Chapter 32: Out of Charity with Fishface
The funeral was impressive; half the wizarding world was there. The centaurs came to show their respects; though many students kept a healthy distance from them. Even the merfolk came up out of the lake singing strange, unearthly songs. The whole of the Order of the Phoenix was there; and Tonks had her hair back to its usual shade of vivid pink and she was holding Lupin's hand. From the most prominent in the land – if one counted the ministry – to such lowly characters as Ernie Prang, driver of the night bus were there, as the students of Hogwarts filed into their seats behind their formally robed house heads. The ghosts too turned out, though nearly-headless Nick was complaining that he had not seen Dumbledore go through and he always saw Gryffindors off on their way if they died in school.
"That Medieval Moron is going to ruin it all!" muttered Krait. "Where's Myrtle?"
"Here…I'm allowed out of the loo for an occasion like this" said Myrtle. "What is it?"
"Nick's sounding off… head him off at the pass, huh, Tonto?"
Myrtle giggled.
"Oooh I remember the Lone Ranger in second features, we used to sit up in the gods, my dad and me on a Saturday before I started school…" she said "Yes, all right, I'm GOING!" as Krait glowered at her. Myrtle of course knew about Dumbledore's continued life; she had eavesdropped on the plans. The Blood Group more or less considered her one of themselves anyway. She flicked off transparently to cry artistically in Nick's gloomily startled arms.
-/-
Hagrid, sobbing even louder than for Aragog, carried the body, wrapped in star-spangled purple velvet to a table set at the front, honking his nose into a handkerchief after he had laid it down. Krait's heart went out to him, but Hagrid could no more act a lie than a snake could fly. Once the Ministry were off their backs she planned to let him in on the secret and rely on him to withdraw from most company as he was accustomed to do when very upset anyway. He went to the back row where his brother Grawp sat, dressed in a jacket and trousers each the size of a small marquee, his head bowed in grief. Hagrid sat down beside him and Grawp patted his brother affectionately on the head so hard his chair legs sank into the ground. Those in the know had to sob hard into handkerchiefs to hide laughter.
Some Ministry man got up and mouthed off all the platitudes Dumledore had predicted 'nobility of spirit'….'intellectual contribution'….'greatness of heart'…..
Krait muttered under her breath and the Ministry man's face became a little wild as he found himself saying
"And above all. Professor Dumbledore enjoyed a well-crafted jape that was well-meaning and was as likely to punish such miscreants with a cup of tea and sweet biscuits in his office as he was just to turn a blind eye. If he could be here today he would tick off everyone present for their long faces, especially those who wear hypocritical ones, and urge you to drink to his memory and remember the good times. He is beyond the veil but never gone from Hogwarts until his friends and students forget him; which is to say never."
The tufty-haired little man fled without completing his boring and platitudinous speech; but the applause was thunderous.
There were no other speeches; though whether that was because other Ministers were afraid of being usurped in a like fashion, or because there was to be only one eulogy, Krait could not guess. She jumped slightly at the sudden screams from the front as bright, white flames erupted from around the body and the table on which it lay; they rose high, obscuring the body, spiralling up into strange shapes. Then the fire vanished, leaving in its place a white marble tomb encasing the table and its burden. The centaurs fired arrows into the air as a mark of respect, an act which seriously disturbed the nervous though David's voice could be plainly heard explaining that the trajectory was such that only a feeble-minded nitwit would think them likely to come near the crowd. Then the centaurs dispersed; and the merfolk sank beneath the waves.
He was not dead; but he might soon be, alone, unmourned for nobody knowing that he died another time, thought Krait; and tears came to her eyes. This might be all the memorial there was. Absently Krait created petals of Severia and let them drift down out of the sky, causing murmurs of wonder at the sweet smell.
"Don't overdo it" muttered Severus "Why, my dear, you're really moved!"
"It might just be that the timing is off a bit" said Krait "Silly of me…you know."
Severus nodded.
"I know" he said "I liked your eulogy better than the ministry's; though his tendencies to like miscreants can be a little irritating at times!"
"But we love our friends with all their irritating habits" said Krait.
-/-
Rufus Scrimgeour tried to buttonhole Harry; he had tried over Christmas to get him to support the Ministry and it seemed that he was trying again. Krait heard Harry tell him firmly that he would ALWAYS be Dumbledore's man and that his position had not changed for a Ministry prepared to send evil creatures like Dolores Umbridge to torture innocent children just because it had not then suited the Ministry to accept the evidence of several people's eyes.
Scrimgeour retired hurt and Krait gently released a farting jinx on his shoes tied to the muffling spell so that everyone except the wearer could hear it.
Sometimes it relieved the feelings to be childish.
Scrimgeour bounced off self importantly farting gently from his feet.
-/-
The quidditch match to have been played with Beauxbatons and Durmstrang was off of course; the plea that the team was too upset by the death of their headmaster and that many of them were being withdrawn for the term was given. There was too much to do without the match as an added complication; and the possibility that Durmstrang might have supporters of Voldemort ready to cause harm to the team. Beauxbatons sent commiserations.
-/-
Charity Burbage duly handed in her resignation; and disappeared. She had wanted to remain as a support to the muggle-born; but Lupin was firm.
Severus and Krait brought a bound body that looked like her to Malfoy Manor; Voldemort had changed his headquarters to be closer, as he said, to the action, and in surroundings more fitting to his position.
"Have you had decorators in to the Riddle house then to make it finer then?" said Krait "Excellent idea…using muggles to do up the place will allay muggle suspicions until you are ready to take them over. There's an election due in the muggle world, they're expected to choose a new Prime Minister so in the flurry of changeover there in a few months your own takeover should go smoothly. But in the meantime I can quite see that you'd want their fears allayed, and besides, they can't do a worse job on it than the previous occupants. You can add magical decorations gradually. Can I have my room done in purple?"
Voldemort blinked.
"Irrelevancies!" he cried "Utter irrelevancies!"
He sounded so much like Draco's Convolvumort that Krait had to fight to control the laughter.
"Not to me" said Krait "I'd hate to be your princess in a room done out in the sort of bilious pink a lot of young girls seem to like, like that Parkinson brat who tries to hang round Draco's neck. You need a palace; it's a good start, the old Riddle property, you can enlarge it using wizarding space as well as getting in goblin builders. The old ballroom will make an excellent throne room with a dais and throne and everyone else having to stand – or kneel – before you. You need somewhere to receive the rabble and dispense your discipline. The Ministry building is just too too mundane; it lacks majesty, grandeur and the cachet of age. The Riddle house has at least some Tudor parts to it with the unmistakable patina of antiquity and thereby the reminder of your legitimacy as Slytherin's heir. Even if it is only a muggle house, most people won't realise that once Uncle Lucius and others have helped furnish it with true wizarding antiques and you have house elves flitting about to serve you."
"Daughter, you have good ideas but sometimes you talk too much" said Voldemort warningly. Krait bowed.
-/-
The drawing room was full of people; Azkaban had again been emptied of its Deatheaters. One prisoner had not survived, and Krait could not feel sorry that Dolores Umbridge had been killed. She had been half afraid her father might recruit the false Deatheater she had framed; but Voldemort knew only that Umbridge was to have been a Ministry Inquisitor and therefore assumed – quite wrongly – that she was a supporter of Harry Potter.
Voldemort smiled thinly to see what appeared to be a terrified old woman between Severus and Krait.
"Ah the muggle lover" he hissed. "Crucio!"
The false Madam Burbage screamed and writhed; though much of it was an act as the blood group smoothly diffused the pain between them to mere discomfort. It was not so profound as had Dumbledore undertaken a full joining; but he had a connection to Severus and Severus understood how to use the blood link better perhaps than any of them.
Draco had gazed upon the captive with horror, recognising her, afraid to look at Severus; but as the blood link drew on him he relaxed slightly, though he continued to act nervously, glancing up from time to time, being the nervy boy new to violence that he might be expected to be as Narcissa's protected pet.
Voldemort gave a savage, mirthless grin with his lipless mouth; jerked his wand and suspended the body of his victim above the table.
"Sit down Severus, my daughter…. We have much to discuss. How did the funeral go?"
"Oh moving… very moving" said Severus "Some Ministry idiot said all that was proper until one of Dumbledore's supporters usurped his speech and did us an unwitting favour with the Ministry by saying what a great support Dumbledore was to mischief makers….so at least can we have it reported. I have already planted seeds that Potter himself may have killed Dumbledore in a fit of megalomaniac madness. You were planning on discrediting him again I suppose?"
Voldemort smiled.
"Oh very nice, Severus!" he purred. "You divine my ideas well… I believe you might well be worthy of my daughter after all! Yes, we have to alienate him from the general community…. It is a shame that Rita Skeeter disappeared, she has proved a useful unwitting tool in the past."
"I'm leaving school after my NEWTS, could I do her job until you find a real replacement?" said Krait "I write fairly well."
Voldemort looked at her with hooded snake like eyes.
"Perhaps you could, my daughter" he said "It will mean a trip to Godric's Hollow; you could go, if Severus will take you, in the Spring Holiday now it is started and question Bathilda Bagshot."
"What the historian? Is she still alive?" asked Krait.
"Not only alive but she knew the Dumbledores…there was some funny business about his younger sister. Find out what you can and write it up to give as bad a light as possible" said Voldemort "We need to discredit Dumbledore as much as we need to discredit Potter. All Potter's main support came from that slippery old man and if that is discredited it helps to destroy public support for the boy."
Krait nodded.
"We must be careful though not to let anyone think that Potter killed Dumbledore because he discovered his dark secret and reacted against a murky past" she said "For that might generate sympathy for him. Severus should come, he can legilimens this Bagshot female while I make nice and ask her flattering questions. How are you going to get Severus made headmaster?"
"Yaxley will answer that" said Voldmort.
Yaxley rose. He was taller than Severus but did not look it as he was not so thin, and his features were blunt and square.
"I'm intending to put the Imperius charm on Pius Thicknesse… he's a tough target but I'm studying everything about him to catch him in a moment of weakness."
"He is however only one man" said Voldemort. "It will be a start, but…however you have more?"
"My Lord , though he is only one man he is as you know Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement; he has regular contact with Scrimgeour and with the Heads of all the other Ministry departments. With such a high-ranking official under our control, it will be easy to subjugate others, both by Imperius curse and by other means. Plenty of them have more similar ideals to ours than they dare to say at the moment. And then they can work together to bring down Scrimgeour."
"As long as Thicknesse is not discovered before he has converted the rest" said Voldemort. "We have all summer; the Fidelius charm that protects the boy will not dissolve until his seventeenth birthday on the thirty first of July. The Order of the Phoenix will attempt to move him before then I wager, and then we shall have him."
"We do have advantages there too My Lord" said Yaxley "We have several people planted within the Department of Magical transport. If Potter apparates or uses the Floo network we shall know immediately."
"I doubt he will do either" said Severus "The Order is eschewing any form of transport that is controlled or regulated by the ministry; they mistrust anything to do with the place."
"Well they're right there" said another deatheater with a snigger.
"All the better" said Voldemort "He will have to move in the open. I can attend to the boy in person; there have been too many mistakes where the boy has been concerned. Some of them have been my own; that Potter lives has been due in part to my errors rather than to his triumphs."
The air was one of apprehension; fear in each that he would be picked as a scapegoat for Harry Potter's successes.
Voldemort went on,
"I shall be the one to kill him; now I have knowledge of what is needed to defeat the boy whose main attribute is luck. Luck or bad luck can make or break the best laid plans…."
There was a long thin cry from below their feet.
"Draco" the dark lord spoke quietly "Have I not spoken to you about keeping our guest quiet? Alas for Wormtail's death in Azkaban – he was as worm like as his tail but he knew how to anticipate my orders!"
"I – I'll go to him, My Lord" said Draco, exiting hastily, with a final look of horror at the figure of Charity Burbage.
"We shall meet again before the boy is moved" said Voldemort "Severus, see what you can uncover from the order."
"I'm not sure they'll trust me after Potter has shot off his mouth" said Severus dryly "He DIDn't see me; my hood was up, it is only that he suspects, but he is swearing blind it was me."
"And you did use one of your signature spells" said Voldemort softly "Careless of you."
"No, I did it on purpose" said Severus calmly "Potter found my own potions book that I had not had time to move before the Slug occupied my dungeon; the boy had not intended to carry on Potions until he found out there was a different teacher, and had to borrow what dear Horace took for a school book. He is KNOWN to have had that scruffy potions book; the spell is inscribed in there. I was furious at the intrusion into MY personal possessions at first but it could not have worked out better actually."
Voldemort nodded.
"Good…good. You will exclude him from school over the summer to investigate the er allegation of course?"
"Of course – if I am confirmed Headmaster before the students return."
"Yaxley, see to it" said Voldemort. "It will add to his feelings of isolation and frustration; he is more likely to act recklessly when the time has come and then I am more likely to make a quick triumph." He smiled thinly. "And now" he said "To deal with our guest. Ah Draco!" as the boy returned "Do you recognise her?"
Draco stared at her, and turned his face away.
"I – I don't know" he mumbled.
"Ah, but you would not have taken her classes" purred Voldemort "Her name is Charity Burbage and until recently she taught at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry under its…misguided headmaster" he paused for the small noises of comprehension from his assorted followers. "Yesss…Professor Burbage taught the children of witches and wizards all about muggles….how they are not so different to us…."
One of the deatheaters spat on the floor and Narcissa made a brief noise of protest.
"Dolokhov, I appreciate your disgust but this IS a two hundred year old Aubusson and is worth more than your mangy hide could amass in all the time it has been here" said Krait, sneering at him. She could get away with the rebuke Narcissa could not. Her aunt shot her a surprised and half grateful look. Krait suspected that the surprise was that she knew what the carpet was more than anything else.
'Charity Burbage' swung on her invisible bonds.
"Severus… please…please…" 'she' whimpered realistically.
"Silence!" said Voldemort; and with another twitch of his wand – actually Lucius' wand, Krait recognised – the whimpering was gagged. "Not content with polluting and corrupting the minds of wizarding children, this creature has written an impassioned defence of mudbloods that she expects to appear in the Daily Prophet. Wizards, she says, must accept these thieves of their knowledge and magic. The dwindling of the pure bloods is, she says a desirable circumstance….she would have us all mate with muggles….or maybe with werewolves as one of the scions of the ancient family of the Blacks is about to do….why, Narcissa, did you miss the notice of the engagement of your niece Nymphadora Tonks to the werewolf Lupin?"
There was anger and contempt in Voldemort's tone and Narcissa made a small noise of negation; the air crackled with tension. The figure of the captive rotated to face Severus again who stared impassively into the eyes that met his apparently imploring. Voldemort pointed Lucius' wand.
"Avada Kedavra!"
The flash of green light illuminated every corner of the room; and the magically bound figure fell with a crash onto the table below. Several deatheaters leaped back in their chairs as the table creaked a protest.
Severus and Krait shared a moment's shock with Draco and – elsewhere – the others as the spell dissolved between them. It was not the full force; Krait had been expecting the moment and had been surreptitiously hardening the air between Dumbledore and her father, to act – as she later explained – like a diffusion grid. Using Dumbledore as a guinea pig for how well the spell might be dispersed was all very well, but she saw no reason to sacrifice him if it failed. As it was she was certain they could have taken the full blast; but better to be safe than sorry.
"Dinner, Nagini" whispered the Dark Lord softly; and the big snake swayed and slithered from his shoulders.
"I think that is unwise, My Lord" said Severus.
"Indeed? Why is that?" said Voldemort, displeased.
"I placed a slow acting poison in her body to keep her compliant – promising the antidote later" lied Severus smoothly "As you planned to kill her anyway I did not think it mattered; my apologies to Nagini. I was thoughtless of her needs."
"Indeed" said Voldemort "But it is typical of you never to leave anything to chance, Severus… I forgive you, I did not specify my plans for the mudblood lover. Very well; I will leave it to you to dispose of the body. Make sure it is never found."
Severus bowed.
"I shall do my utmost to rectify my small error of judgement" he said. "Come Krait; we must remove this…thing."
It was good to be given the responsibility of dealing with the body as something of a mild punishment; now nobody need suspect that the body lived and gave them time to get it away before Dumbledore transformed back to his natural state.
A/N'up in the gods' is an old Brit slang term for the cheap seats at the cinema up at the top.