It was difficult to say precisely what it was about Lao Shu that Madam Pomfrey found disconcerting. He was a small old asian fellow. His manner was nothing if not unassuming, polite, and kind. He thanked every attendant who took his luggage, and he was constantly making pleasant conversation during morning tea. Altogether, he seemed a rather put together gentleman.

But there was something about the way the other muggles seem to flinch whenever they saw him. Or the way the russians seemed to avoid him altogether. A slight stifness in the way he spoke. Eyes that were much too dull. Something unquantifiable that made the man... uncanny.

She shook off the feeling quickly. Just paranoia, it must be. No doubt he was some sort of scholar. "Wizard Studies", she giggled.

Jack Harper lived by one motto: "No Regrets". He had, after all, battled his way to a presidential election just as the cold war seemed unending. Every decision he made, he considered carefully. Every action he took, he justified strictly. Every step forward, he planned in advance. There was one thing, though, he had never fully gotten over. A little chinese man he had hired during his days as secretary of state.

"Sir?"

"Ah, nothing Mad-eye, tell me again about Mrs. Lestrange?"

"She's and absolute maniac sir. In love with subject Vega she was. Tortured people until they went insane."

"Can you restrain her magically?"

"I don't see how that would help. No one has been able to get her talk. I bet she enjoys being tortured. Even... even cruciatus hasn't worked."

"So you can restrain her magically."

Mad-eye hesitated. "Yes Sir."

"hehahAHAHEHEAHAHhaheah". Bellatrix giggled uncontrollably as the aurors applied their spells. She felt the magic draining from her body, like a great damp cloth was covering her soul. She did not care, for she knew her devotion to Voldemort was unparalleled. She would never break. She would never

"nono, a little up, the feet up, yes"

She squinted at the man. Small, unassuming, old. She giggled even louder "come to play with the big girls little man? See if you can teaaase something out?"

"hush hush miss, no need to talk"

A cloth was placed over her face and she giggled some more. "Lying on a comfy table, you muggles know nothing heehee". Her wrists were bound carefully, and the table tilted slightly.

"now little miss, would you like to submit to... what is called... legamancy?"

"Would you like to die screaming little man?" She sneered

Water flooded her nose. It was an unfamiliar sensation, and at first, she did not react at all. Then her brain told her to breath.

"You see, brain think water in nose means drowning, not the same as being underwater" Lao Shu was speaking in a quiet, calm voice to the auror's in the room. "It say "hey, water not supposed to be in here, now surface and breath". A garbled scream emerged from the woman below him.

Bellatrix's head strained uncontrollably against its bindings as he periodically poured water from a small jug. "And when it not surface, it panics you see, and breath anyway, see how the hands, they are shaking." Vague curses mixed with desperate pants filled the room.

"Can't just put head underwater though, bad, dangerous" He said nonchalantly "break mind take longer. Have to sustain panic, make it long, but let breath a tiny bit." He poured water in Bellatrix's open mouth. "Build small rhythm, let her get some air, then when she think she know when is safe" more water entered her nose and mouth "you give a little more water".

"That why we have cloth see. So when she gasp, mouth fill with damp cloth, nose fill with damp cloth. Easy to see when she try to breath, make it feel like she not breathing." The woman screamed.

All of a sudden, Madam Pomfrey understood very well why she did not like Lao Shu.

Bellatrix did not know how much time had passed. Her body kept telling her to breath. She wanted so desperately to breath. But she couldn't. There was always the water. Always coming. She tried to hold her breath. She couldn't see. She couldn't predict it. She panicked, utterly. She had to escape. Had to get out. Had to make it stop. She shook violently, trying desperately to move, but her limbs wouldn't move. Which way was up? Was her head shaking or was she imagining it? The damp cloth pressed into her mouth and up her nostrils.

"Are you, a bunny rabbit?"

She grasped desperately at the chance, any chance. "YES YES YES YES YES YES YES"

"Would you like to do legmancy?"

"YES YES YES YES YES YES"

"Ok then".