Rats and Recoveries.

Her room in the Leaky Caldron was more welcome than the Sewer, but in the quiet, all she could do was reflect on everything that had happened. She thought about Avery's compulsions, puzzled over Severus' friendship with him. She thought about the Carrows and how easily they had forced her to do something so terrible. She thought about the werewolves and the Americans and tried to figure out if they were working together, and she planned her raid on the Ministry.

Despite all the things going round in her head, she slept well and in the morning Mundungus met her in the bar by the fire. "I ain't saying anything in here," he told her. "But I've got something tasty."

"Brighton?" she asked. "I'll side-along us."

"I do like the seaside."

They went out back and Arundel apperated, then they walked along the windy seafront past the Hilton and then stood next to the railings looking out to sea. Mundungus drew a map from his pocket and gave it to her, "Accurate as I can get it."

She opened it and saw a blank piece of paper. "How do I use it?"

"Tap it and say, A've a butchers at this Barny Rubble. Just fold it up to put it away."

Arun did as told and across the page a spiders web of a map appeared full of scribbles and snippets of information. "You have been busy."

"Getting in will be the hard bit, you can't apparate and if you take the flu it tracks your magical signature, the Department of Mysteries is down on level nine. Weird place, all black tiled apparently, only one way in and badly lit. Then behind that is some kind of room that will disorientate intruders. We couldn't find out more than that about it. The Unspeakables don't speak much."

Arun folded the map up and put it in her pocket then leant over the railings as she thought, "Find out much about the Unspeakables shift patterns?"

"Yeah, a bit, It's on there. There's profiles, if you tap on the map you'll get more info on the people we found out about."

"This is good work."

"Just think kindly on poor ol' Dung when you 'ave things to sell and buy."

Back in the Caldron, Arun chucked Flu powder into the fire and called Lucius. It took a little while for her friend to respond.

"I need to talk to you face to face, can you come to me at the Caldron?"

"Can't we talk…?"

"No, not safe."

Lucius looked down at something in his arms that Arun couldn't see then he looked back up and appeared torn, "Sorry Arun, it's Draco, he's ill and I don't want to leave him, can I send Narcissa?"

"That would be great. What's wrong with Draco?"

"He's all snotty and he keeps crying, he's got a temperature too."

Arun made a face that said she was worried, "I hope he gets better quickly."

"I'll get the doctor out if he's still hot tonight. Give me a moment and i'll get my wife."

He disappeared from the fire, as Arundel waited she thought about how Flu Powder was monitored by the Flu Regulation Board at the ministry. It would be good to find out the extent of their ability to monitor, could they listen in? Could they identify the wizards talking? She knew that the ministry monitored apparitions and could trace people when they travelled, but what else could they do?

Her fire turned green and Narcissa Malfoy stooped and crawled out of the flames. She brushed soot from her hair and gave the chimney an undignified glance. "Hello darling," she muttered and smiled, but her own eyes and nose were red and puffy and she sounded pretty terrible. "So? What can I do for you today, a spot more muggle torture perhaps, a cunning plot to change the world?" She sounded slightly delirious.

"Are you ok?"

"A little ill, I thought at first it was a hangover from Avery's party but it seems I was mistaken. Little Draco's ill too, I think he caught it from Goyle's child."

Arun smiled, "I've got a tonic somewhere that might clear your sinuses through, it might be back at Hogwarts though."

"Why are we in the Caldron?" She asked, moving to the window to look down on the street below. Arun's room was one of the nicer ones, looking down over Diagon Alley rather than the muggle street.

"I'm-" Arundel paused and held up her hand, then she warded the room and put out the fire. Narcissa watched her without comment, and she checked Arun's work and added spells of her own to strengthen the protections.

"If anybody is listening in now they are a more powerful wizard than I've ever-" she sneezed and didn't start talking again as she looked for a hanky.

"I'm going to break into the Department of Mysteries," she told her friend, watching the smile set on her face and a dangerous glint shine in her cold ridden eyes. Arun went to the map and opened it. "'Ave a butchers at this barny rubble'- look?"

"Why do you need to break in?"

"My sister thinks there is a curse-breaker in there called the Oran Spike which will destroy the Grants Artifacts. My contacts only got me so far. I don't know about the rooms, I don't know about the traps and curses protecting it, I need more information."

Narcissa blinked and eased herself into a chair, she steepled her fingers as she thought. "You want to know what Rookwood told the Death Eaters?"

"I can't very well ask him since Karloff sent him to Azkaban."

"You're lucky you asked me. I might not be a Death Eater myself but I have my uses. I hosted Rookwood on a number of occasions, I may even know more than my husband about this. I can tell you now that you won't get in there by yourself."

"Why?"

"Because it's too well guarded. First, you will need to get into the Ministry without them realising you are there. You can't apparate, the Flu network is heavily protected, as are the portkeys. Then you would need to get down to sublevel nine without being spotted which is a difficult journey to make because the elevators are the only way down and they are crowded. There are protection spells in the elevator to reveal invisibility spells and enchantments too."

"You think it can't be done?"

"I think you would need to be very clever about it." Narcissa paused and studied her fingernails, "When you get down there you will find a chamber with twelve doors, they spin to confuse you, I don't know all the rooms down there but I do know that Rookwood stole from the Time Room and the Mysterious and Dangerous Objects room for the Dark Lord."

"What happens when you take items from there?"

"The rooms protect themselves, there's blood magic which identifies who works in the rooms and who doesn't. Rookwood could take items because he was identified, you won't be able to."

"I thought the ministry had banned blood magic, It's a dark art isn't it?"

"Oh yes, but everybody's a hypocrite given time and necessary."

"Who still works there?"

"I only know about two, Saul Croaker and Broderick Bode."

"I may need Lucius' help to get in."

"I wondered when you were going to say that. Please don't jeopardize him Arun, we're just getting back on track."

Arun sat back and smiled, "Tell him to come around teatime tomorrow, he can hear my plan and if he doesn't like it, he can walk away."

Narcissa thought about it for a moment, then she nodded and stood up, "Could you make Lucius some of that tonic? I'm ill, he's ill and baby Draco is too. He's by far better than all of us and he's the one complaining the most. I swear to Merlin I'll jinx his mouth shut if I have to hear another lamentation about how awful he feels." Narcissa got up and chucked some powder on the fire, nodded to Arundel and disappeared into the flames.

Arundel spent the rest of her time shopping for potion ingredients and a live pixy. She had some idea what she was going to do but it could go wrong in so many ways that she felt a little sick. Being in the open with the Americans lurking was nerve-racking enough, but when people greeted her by name and told her that they were the parents of such and such who was very much enjoying her classes, it made it all the worse. She spent the evening brewing, first a sinus-clearing potion for the Malfoys, then a potion and antidote for herself.

The potion she made for herself was not a difficult one, but a hard one to perfect and she needed it to be precise, she used her own recipe, which was based on one Severus had taught her, rather than the standard one, which she thought produced inconsistent results. First, she sliced five caterpillars, livid green ones with black tufts of hair down their back. And she added to spring water with a dash of salt and heated until the potion turned red. She peeled a shrivelfig and shook the skins until they started to puff and turn yellow, on the turn she dropped them into the water and stood back to watch if they would start to emit noxious green gases, but they didn't and the potion turned yellow. She turned the heat down so the liquid simmered and she made a cup of tea whilst she waited for it to turn purple. Using one hand, and holding her cup of tea in the other she crushed four rat spleens with the flat of her knife, then minced a handful of daisy roots and added them in at the same time. The potion turned green. Next, she added four drops of leech juice and more of the shrivelfig until it turned pink. A stripped and chopped caterpillar, this time large and hairy, and then she left the potion simmering for half an hour until it glowed. She decanted it, vanished the mess and then started on the antidote, which was tricker to make but not beyond her at all. When completed it shone a bright red, and she checked that the intensity of the shine was the same before she bottled it too. She tested them on the pixy, who shrank to the size of a pea, and then back to its original form with the antidote and she smiled to herself and cleaned up. Then she worked on her clothing and her carry bag, which would need to shrink and grow with her, and this took her into the early hours of the morning and beyond to lunchtime. She managed a nap before Lucius came.

"You've been brewing?" he asked, sniffing the air. "I can hardly smell and I can smell that."

It was the first time Arundel gave any thought to people outside her door smelling what she was up to. "I should have been more careful," she muttered. "Here," she passed him his sinus potion and told him to take two small drops on the tongue. He did as told and his face grew long and then he blinked and swallowed and drew in a deep breath.

"Well, that's quite something."

"The wards are still set, we can talk as soon as the fire's out."

Lucius turned and waved his wand at the fireplace, vanishing the embers, then he turned back and smiled. "So, what is your plan and where do I come into it?"

"You're simply going to walk me in…."

A day later, the day before term started and the students came back to Hogwarts, Arundel and Lucius walked to the Ministry of Magic. They walked in silence, primarily because Arundel was so small she couldn't have spoken to Lucius unless she used a projection charm and she hid in the folds of his cloak as they passed into the ministry buildings through a flushing toilet. Lucius strode into the great chamber and was met by Cornelius Fudge, a pre-appointment set up the day before, and Arun used her ability to fly unassisted to get to the escalators. She waited above the wooden frame until somebody opened the door and then she dropped onto their collar and hid in the folds of their clothes. Unfortunately, the witch she had chosen had dandruff, and up close it looked like huge flat loaves of bread. six people in total got into the elevator, and Arun blasted the level eight button with a knockback jinx to get it to press in with enough force. Eventually, only two people were left in the elevator, and they both got off at level seven, leaving Arun alone standing by the towering doors, holding on to a screwhead for dear life as the elevator dropped.

The door pinged, she flew out into a hallway, which looked impossible to cross being so small. The world from this angle was a very different place. She levitated, paying more attention than ever to spiders webs, and made her way to the only door at the end of the hall. Now she had to wait, and this was where her potion would be tested. If it was potent enough she would not grow bigger, but if she had the mix wrong and nobody came until the afternoon she could be the size of a small child.

Luckily for her she only had a short time to rest, the elevator pinged again and two unspeakables came down the corridor. "I don't understand why it would counteract the effects of death though," one unspeakable said as they walked. "It seems like it should enhance them."

"Perhaps to experience death is to truly live," the other pondered, "And in denying a death, as is the case here, it is the cruelest thing that could be done."

"And as such life is a curse?"

"Naturally."

Arun flew up and landed on one of the unspeakables shoulders, the one who had longer hair and had just said 'naturally', and she very carefully clung on to his collar and whispered the imperius curse in his ear. She was so subtle about it that he didn't fight, and she didn't order him to do anything for a while, simply observing like a parasite the usual functions of the host. He was called Jorgan Horgas and he made his way to the Time Room by standing in the middle of a circular hall and simply saying the name of it.

Arun flew from his collar and looked around a room full to the brim with clocks and time turners. There were a number of birds in cages and the ticking was deafening. She cracked her neck and decided to test out Jorgan Horgas' will power. She told him to cross the room and pick up a time turner and put it in his pocket. Then she watched as he looked left and right, checked the door and then picked a turner off the wall. He even rearranged the others so it looked like nothing was missing. He put the turner in his pocket, whistled and then went back to his work. Arun flew across to him again, crawled inside his pocket and muttered a reducio curse which shrunk the time turner small enough that she could put it into her own charmed bag, which also held the painting of Amber, open so that her sister could pick it out. She waited a moment to see if transferring the object to another place would alert the Ministry traps but nothing happened. "It worked," she hissed at her sister.

"I've always wanted one of these!" Amber giggled from the depths of the purse.

"I'm going to try for the next room."

"Good luck!"

She bid Horgas go to the Mysterious and Dangerous Objects room and he seemed quite happy to oblige, she told him what she was after, and all she had to do was sit back and wait for him to comply. She felt him move but remained in his pocket.

"Hello Broderick," he greeted somebody who must have already been inside. "Where's Saul?"

"What are you doing in here Jorgan?"

"My research suggests that one of the items in here has time specific properties that warrant further study."

"Really?"

"Really, but the problem is, I'm not sure what it's categorized under. I need to see the listings."

Broderick grumbled, "Can't you come back tomorrow?"

"I'm working on the Fountain of Youth tomorrow."

He grumbled again, "Fine, fine, give me a moment to go and get the volumes out." there was a squeak as one turned and walked away, and then Jorgan started to jog, nearly shaking Arun from his pocket as he did. He skidded to a halt and then he opened a case and pulled out a large item. It nearly sliced Arun in two as it fell into his pocket. She immediately used the Reducio spell on it and it slid seamlessly into her own purse and then through to her sister. Jorgan jogged back to the spot he had been in before, and Broderick returned about ten mins later with thick ledgers and put them down on the table. Arun sat back and watched as Jorgan actually went through the ledgers, found the item with time properties and then took it with him to the Time Room to study it. She was impressed with how he played it casual, but after sitting in his pocket for another five hours, accompanying him to the restroom and watching him eat and chat with his work colleagues at lunch she really wished he would just excuse himself and get out of there. He didn't finish work until six pm, and then he walked from the Ministry to the Caldron for her because he had a dinner date. She made him walk her up to her room and then, once she was back to her natural size and he was back drinking in the bar, she took away the curse and immediately went to the toilet.

Arun ate, paid for her room, and got back to Hogsmeade, she didn't waste time in the village and she hurried on to Hogwarts. When she was safe inside its walls she made her way to the Dungeons and Severus' quarters but he wasn't at home. It didn't look like he had been for a while, the fire wasn't lit and everything was tidy. His rooms looked very much like his potions classroom, the walls were lined with books and jars of ingredients and personal potions with names like 'Experimental batch N'25' and from her pocket, she took the shrinking and regrowth potions and placed them on his shelf where they glowed quite pleasantly. She saw a stack of marking ready to give back and she thumbed through red ink and laughed at some of his annotations. "I don't think I have ever read anything as dimwitted as this, MacGrew...' She put the marking back and puffed out her cheeks. She wondered if she should leave him a note, or if she should wait for him and why was she here anyway? He hadn't come with her, he didn't help at all. Too concerned with Dumbledore to help her in any way. As soon as her anger towards him flared it disappeared, she just needed to sleep.

Snape's bedroom was through the right of two arched doorways which were engraved with symbols denoting different elements. She noticed that his bed was made and she started to wonder if he was at Spinners End and hadn't come back yet. That his cloak hung up on the back of his door made her think differently. She looked at her wrist watch, it was nine o'clock at night, and so she took her shoes off, got his fire going with a wave of her hand then she dumped her bag on the floor and slid into his bed. It didn't take long for her to fall asleep.

"Why don't you trust her Albus?"

"Need you ask that? Truly Severus? Must I remind you who she is? Blood magic is strong, and her blood is truly tainted."

Arun blinked in the dark of Severus' bedroom and realised who he was talking to. She sat up very slowly so she could hear better.

"We do have some choice, Headmaster."

"If I give her what you ask I risk everything."

"If you don't you condemn her."

The headmaster made a tutting noise, "Sometimes sacrifice is required for the greater good."

"The way I see it, she's the only person who wants to work towards it."

"Is that what she's told you?" Dumbledore asked. "Oh Severus, I forget that your capacity to love is your greatest weakness as well as your greatest strength."

"Right now she is looking for an item which is powerful enough to destroy the artefacts."

"Is she?"

"Yes!" Snape sounded exasperated. "Please Headmaster! I don't ask for much but this is more than just a blind fools infatuation. If anybody knows where the Dark Lord is she does."

"Which is why-"

"Which is why we must give her the artefacts. Both of them."

Albus went quiet, a door opened and closed. Arundel realised that her heart was racing so much she could hear the blood rushing past her ears, and then footsteps came closer to the bedroom door, and she slid back under the bedsheets and pretended to be asleep. She heard Snape open the bedroom door, pause, study her and whisper, "Arun? How much did you hear?"

She didn't respond, and when he sat on the bed next to her and ran his hand across her cheek she stayed in character and didn't 'wake up.' Eventually, he had to believe her lie, and he gave a deep sigh, undressed and slid into bed next to her.

In the morning Severus was gone, but he'd left her a note saying it was nice to see her, even if she was asleep, and that he would call on her after the days teaching was done. She went back to her room, sat heavily in front of her own fire and for a good hour she didn't move. The thoughts going through her head were repetitive, over and over she wondered if Severus had betrayed her or if he was protecting her. She wondered about Dumbledore and his views on her and if she should feel nervous or enlightened by what he had privately said to her partner. She thought about her uncle and how much of her life he had affected. There wasn't a single moment where she was rid of his influence. Had Dumbledore really wanted to give her a way out by offering her a job teaching, like a rescue puppy? Look after something and get engrossed in somebody else for once, please Arun, do something for humanity? Make something of yourself, Make yourself somebody I can be proud of? She actually swore out loud. The presumption of his actions was maddening. And then there was the muggle girl, not the first she had killed in cold blood, but the first that hadn't felt like she had destroyed part of herself by doing it, and in a way that was more worrying. To what end? She asked herself. She had the Oran Spike, if Snape was successful she would have three of the grants artefacts, and then she just had to set the trap to get the rest and take those bastards down. Easy right? As soon as she had Dumbledore's two she could get out of this hellhole for sure, she was done with teaching. The children repulsed her, the work exhausted her and the politics amongst the teaching staff made her feel sick.

"Arun? You there?"

She looked up at her bag, then pulled out the picture of Amber and rehung it. Her sister stood behind the frame and she looked bad. Really bad. And she kept glancing behind her.

"Amber?"

"Quick," her sister motioned her over. "Take them-" her hand shot out of the painting and she dropped the Oran Spike and the time turner into Arundel's hands.

"Amber, what's happening?"

"It's- Arun I have to go. I have to go now. I'll contact you when I'm safe."

Amber disappeared from the frame, behind her Arun was sure she saw one of the Americans burst through the door to her room. Then everything went dark. Arundel stood dumb, she backed away from the painting and studied the objects on the floor. The Americans had found her sister.