra curse on this wizard, and he apparated right out of the path of the curse. Albus, I saw LeStrange's memory of it in the pensieve. He was drunk at the time, but not so drunk that he was hallucinating. I've never seen anyone apparate that fast at a moment's notice. Not even you."

"Indeed. I am a very powerful wizard in most regards, Severus, but there are those who are more skilled than I am in certain particular areas. Voldemort, for instance, knows far more about certain of the Dark Arts. So it is entirely within the realm of possibility that there may be those better than I am at Apparating. But do go on. Did he do any other apparating?"

"Yes." The potions master nodded. "When he apparated out of the pathway of the Avada Kadavra spell, LeStrange thought he had left permanently. Instead he had only moved a few feet, behind Rodolphus's back, and when Rodolphus tried to curse him again, he apparated the wand right out of his hand. According to him, the wizard apparated it to the center of the Earth, and threatened to Apparate Rodolphus there as well."

"Curiouser and curiouser." Albus mused. He was now quite certain that he knew where this wizard must have come from, or at the very least, had studied there. Thinking further, he thought that this might be the same wizard who had caused such a disturbance a few months ago, by mapping Hogwarts castle. If you were looking for something, and this wizard apparently was, one smart step to take in finding it was to get a map of whatever places you thought it might be. "You said before that you agreed with the Dark Lord that this wizard should die, Severus. Why is that? I hardly think it's because you feel sorry for Rodolphus Lestrange. And I don't think that someone deserves to die because they are good at Apparating."

"No." Severus thought back to Lestrange's memories. They had been damned hard to take. The nightmares he had gotten from them for the past three nights had almost been worse than the pain the Dark Lord had inflicted on him. Almost. "Suffice it to say, Albus, that this wizards particular skill at Apparating is among the LEAST disturbing things about him."

"Then there is more to this story? You must tell me everything. It is very important."

"Well, where should I begin." Madame Pomfrey had finished with Snape's back now, and silently guided him to sit up so she could treat a deep cut along his shin. "Perhaps I should mention that this wizard apparently attacked LeStrange in the first place, because he objected to the fact that LeStrange was in the process of torturing, raping, and killing a Knockturn Alley prostitute. Not necessarily in that order."

Madame Pomfrey made a disgusted noise at this, earning herself a sneer from Snape.

"So he rescued her. I quite fail to see why that is disturbing, Severus."

"You didn't see the penseive memory, Albus. I did. It's true he rescued her, but..." Snape trailed off, trying to think of a way to explain the matter to the headmaster. Despite his great wisdom, Albus could be remarkably naive about some things. "I've spent enough time with the most twisted Death Eaters to be able to recognize a sadist when I see one, Albus. And this wizard was a sadist, of the worst sort. He got, umm, physically aroused, at the sight of the prostitute being tortured. It's true he rescued her, but he also enjoyed what was happening to her, at least on some level. He was also aroused the entire time he was torturing LeStrange. I would say that he is as much a sadist as LeStrange himself."

"I see. He has a dark nature, but it seems he is fighting it. He did rescue the woman, after all, rather than hurting her. As for what he did to LeStrange, I'm afraid that as much as I would like to, I can't feel much sympathy for the man. Is there anything else?"

"Yes." Snape blinked for a long moment, recalling what was, in some ways, the worst part of LeStrange's memory. "There were his eyes."

"His eyes?"

"The eyes are a window to the soul, Headmaster. You taught me that. And this man's eyes changed, when he got angry at LeStrange. I saw them in the Penseive, Albus. They weren't human. Not any more than the Dark Lord's eyes are. They were different than the Dark Lord's. I've never really seen or heard of anything like them, before. But it wasn't good, whatever it was. This wizard has done something to himself, some sort of Dark Magic, as bad as what the Dark Lord has done or worse."

"Dear Merlin." The use of Dark Magic on onself was not good. It gradually ate away at the soul, eventually leaving nothing more than a ravening, uncontrollable beast that could only be put down like a rabid dog. It would happen to Voldemort, someday, though he would hurt far too many people first, before descending into mindlessness. Then Albus asked, though he didn't really want to know. "What did his eyes look like, exactly. Can you describe them?"

"I can't. There's no words..." For some reason he did not understand, Snape found himself crying. He wiped away the tears and forced them to stop. "I can only show you in a penseive, what I saw from LeStrange's memory. Perhaps you've seen something like it before. I never have. And I hope to Merlin I never do again."

"I think that the Pensieve can wait until morning, Severus." Dumbledore said. "Let Poppy help you over to the bed, and get some sleep. I think you've more than earned it."

"Yes." He leaned on the sturdy mediwitch as he hobbled to the hospital bed, which was quite large and comfortable enough to sleep on.

"Albus, there is one more thing you should know." He said as he lay down on the bed. "The Dark Lord told me to tell you all this, about LeStrange's memory and what happened. He still believes I am loyal to him, and wants me to give you certain bits of information in order to trick you into believing that I am working for you. He doesn't really care about you knowing LeStrange was attacked, it's hardly information that could be used against him. And he thought that if you knew about it, perhaps you would know something that you would tell me, and I could report back to him. He's determined to see whatever wizard did this killed, and will use anything to accomplish that goal, even information from you. Is there anything you want me to tell him next time I am summoned?"

Albus considered this. "Tell him that I am quite puzzled by the matter. Butter up his ego by telling him that since he knows far more about the Dark Arts than I do, if he does not know who this wizard is and what he has done to himself, there is only a slim likelihood that I would know it."

Snape bowed his head in silent agreement. The Dark Lord always enjoyed praise, and he could use Occlumency to convince him that it was sincerely meant.

"Just one more thing, Severus. When you were viewing LeStrange's memory, I assume this wizard spoke, since he told Lestrange where he had apparated his wand to. When he did, did he have an accent of any kind?"

Snape looked sharply at Dumbledore. How had the old man known that? It was frightening sometimes, how the Headmaster knew far more than he ever told. "Yes he did. A pretty thick one, too. An Australian accent. How did you know that?"

"A Gibsonite, then." Albus said, half to himself. "I thought as much."

Snape's eyes widened in realization. The wizards from the Gibson Desert in Australia were well known as the best Apparators, by far, in the wizarding world. They had to be. They apparated in almost all of their water from a few lakes hundreds of miles distant from where they lived. They were so good at it that one of their few exports were highly trained apparators to provide transportation services to other wizarding countries. "If that's true, then I can see why he would hate the Dark Lord and his followers. After what the Dark Lord tried to do to them. But if he is a Gibsonite, why would he ask the Dark Lord pointless questions? Why not just simply kill him, or at the very least, his followers?"

Albus gave a little smile, but said nothing, merely raising his healthy hand as he departed. What he had instructed Severus to tell Voldemort was not entirely a lie. Although he now was certain of where this peculiar wizard was from, and the wizards there were far less pleasant and far more given to various eccentricities and immoral practices than he would have liked, they were not generally given to overt violence, or practicing the worst forms of the Dark Arts, particularily on their own precious selves. That one of them should be a sadist who had corrupted himself to such an extent was, indeed, quite puzzling. This wizard was either a very evil, or a very desperate man. And the latter could be far more dangerous, to everyone concerned. He would have to request more aurors from the ministry, to help safeguard Hogwarts. And while he was at it, he would use some of his contacts in Knockturn Alley to locate this prostitute the wizard had rescued from LeStrange and get her somewhere safe, before Rodolphus recovered enough to hunt her down and finish what he had started.