Chapter 30: Getting away with murder
For disclaimer and author notes please see chapter 1. Apologies once again for the delay, but I'm not very hopeful this will improve, due to work life balance tilting the wrong way :-(
1988-08-08 11:00 UTC, Kithurst Close
Hobby, Sirius, and Remus tried to have a quick discussion about what their next steps should be, but it soon became clear that they would not reach any kind of consensus. Sirius and Hobby were on the "extreme prejudice" side, while Remus advocated only being reactive. The discussion tailed off without any conclusion, and so, by unspoken agreement, they decided to postpone the debate for a few days, to allow things to settle down - both in the outside world as well as within their own minds. After all, Lucius Malfoy being sent through the veil was a landmark event in their country's magical future, whichever way you looked at it, and would likely have an affect on not just politics, but on many businesses as well, considering how much influence and side deals Malfoy was presumed to have brokered or arranged.
And so it was that a few days later found the extended family once again in a "council of war" of sorts. The kids weren't present, nor were they wanted - the discussion was not going to be at a child-friendly level at all. And of course, they wanted Nick and Penny's opinions, as the "elders" of their little group (or indeed any group which they would be part of!)
Hobby led off the discussion. "Now that Lucius is out of the picture, we need to figure out how we deal with the others. I absolutely, positively, want this whole thing put to rest well before Harry and Hermione go to Hogwarts. Every single potential death-eater must be neutralised by then".
"Nick, Penny, what we are differing on is how far we go to neutralise them", said Remus. "Hobby and Sirius think they all need to be eliminated, while I think most of them are already pretty neutralised and only some of them need some additional safeguards".
Before Nick and Penny could respond, Sirius interjected. "We don't want them killed. Hobby's got four of them turned into rats with a parseltongue password that only he knows; this is almost good enough, for me. The problem is, however, that even if only in theory, this can be reversed. A resurrected Voldemort, some serious legilimancy on a captured and weakened Hobby, and they're out. Is that easy? No. Is it possible. Hell yes! And that is what I don't like."
Nick looked at Penny. "Do we know of any obscure method to strip people of their magic permanently, irreversibly? I can't think of one offhand".
Penny shook her head. "No, neither can I. The only truly permanent solution is killing them. I assume we're not considering that...?"
"We're not considering doing that ourselves, though we're not averse to having them do it to each other. Sorta like Avery and Mulciber, but of course the details and trivia would have to be different."
"Speak for yourself, Padfoot", said Remus. "I am not in favour of even that. We need a way to contain them without having to actually kill them, directly or indirectly".
Sirius looked at him long and hard. "Are you OK with turning them into rats, and that parseltongue password thing?"
"Yes".
"Then what's the bloody difference?, roared Sirius. "They're dead in every way that matters except for Gringotts records. Is there a reason those would affect us?"
"No there isn't. It would only affect their heirs, and their ability to take certain decisions that only the head of house can. And unlike the Longbottoms, where it is well-known they are incapacitated, and therefore Augusta could be regent for Neville, nothing will be known here so they will stew".
"Isn't there some limit, like if they don't turn up for a certain number of years they are deemed to have died?"
"Too logical for wizards", smirked Remus.
Penny had been thinking about this, and had an idea. "I am pretty sure we can modify any spell - even a parseltongue one - to have a minimum time-limit before anyone can undo it. Set a minimum time of 150 years and they'll die naturally by then".
Sirius did not like where this was going. "Wait wait wait... why is that any different from killing them right now? In fact, Remus, you haven't explained why you are against killing them right now. Is it morality or something else?"
"Morality is only part of the story. What if there's a Sirius in there, unjustly blamed for something he did not do?"
"Well, DUH, we'd interrogate them with veritaserum to make absolutely sure, wouldn't we?"
"Like the Malfoys were interrogated in the court?", snarked Remus.
Sirius was almost boiling by now. He could somewhat understand where Remus was coming from, but not quite.
"Look Remus, what we did to the Malfoys is not easy for someone to do. And even if they did, why would they do it to their own? The only ones who could do it is us; without Nick's imperius potion we couldn't have done anything to Lucius and Narcissa, and we know that won't repeat without our knowledge and consent."
"Well, what would happen if someone managed to steal Nick's stock?"
"That potion doesn't have a long shelf life, Remus; in a couple of weeks more my stock, such as it is, would be useless. I just won't make any more", said Nick.
"OK, continuing to play devil's advocate here, what if someone else creates that potion. Dumbledore can, we know that. What if he decides he doesn't like us and decides to dose one of them with the potion to go after us. Is that person guilty? How will you find out it even happened? The veritaserum questioning in Malfoy's case did not reveal it, so how would you know?"
Sirius gave Remus a withering look. "If Dumbledore ever did anything against the real bad guys, we would not be in this pickle. He'll probably do it to you or me before he does it to someone like Nott", he growled.
The discussion went on like this for quite a while, neither side budging, and both essentially repeating the same arguments. It seemed as if they were no longer listening to each other - very unusual for friends, but perhaps the topic was serious enough to cause dissension even in such friends.
Finally Penny had had it with these three. She had been sitting quietly, nursing a cup of tea (dutifully refilled by Kreacher as needed), and when she suddenly got up, the others noticed and looked at her.
She looked annoyed, bordering on angry. "I think you should all do what Hobby says. He has lived through the alternative, none of the rest of us have. If he says someone is dangerous left alive, then he should not be left alive. If the magic stripping ritual did not require the target to agree to it..." and here she stopped, with a faraway look in her eyes.
The others knew not to disturb her. An older - much older - version of Hermione, thought Hobby.
Finally her faraway, thoughtful, look changed to a smirk.
"Hobby, what exactly happened to the Flint boy?"
"Well, his torturers thought they were torturing a muggle-born girl, then somehow got the idea that her accidental magic caused their problems, so they forced her ... to ... accept the magic stripping ritual!" Hobby paused a bit toward the end, then his voice rose happily in the last few words.
"Yes! It turns out that the 'must be voluntary' aspect is not as much of a problem as we have always been thinking", mused Nick.
Sirius had a question. "How come you two didn't know this? I'd have thought you knew all - God knows you've had enough time!", he teased.
Nick grinned back. "We're alive today because we decided long ago, if a full year goes by without either of us learning something new about the world of magic, we'd destroy our stone and allow our stocked potion to run out. Looks like we're all set for another year at least!"
"And to be fair, we never really experimented with or researched on stripping magic from people - it hardly ever came up, actually", said Penny.
"But that still presents a situation: how do you force someone to accept the ritual? We didn't force the Flint boy; they did", said Sirius.
"Can we use the same trick perhaps? Transform someone on their side into someone on our side, and have them be 'captured' or whatever?", said Remus.
"Won't work. Or at least, won't work beyond the first episode", said Hobby. "I still think the only way is to eliminate them, and the only thing stopping me from doing it is what I said earlier about the Harry Potter identity and causing Harry even the barest hint of trouble".
Before anyone else could say anything, he continued. "And that goes for you two as well! Look...", he straightened up and spoke slowly and seriously, "as Penny said, I am the one who has lived through the hell. I am the one who saw the muggleborn commission round up and kill hundreds, thousands maybe, or muggleborns. And that reminds me, we need to totally eliminate Umbitch and Fudge - Umbitch is the only one other than Bellatrix and Greyback for whom I would be OK with cold-blooded murder; she's had that many people killed.
Anyway, back to my rant. The only thing stopping me is the aspect of someone blaming Harry for all this, but that can only happen if they catch me, hit me with the right spells, and ask me the right questions. That's a long shot - even longer than a resurrected Voldemort legilimencing me for the rats' password. So, if we can't find some way of eliminating them, or we can't even come to an agreement, I'll do it all myself, and disappear. Permanently".
"What do you mean 'permanently'", asked Remus.
Hobby did not respond, but the look on Penny's face was enough to scare Remus.
She spoke up. "Hobby, there's no need for you to do that. Worst comes to worst, Nick and I do what's needed, openly and without hiding our identities, and disappear. We get new identities; you don't think we've always lived under these names or these forms do you? Six hundred years would have been pretty boring!", she laughed.
"While I appreciate the offer, Penny, I must decline. I will always need your help and advice, but the actual tasks are mine", said Hobby. "I can't simply fob them off on you, or even these two".
"But we love Harry just as much as you!"
"Yes, and that is why if you do it, it could easily backfire on him".
"But you're Harry too, so we love you just as much", said Remus.
Harry smiled gently at Remus and said "yet another reason to do this without any hint of our involvement".
If he was expecting Remus to say something like "but why do it at all?", he was disappointed. Penny's rant earlier appeared to have done its job.
"I think I have an idea; we will need to lay some groundwork first", said Hobby. "Nick, Penny, how soon can you get about twenty vials of veritaserum ready?"
"A day or two at most, Hobby", said Nick. "We probably have a few ready to hand, but not so many".
"That's more than enough time. We just want to be one hundred percent sure - think of it like a double check on my memories if you will. Now, we need a bit of misinformation. Let's meet back in a few days and we'll chalk out what to do. I also need to tell you about the horcruxes; there are three, possibly four more to be destroyed. Two are easy, one is going to be very hard, and the last I'm not sure if it is even a horcrux at this point; Riddle may have made it after he was resurrected, for all I know".
Sirius and Remus had already been briefed about the whole horcrux thing, though neither of them had been told about Harry's scar possibly containing one. Nick was trying to find out how to handle that - Hobby was happy to leave that to him.
1988-08-09 08:00 UTC, Kithurst Close
Sirius picked up the Daily Prophet and grinned at one of the headlines. So this is what the little bugger meant by 'little bit of misinformation', he thought.
Internecine feuds among conservative purebloods? by Rita Skeeter, Staff Reporter
Ever since Lucius Malfoy was found to have murdered his old friend Lord Mulciber, and simultaneously imperiused his wife into murdering Lord Avery, there have been rumblings among the old guard.
Powerful purebloods from old families, who have been friends for generations, and who were rumoured - but not proven - to be working for the dark lord, are now believed to have had a serious falling out.
It is now believed that Lord Malfoy - very recently confirmed as a death eater who had lied and bribed his way around the trials that happened after Halloween 1981 - had been making a play for the role of leader of the former death eaters.
It is also believed that that there are many more death eaters who had escaped Azkaban in a similar manner to Malfoy, and that even those death eaters who had been "pardoned" in early 1986 were also actually death eaters, and the pardon should not have happened. (And indeed, all of their cases should have been re-opened after Fudge's penchant for accepting bribes was revealed, which never happened.)
Meanwhile, four pureblood former friends of Lord Malfoy who, it was thought, had gone into hiding when the boy-who-lived was kidnappped, are now reported officially missing. Misters Rowle, Selvin, Travers and Yaxley have not been seen by any of their friends and casual acquaintanes ever since that time, and Lord Malfoy is the prime suspect.
Unfortunately, no one thought to ask him about these four when he was questioned, and now he is beyond questioning.
At the end of the day, this raises some important questions for our society. Firstly, how many more such wolves are hiding in sheeps clothing (or rather, in mink coats!). Secondly, what are their plans? With their leader - the dark lord - dead and gone, how far do they intend to go down that path again?
Malfoy was - even before his failed attempt at solidifying his position by murdering two of his close friends - the unofficial leader anyway. It is ironic that he would have been in a better position to do that if he had not killed Avery and Mulciber.
So the final question we must ask ourselves is this: now that the de facto leader (Malfoy) is gone, will others make a play for that position? Will we see more internecine murders or similar action among these criminals who still roam our streets?
Sirius chuckled at Hobby, who had just walked in and taken a seat, grabbing a breakfast plate and loading it with some toast, eggs, and so on.
"I did not realise how valuable Skeeter was", said Sirius.
"Valuable? More like 'malleable'!", smirked Hobby.
"So... this sets the stage for our next steps?"
Hobby nodded. It was hard to grin while chewing anyway.
"How did you think of this Hobby? This is fantastic! Settles all our arguments from yesterday neatly, and with a little creative positioning of bodies, even the last couple of them can be eliminated".
Remus had walked in just as Sirius was saying this. He still did not seem entirely convinced of the need to eliminate the death eaters in such a permanent manner, but not only Penny's scolding yesterday, but the promise of using veritaserum on anyone before doing anything to them, had mollified him. Of course, it was too late for Avery and Mulciber, but they had teetered even on the question of torturing a seven year old child, and had to struggle to say "no". Clearly, if the child were older, or if it was some innocent muggle, they would have no hesitation, and it was a reasonable supposition that they must have indulged their sick sadism several times in the past.
Hobby looked at Remus. "Hey Mooney, you're a detetective. What's the best way to murder someone and get away with it?"
Remus thought for barely a second. The context of the discussion was a big clue.
"Hmm, make it look like a suicide, I suppose!"
"Exactly", said Hobby.
Sirius was still a little slow on the uptake. "But these are clearly murders...?"
"Well, Sirius, think of the group of death eaters as a single entity, not as multiple individuals. The group is - slowly - killing itself. And speaking of which, the four that Skeeter mentioned explicitly as missing, presumed murdered by Malfoy, are waiting to be questioned by the five of us. Once Nick and Penny get here with the truth serum, we have to go to the dungeons of #12, question them, and if we all agree, dispose of them permanently".
Remus nodded. "Regardless of how we justify it, there is a certain finality in killing someone. At the very least, getting rid of the body..."
Hobby looked at him for a beat or two. "Much as I hate Crouch senior for what he did to Sirius, do you know what his son did to him back in my old life? Killed him, transfigured his body into a bone, and threw it into the forbidden forest for some scavenging animal to gnaw through".
He looked saddened. "And much as I love magic because it makes some things so easy, I also hate it because it makes bad things as easy as good things".
AN: canon related plot hole here; wonder if someone will catch it :)