Chapter XIX - The Unspeakable
"Good evening, Death Eaters."
Voldemort's chilling voice rang out through the silence that engulfed the manor in which his followers gathered. It was something they hadn't heard in a while now, but it was a familar greeting all the same. In unison they responded, "Good evening, my Lord."
"The time at which we take the Department of Mysteries nears. I have located what I desire and stand ready to choose my most loyal of followers to undertake the task." His scarlet eyes scanned the room before stopping on one figure in particular.
"Severus."
Snape hardly blinked. "Yes, my Lord?"
"Dumbledore... is he still with the boy?"
"Dumbledore has left Hogwarts, where I am yet uncertain. Potter, however, remains."
"Good." Voldemort's gaze settled on a door just past Snape, which creaked open. Nagini slithered through the Death Eaters who stood there to her master's side, turning her unblinking gaze on the door as well. "Lucius, our guest, if you will."
Lucius Malfoy broke from the circle and walked out the door, just as another figure walked in. Boldly she stepped through the circle of Death Eaters, moving to Voldemort's side. Voldemort's eyes settled on the amulet around her neck, and then on her face as he circled her once.
The door opened again and Lucius came through once more, this time with a bound man.
"Your guest, my Lord," Lucius said, wand pointed at the man who entered before him. Lucius bowed to Voldemort and then rejoined the circle, blocking the man in the center.
"An Unspeakable... Keeper of the secrets within the Department of Mysteries." Voldemort mused. He paused, still keeping his calm tone with the man and yet turning this time to Lauren. "I know what lies within, what secret you hide from the rest of the world. In due time the Department of Mysteries will go unguarded and I will have what I desire."
Voldemort paused again to move a lock of hair from her face with his wand. Whether words passed from his lips to her ears then was unclear to the Death Eaters around them, but Voldemort stepped back and Lauren's gaze turned to the man.
From his position near Lucius, Snape could see her clearly; she slid her hand into the robes she wore and retreived her wand, the one he knew so well, and raised it. No words escaped her lips and yet a spell erupted from the tip, striking the man in an unmistakable flash of green. The man crumpled to the floor.
The Dark Lord spoke again but he didn't hear it. Snape studied her expressionless face and her light eyes, momentarily fixed on the man lying dead on the floor. As they lifted to rest on Voldemort once more, Snape found himself slightly alarmed, inwardly, at what he saw from here. No longer were her eyes dead as they were under the amulet's control; they glimmered in the dim light from candles nearby.
It was then that his suspicion grew into the realm of confirmation. She had killed without hesitation of her own volition. Something was terribly wrong.
Severus Snape made his way through the corridors of Hogwarts as quickly as he could manage. Though he was scheduled to return to his quarters for the remainder of the night and report to Dumbledore at the next Order meeting, this news couldn't wait another day.
Up the Grand Staircase, left off the landing, just down another corridor and there he was. He flicked his wand, opening the door to the classroom with ease before approaching the door to the professor's office and quarters and laying a heavy knock there.
No answer.
"Open the bloody door," he hissed loudly enough that he hoped the professor therein would hear. She did.
"What?" Rosemary opened the door, looking half asleep, and blinked at him. "It's almost three in the morning- What's go-"
"Are you so incompetent that you fail to follow a simple direction?"
"...What are you talk-?"
"Did you administer the potion as directed?" He asked through clenched teeth.
She paused in bleary thought, blinking a little. "Of course I did, I'm not an idiot-"
Snape whirled and headed toward the door on the far side of the classroom.
"What's going on? Snape?"
Her answer was the closing of a door behind him as he left.