I have a bit more written for Skin Deep. I had a bit of a note prepared explaining my recent lack of inspiration but my muse struck me yesterday and I am working away once more at Skin Deep. I hope that the delays will shrink again, although I can't promise daily updates anymore. Hopefully I can afford DSL soon though and that will fix some of life's problems.
PS. Sorry this chapter is a bit short. I tried to add to it but it just seemed to need to end where it does. The next chapter will be longer.
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Chapter 42Tallis, Hermione and Ron sat around a low table in their study room in the Chamber of Secrets, pouring over some of the documents that he had brought back from the vaults. He had written them short letters asking them to meet him there that night and then he showed up with a huge bag full of books, journals and letters for them to read. Ron was bored already, having only gotten rather mundane accounts of daily activities, a book of recipes, and some letters that debated the usefulness of moonstone in children's medicine. Utter rubbish, the lot of it.
"Have you gotten any further with your healing magic, Tallis?" Hermione asked, breaking one of her own cardinal rules which demanded complete and utter silence when reading anything remotely important.
"Yeah," Tallis grinned. "I got a bit today. Nothing too much but there was some definite healing energy. Now I just need to harness it and focus it a bit better."
"Very impressive, mate. Doesn't it take a lot of people a long time to get?"
Hermione rolled her eyes at Ron. "It takes most people a few months. A select few get it in a matter of a week or two and some people take years. Tallis has tapped into his healing magic faster than anyone else ever recorded before."
"Oh. That's good, mate." Tallis snickered quietly and Hermione rolled here eyes once more. They all settled back into their books quietly, albeit a bit reluctantly.
"I have a thought, mate," Ron interrupted his friends' quiet reading after patiently wading through his manuscript for another thirty minutes. Tallis and Hermione looked up, rather eager to set aside their own dull manuscripts. Neither would admit it but not even they could find interest in what they were reading. "Why exactly can't we get rid of Dumbledore now? I mean, I know you said we need him to lead the Order but do we really? Look at all of the Order members you know personally. Think about the rest that you know of but don't know very well. Are any of them the sort to go off all half cocked if Dumbledore was imprisoned? Yes, they'll panic for a bit, but they'll pull themselves together and fight on. Don't you think?"
Tallis sat utterly still, completely wrapped up in his thoughts. After a few moments he absentmindedly blew some long strands of hair out of his face and then nervously started twirling his quill. "I don't know. I guess you might be right…"
"Well then let's do it! Let's get rid of the muggles and Dumbledore right now!"
Hermione glared at Ron. She knew that there was a lot more to this than a simple 'let's do it.' There were far greater issues at stake, especially for her friend who, like it or not, was still incredibly fragile and emotionally damaged from them. A few months with a loving father could help him but it couldn't magically cure everything.
"I don't know. Does my family really deserve that? They weren't that bad…" he said pensively.
Hermione and Ron's eyes opened widely, alarmed at this new revelation. "Not that bad? Not that bad!" Ron sputtered, unable to express himself.
Hermione tactfully took over. "Tallis…you have to know that they were…they are horrible people. You deserved better than them. No one deserves to live with people like them."
"But do they really deserve to go to jail? To be despised by the entire wizarding world? The world will be after their blood if I say anything. Maybe we should just leave it all be."
Ron was still sputtering incoherently. He was never good at saying the good and thought provoking thing in times like these. Hermione continued. "Tallis, what if they do that to someone else? Now that you aren't there, don't you think they might turn to someone new?" Tallis turned white at her words. He hadn't thought of that. Hermione felt a bit bad about misleading him into thinking that his uncle could be raping other young boys but she held firm. They needed to be brought to trial. Tallis needed it too, although he might not want to admit it yet. Perhaps once the trial was over and they were safely locked away Tallis could let go of some of his fears. Perhaps he could finally gain some closure.
"I…I don't know. I don't want everyone to know. There is no way I could stand trial against them. I just can't. I can't testify against them," he said desperately, looking down at his hands that were twisting his quill into a crumpled mess.
"What if you didn't need to testify?" Ron asked, finally able to get a grip on himself. Tallis looked, up expectantly. "What if they thought you were dead? It would be the Ministry versus the Dursleys, not Harry Potter versus the Dursleys. If everyone thinks you're dead then they can't force you to testify."
"But how will they think I'm dead?"
"We could make a golem," Hermione said hesitantly.
Tallis' brow furrowed as he thought about it all. "But wouldn't that be illegal?"
"A bit," Hermione hedged.
"Mate, think about it. Are you willing to break a tiny law in order to ensure your safety as well as the safety of those around you? Not to mention it would protect you permanently. No one could give you away…no one that would want to, anyway."
"I don't know. It seems kind of mean, blaming my death on people who are innocent." At his friends' glares he rolled his eyes. "Well, innocent of murder, at least."
"If we had a golem though we could send the golem to the house. If the Dursleys never killed it then we wouldn't have a trial. If they did then we would have proof that they were more than willing to commit murder and we would have enough evidence that we…I mean the Ministry could win the trial."
"I…I don't know. I still don't want people to know."
"Most murder cases are closed cases," Ron said helpfully. Tallis simply raised an eyebrow, indicating that he needed to elaborate. "They have spells that won't allow anyone who sits in on it to ever tell more than the bare basics of the facts."
Tallis still didn't look satisfied. The basics were horrifying on their own. Hermione elaborated further, knowing that he was thinking of the muggle versions of closed trials that could potentially result in tell all books and interviews a few years after the fact along with a healthy dose of innuendo and blatant hints to give the truth away to the media. "By that Ron means that they could tell people that the Ministry had a trial against Harry Potter's muggle relatives for child abuse and murder. Full stop. They couldn't really say anything more. Absolutely no details at all about any of it."
"So the only people who would know would be the Wizenmagut and the eighteen person jury?" Tallis said slowly, taking it all in.
"Just about. There would, of course, be a few security personnel, a court reporter, and a few people who were granted leave to sit in on the case. Given who you are that would no doubt include the Weasleys and Remus and perhaps me, if I wanted to." Hermione nervously studied his face, trying to see if he was giving in at all.
"And I wouldn't have to testify? I wouldn't have to be there at all? I don't have to see him again?" Tallis said quietly, twisting his nearly bare quill. The majority of the feather lay in a crumpled heap on his lap.
"Not a bit. You wouldn't have any cause to be there since you didn't really know Harry Potter, at least officially. I don't see how they could possibly ask you to testify. It wouldn't make any sense. And there is no way they would grant you or your Father the right to sit in on the trial. Frankly, I'm not sure that Ron and I would be allowed in aside from testifying."
"Merlin," Tallis breathed. "You'd have to testify, wouldn't you? You'll be there, in the court room. No, no, we can't do this, it's not worth it," he said, starting to panic.
"We have our potions, mate. We couldn't slip up."
Tallis whimpered quietly as he huddled in on himself, wrapping his arms around his knees. Hermione realized the problem. "Tallie, if you don't want us to we won't go at all except for when we have to testify. We won't listen to any of it. We'll arrive just in time to testify and then we'll leave straight off." Tallis looked little comforted. "Just please think about it, Tallis. We're all worried, about Dumbledore especially."
"But this trial won't guarantee anything but a possible jail sentence for the Dursleys," Tallis said, not able to follow their train of thought. He was still too worried about his friends and adopted family members learning the truth, the whole truth. He had worked so hard for so long to protect them, he couldn't let them know everything now.
"There is no way that the Dursleys could stand any kind of trial without it becoming blatantly clear who placed you there to begin with. There is also the fact that they know that you begged to be placed elsewhere for the holidays and that he refused you. Not to mention Poppy will testify, making it clear that he knew exactly what was going on. If all of that fails to condemn him then we will simply testify about his certain knowledge of everything that happened there." Ron finished quickly, pleased that he had gotten it all out. He had been thinking about this for quite a while, trying to find any problems with his plans. There was no way he would put his best mate through the stress of such a trial without guaranteeing his success in bringing down their primary target: Dumbledore. Voldemort was an incredibly important adversary as well but they all knew that it was not yet time for that.
"I need some time," Tallis finally said. "Please just give me a bit of time to think about this."
"Of course. I don't want you to be pressured or forced into doing this, Tallis. No one does. You need to want this too. But before you make a hasty decision you need to make sure you know all the facts meaning that you need to understand how wizards would run a trial like this. If you have any more worries or questions make sure to raise them. I think this could be a really good thing for you, Tallis." Tallis looked at her, confusion evident. "I think it might help you to be able to fight back for once. To have their misdeeds added up and set against them for proper punishment."
"Doesn't everyone deserve forgiveness?" Tallis said softly.
Hermione was quiet for a moment, searching for the proper words. "That's something you need to decide for yourself. But you need to realize that forgiveness and justice are not irreconcilable. You can have a trial and still pardon them privately. Just because you decide to move on with your life—maybe even forgive them—doesn't mean that you can't still have justice."
Tallis nodded but didn't say anything else. The trio settled back into their work, once again picking up the boring texts. They sat in silence for the next hour, meticulously going through each letter or scroll, making sure that they didn't miss anything that might be of service later. They had quite a few large battles ahead of them—Voldemort; Dumbledore; the Dursleys; a possible court trial…the list seemed never ending. They could use a bit of help with any of them.
Suddenly Tallis broke the silence. "Wait a tic…"
Ron and Hermione looked up. "What did you find?" Hermione asked.
"I…sweet Merlin. I need to see my dad." With no further explanation he roughly shoved the rest of the papers he had in his stack to look at into his bag. He carefully spelled the paper that he was interested in to be invisible to anyone but him and indestructible. Ron and Hermione exchanged curious looks but decided to simply follow suit and pack up themselves. By the time they had packed up their papers Tallis was halfway out of the Chamber.
"Wait up, mate! We're coming too!" Ron yelled after him. Tallis slowed down slightly but the others still had to run to catch up. Tallis roughly shoved the invisibility cloak in Ron's face when they reached the entrance with the silent command to put it over himself and Hermione. He didn't bother to see if they had done so, he simply walked as quickly as possible down to the dungeons, glaring at anyone who attempted to stop him for a quick word or question.
He roughly threw the door open. "Dad? Dad!" he called out, impatient to see his father now. Hell, he needed him ten minutes ago. He couldn't believe what he thought he might have found. It was simply inconceivable.
Severus came rushing into the room just as Hermione and Ron took the invisibility cloak off. "What's wrong, Tallis?"
"Look at this," Tallis said, thrusting the papers up into his Father's view bare inches away from his face. Severus' eyes scanned the papers at lightning speed, came to an abrupt stop and then went back and started reading even more quickly than before. A shaking hand removed the papers from his son's grasp.
"Merlin," he whispered hoarsely. "Do you know what this is?"
"So its what I thought it is? It would work?"
"I'm damn near certain it would. Sweet Merlin…I've been working on this for years! I can't believe I never thought to…" he faded away as he started walking toward the lab, his son following closely.
"Will someone please tell us what's going on sometime this year?" Ron yelled impatiently. The two Snapes ignored him and hurried into the lab, ready to start work.
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A/N: ooh! Evil cliffie. Sorry about that. Anyhow, in case you didn't notice, I totally made up how many people serve on the jury. If there is a real, JKR answer to that then I'll go back and change it. Until then though, it is a random number that I plugged in. Review!