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24 – The Magic Trick that Went Wrong
—Caspian was used to the shrieks and screams every time he and Victoria performed the "Invisible Coin" trick. It had taken them many shows to perfect, but now it was as easy as riding a bicycle. With each smashed cup, the audience's volume escalated, and it took a lot of will power for him not to chuckle. If they only knew how the trick was performed, their shrieks would likely be chuckles as well.
There were parts of it that were so simple, and others that required illusion. When the audience selected which cup the knife would go under, Caspian would tap his shoe on the stage to signal Victoria. One tap meant the knife went under the first cup starting on the left, two was the second cup from the left, and so on. The more challenging aspect of the performance was making the "invisible" coins disappear (his part) and reappear (her part). Two coins were used and it took many, many hours practicing the sleight of hand that made it possible.
The screams reached an unprecedented height for the second cup—normally, this kind of anticipation came when it was down to the final two. Caspian waited for the sighs of relief and was a little surprised when the screams didn't subside. Was Victoria milking it for a greater reaction?
He popped his head up, and his heart sank. She was grabbing her hand.
Caspian pushed the audience members aside and charged to the stage. When they saw him doing this, an eerie quiet came over everyone, and the only noises at the Spinner's End Carnival were mechanical—the Ferris wheel song, a roller coaster climbing a hill, ice grinding in the snow cone machine… not a single human sound.
Caspian made it to the stage and gasped when we he saw Victoria clutching her hand—there was a knife sticking through the middle, blood oozing all over her costume (a silky white shirt, now red, with a black vest). "Oh no. Oh no…" He ran to her, screamed for someone to call an ambulance, and then swooped her into his arms, carrying her behind the stage to their trailer, where he laid her on a couch. Caspian acted fast and grabbed a towel, carefully wrapping her hand to apply some pressure and stop the bleeding.
Outside of the trailer, the audience was now whispering about what they'd just seen. Snape was still pondering if this could be part of their act. He half-expected Caspian the Great and Victoria the Valiant to come running back on stage to take a bow and make the invisible coin reappear somewhere in the audience, but he quickly dismissed this notion when he saw his mother's eyes.
"Come with me," she said to him, grabbing his hand and leading him through the crowd to the back of the stage. A few of Caspian's crew were standing around the trailer, some of them crying, others looking as if they'd just seen a ghost. Snape had no idea what his mother was planning to do and was shocked when he heard her say, "Can I go in? I'm a doctor." The crew members looked at her a little suspiciously—Snape couldn't blame them, his mother looked anything but a doctor—then they let them proceed, probably too shocked to challenge his mom's request.
When they entered the trailer, Caspian jumped at the sight of Eileen and Snape. He had been holding Victoria's head in his lap and was stroking her hair, tears streaming down his face. "Who? Who are you?"
Eileen looked at Victoria, who had fainted, blood soaking through the towel that Caspian had wrapped around her hand. Her skin was pale, though not the deathly white of a corpse, and the knife was still sticking through. When Caspian noticed Eileen staring at this, he said, "You're supposed to leave something like that in, aren't you? I mean, until the doctors get here?"
Eileen didn't answer his question. "I'm here to help. Before I do anything, you must promise me one thing." She put her hands on his cheeks and looked directly at him. "You must not tell anyone about this. And take my boy outside for a moment."
Caspian looked utterly confused. "What are you going to do?" His question came out weak, barely a protest. In the background, there were sirens in the distance.
"Listen. We don't have time to discuss what you're going to let me do." Eileen kept her hands on his face, and something appeared to click for the magician. He arose and took Snape's hand, only turning briefly as he shut the trailer door.
It must have seemed like an hour for the magician, but for Snape, it was only a few minutes later when his mother opened the trailer door. Not only was Victoria sitting upright on the couch, the knife was no longer in her hand, and she was examining it as if a miracle had just occurred. The bleeding had stopped and the puncture had congealed with a strange, orangey glow.
The sirens had entered the vicinity and were making their way slowly through the audience. Caspian rushed to the trailer. "Victoria!"
As he was passing Eileen, she grabbed his arm. "If you can really make the invisible, then you should never put her in this kind of danger again," she said solemnly. She held his arm a moment longer, patted it, and then went to Snape.
Caspian looked back at her, not sure whether Eileen was a mad woman or some kind of savior, maybe both. He didn't know what to say or do, and as she hurried off into the crowd with Snape, he ended up not saying anything. Instead, he rushed over to Victoria, hugged her, and planted kisses all over her forehead. "I'm so sorry, sweetie. I'm so sorry."
Even as the parademics rushed into his trailer, he wouldn't let her go. They had to pry her from his arms before realizing she was okay. A miracle had occurred, for the puncture in Victoria's hand showed only the faintest of scars.
Snape was a young boy when that had happened, years before the carnival where his father encouraged him to pet the tiger. He never really understood what his mother meant when she told Caspian the Great, If you can really make the invisible… At the time, this statement seemed strange to him. Didn't his mother know that it was all just a trick? Caspian couldn't really make things invisible.
But now as Voldemort stood at the head of Lily's bed, holding the blue wafer, his mother's words made sense. Caspian had something invisible, whether created or innate, with Victoria the way he did with Lily.
"Severus, do you really not trust me? You need to see how this works."
"I can't let you hurt her."
"Hurt her? I saved her today because of your failure." Voldemort's words stung. "This is not going to hurt her because I can banish the Dark Tourist. Do you really think I cannot reverse the curse?"
"No, I just don't think it's good for her—"
"It will be fine. I'm beginning to think you're going to question my every move."
"No, it's just doesn't seem like…"
"It doesn't seem like what?" Voldemort waited a moment for Snape to respond. When he didn't, he made the decision final. "You need to see this, and I will again prove to you that I am to be trusted. But I must warn you, my patience is growing thin."
He didn't wait for a rebuttal from his pupil and snapped the blue wafer between his thumb and forefinger. "Solvo Phasma Phasmatis," said Voldemort, yew wand at his side pointed in the direction of the blue mist hovering next to Lily's head.
The mist transformed into a miniature clone of Lily, also lying in a bed. Then it swirled, forming a small cyclone, streaming into Lily's ear. "It's at this moment," said Voldemort, "you must concentrate on what it is you want to influence. How you want to control this person's being."
He closed his eyes for several moments, yew wand still in his grip.
Lily's eyes jolted opened. They were the usual green, but Snape could also see the miniature clone in her pupils emitting a soft, blue glow.
"Lily?" asked Snape. "Can you hear me? Are you okay?"
"Touching, Severus, but no. She cannot hear you," said Voldemort. "She will be okay when she awakes from the healing spell I performed earlier."
"If she's not awake, then what happens next?" He looked back at Lily, and now her eyes were closed again.
"What happens next is I banish the Dark Tourist as I promised. And then you try it."
Snape's hand tightened around his wand. "I—I don't know."
Voldemort pointed his wand at Lily and whispered something Snape couldn't hear. The small, misty cyclone swirled out of Lily's ear, and the miniature clone hung in the air in front of them, before spraying away like a wave crashing on rocks.
He handed Snape one of the blue wafers. "You have no reason to control your friend of course," he said, licking his lips. "But if something changed between you two, what would you do?"
Snape stood beside Lily, blue wafer pressed between his thumb and forefinger, and all he could think about was Caspian and Victoria. All he could think about was the invisible, and his mother telling the magician to not put Victoria in danger ever again.
"We'll reverse it right away," said Voldemort, as if reading Snape's concerns. "Remember to think about what you would do if something changed. What if her feelings for you disappeared?"
Snape closed his eyes. What he did next was something that he thought about for the rest of his life. Even long after Lily's eventual death, it kept him awake late into the evening hours, often staring at his ceiling trying to rationalize his decision, other times while listening to Sinatra records to drown out the pain of his thoughts. But his chosen path led to the question that always bubbled to the surface—What if he'd only focused on protecting the invisible?
He felt the wafer break between his fingers, and his lips made the words, "Solvo Phasma Phasmatis." The clone of Lily hung in the air before him. Before he could begin to concentrate on how he would practice using the Dark Tourist, Voldemort's voice filled the room.
"Good," said the master. "Tomorrow, you'll do the same to Dumbledore. Except this time, his Dark Tourist will be for keeps."
