Chapter Three
There was instant uproar and Snape had to dive behind the writing desk beside him to prevent getting beaten to a pulp.
"You. Absolute BASTARD!" Minerva shrieked, shocking everyone into silence. Her usual cool demeanour was shattered; pink patches on her cheeks and spit flying from her mouth. "Why I'll tell...I'll tel... I'LL TELL ALBUS!"
There was a snigger from behind the desk. "You wouldn't tell him. HE wouldn't believe you. He trusts me too much. And plus, if you tell him, you'd have to reveal the reason why, and I'm not sure he'd be impressed that you're operating an illegal bordello within his school."
Minerva remained mute, fists clenched, her hair descending from its elegant bun and her pupils huge.
Snape clambered up from his hiding place. "Aren't you all intrigued to see my gifts?"
They all turned to the box. Inside were a number of curiously shaped boxes, each of them black and tied with a red ribbon, a name tag denoting which one was for which guest. Snape handed them out – Draco's had an emerald green ribbon – and sat on the edge of the writing desk in order to see them open their gifts.
"What the-."
Hermione had opened hers to reveal a shiny 45 calibre Colt revolver. Checking the barrel she saw there were six bullets.
Fred was equally confused. He pulled out a large crescent spanner from the red tissue paper, and George was given a large, gold plated candlestick. Ginny had received a lead pipe and Minerva a dagger, which she immediately tossed into the coffee table. Draco was left holding a rope after he'd discarded the box.
"Oh," he said, "it's already been helpfully tied into a noose." He dropped it like it was a live wire.
"What's the meaning of this?" Minerva asked, staring at the revolver in Hermione's lap.
"You each have a lethal weapon," Snape stated superfluously. "Everyone in here now knows your secrets, which means you now have motive. After all, if you kill each other then there'll be nobody to give any evidence against you. Potter, I noticed you've been flinching whenever you make eye contact with my domestic here. Would that be because she told your husband she'd caught you in bed with Longbottom? Would that also be because you caught her in bed your husband?"
"Salome had an affair with Harry," Ginny spat the name as if it were a mouthful of Skele-Gro. "When I found out I told her that I would tell someone, anyone, and she revealed she'd seen me with Neville and knew the parentage of Albus and Lily. She threatened to tell Harry. I had to keep quiet. The moment I saw her here and you told us that you're the blackmailer, I made the connection that she'd been the one to inform on me." Ginny threw a withering look towards the door through which the servant had departed earlier.
"And Misters Weasley, I noticed you seem acquainted with my butler. No doubt you must have realised he informed on you two to me."
"Yeah," Fred said, still examining the spanner in his hand. "He used to work at our shop, but then resigned without telling us why; just upped and left. I guess now I understand what happened to him." He shot daggers at the teacher, clutching the spanner and looking like he dearly wished he could smack it straight into the greasy git's skull.
"Of course," Snape remarked, picking up an ornament from the mantle and peering at it, "none of you have met our lovely cook, Mrs Green..."
Minerva gasped. "I knew it!" she hissed to herself, "I knew she was no good!" When she saw everyone looking at her, confused, she decided she ought to explain. "My cook, at home, she knew about my...business and threatened to tell Professor Dumbledore, so I dismissed her, sent her far away where she couldn't possibly tell him. Seems I know now her ultimate fate." She glared at Snape. She'd never been fond of him, even as a student and his position as head of Slytherin put them into an extremely adversarial relationship. But now she was looking at him with pure, unadulterated hatred as opposed to the usual cold professionalism.
"As I was saying," Snape said softly," you each hold a lethal weapon and now know everything. Everything about the people around you, about the very servants who gave you such a delicious dinner, and me. Bear in mind that if you tell anyone, you too will be exposed and humiliated, I'll see to it that that happens. But if you kill your informants, when nobody else has to die. Not even me. You can go," he paused, licking his lips, "and I'll continue to blackmail you."
"So it's kill or be killed, essentially?" Hermione scoffed. "None of your idiotic plan makes any sense."
"What?" Snape sneered.
"Are you stupid?" George said scathingly. "We'll just kill you. Then we get off scot free and you can't blackmail us any longer."
Snape seemed to realise the flaw in his 'ingenious' plan because he went a little paler, but there was a sudden crash from above them and Hodgeson came flying in, breathless.
"There's an intruder sir," he panted. "I'm unsure as to his whereabouts, but he seems confused, possibly injured."
The last thing Snape needed was an intruder, never mind if they were injured – he couldn't care less if that was the case. Growling, he addressed his companions. "We're to spit up. Who knows who that intruder could be? Four of us are to go upstairs, and the others search down here." And with that he swept from the room.
Having no choice but to follow, George, Hermione and Minerva headed upstairs behind Snape, leaving Draco, Fred and Ginny standing in the vast hallway, wondering where to begin. Draco opened one of the many doors and found a ballroom, Ginny opened another and discovered a billiards table.
"What's that for?" she wondered aloud, wishing she was with Hermione: she would know.
They checked the dining room, the kitchen where Salome was washing up – Ginny walked out very quickly – and then the billiard room. That left the study which they had just left, the lounge, the library and another door which they discovered led to a luxurious conservatory. They could hear footsteps upstairs going from room to room but no tell-tale sounds of someone who shouldn't be there.
"We haven't' checked the ballroom," Ginny said. "It's along here, I'll pop in there and you two check the conservatory." The boys nodded and she took the few paces to the ballroom. Flicking on the light, she illuminated the room, finding the dance floor empty and the curtains drawn. They were moving slightly. Certain it was just a breeze, Ginny advanced, wishing she'd picked up one of the weapons in the study.
Whipping back the curtains, she was pleased to know that her original assumption had been correct: there was a breeze coming from the slightly uneven floor by the door: this must be a very old manor. The French windows opened out onto an impressive looking garden, illuminated by the rectangular splotches of light from the windows. For a second Ginny thought the intruder could be outside, but then realised nobody in their right mind would dare be outside in this weather.
Upstairs, the guests were having no luck. Hermione deduced that the intruder must have gone downstairs.
"But we didn't hear anyone go down the stairs, and they're not carpeted." Minerva couldn't hide the wobble in her voice. "They must be up here."
Glancing round, Hermione frowned. There were four bedrooms, an ensuite, two bathrooms and a smoking room on this floor, plus the attic where Snape and George were now and the locked doors that led to the east and west wings. Snape maintained that nobody could get in there: they were magically sealed and no spell could unlock it, unless it came from the person who had locked it, which he claimed not to be him.
So far Hermione and Minerva had checked two out of four bedrooms and both ensuite bathrooms. Currently they were searching one of the two master bathrooms, so large Hermione felt sure the whole of Gryffindor House could fit inside no trouble, and Snape and George had done the others.
"Smoking room?" Minerva said. It was the room right above the study, and they had purposely left it the latest. They made their way across the landing towards it. Hermione, summoning up as much Gryffindor courage as she could, reached a trembling hand for the knob, but the door remained firmly shut.
"Is it another spell?" she pondered, pulling at the door and wishing she'd thought of bringing her wand.
Just then her musings were interrupted by the most frightening, bloodcurdling scream known to man.
"It's coming from the kitchen!" Minerva yelled and the two women collided with George and Snape who were haring from the attic. Untangling themselves, they dragged themselves upright and hurried down the stairs, only to bash into Fred and Draco, bolting from the conservatory. Ginny was sprinting out of the ballroom as fast as her legs would take her.
"What was that?" she rasped, petrified.
"SALOME!" everybody shouted at once and there was a clamour of feet and many curses of pain as they all tried to cram themselves through the door and into the passageway to the kitchen, which was barely big enough for one person, let alone seven people simultaneously.
Draco was the first to make it into the kitchen and he stopped dead in his tracks, causing Hermione and Minerva to collide painfully with his back and Ginny to go crashing into the doorjamb.
"What's going on?" yelled one of the twins from the back of the pack. "Hey, where did Snape go?"
"To the study," replied the other twin. "That is if he has any sense in him: there's an unknown person in this house who may have just attacked the domestic. Who knows what they could have done other to make her scream like that! It sounded like she'd been murdered!"
"Well said Weasley." Draco's voice was barely a hoarse whisper. "Because that's exactly what's happened."
They all swelled forward and Ginny, who couldn't see past Draco, squeaked frightfully.
There, lying on the floor, was Salome, the noose tied tightly around her neck and a look of pure terror still etched upon her face.