Chapter Sixteen

Memories

Still, Jane was glad that she hadn't taken photographs of her students' drunken faces. Also, that no one had taken a picture of her drunk. In the end, there was some film left, but Lily used it for something else.

On the Sunday after the concert, Jane looked for Lily, but she was nowhere to be found – the boys said she had locked herself in the darkroom to process photographs. She decided not to bother her and instead set about preparing for her duties in the Order.

One of the evenings during the week when there wasn't much to do, Lily came over to show her the pictures. All but one or two had turned out well. One of the group photos was blurred, and in another, Euphem's head had appeared as a yellow cloud scattered around his shoulders.

But Lily had something else to share.

'Associate Professor Undead, I've decided to seek your consultation on a matter,' she said, looking at the floor. 'Some of the boys in my year have found out that we participated in the opening of "Raw Magic" and asked me to go out with them. I don't like them though. I especially don't like the fact that they didn't really notice me before, but now they suddenly remembered about me.'

'That's what happens when you become a star,' Jane smiled, but at Lily's look saying "It's not funny at all," she replied seriously. 'I don't like them either, but what can be done? They used to circle around me too when I was young. A dime a dozen.'

'And what did you do with them?'

'There are generally two ways to deal with them. Either you sleep with them and then dump them or you don't pay attention to them at all.'

'And which of the methods did you use?' Lily blushed.

'A little bit of both, to be honest. Don't look at me like that, you know the rumours about me at school. That's what happens when you're careless.'

'Let's put the sleeping thing aside,' Lily said hurriedly. 'I'm still young. How do I get rid of them and how do I know who really likes me, not just because of my fame?'

'I was wondering the same thing back then. Actually, it's not hard. You either find someone who hasn't heard of you, or someone who liked you before you became famous. The third option is someone who is not impressed by your fame. These are workarounds, but they are effective.'

'Thanks, I'll try them,' Lily replied and gathered the photographs into a pile. 'Can you help me with your Legilimency? At least to weed them out in the first place.'

'Sure. You just have to show me the subject and I'll tell you what he thinks about you. But it's not bad to learn to judge people yourself.'

Using this method, the two weeded out one Ravenclaw and two Slytherins, and Lily rested. However, Jane didn't tell her about the other guys who liked her before the concert – she didn't think it was good for her to open her student's eyes. Lily was quite good at opening them herself. Jane often saw her talking to Anthony Stone, Ronald Weasley or one of her previous suitors. She even noticed that Lily had admirers within the group as well – August and Jerry had taken a liking to her a long time ago. She also omitted it, as she thought it was better for the children to mend their heart-to-hearts without her help.

Jane's tasks in the Order weren't complicated – she had to either deliver something to someone or track down and then report how many people went to some Death Eater gathering. The hardest part was when she had to talk to captured Death Eaters and find out the truth in their minds while having a conversation with them that was in essence a cross-examination and in form a simple mundane conversation.

She was aware that she needed lessons in rhetoric to be perfect, but she wasn't bad anyway – she managed to interrogate a few "middle officers" in Dumbledore's terminology, which was quite an achievement. Of course, there was always security that moved unnoticed behind her. But the feeling that Voldemort wanted to finish with her didn't leave her.

She came across a Legilimens once. Whether Professor Dumbledore was unaware of this or had let him in on purpose, she never knew, but the things she learned from him were quite interesting. To do this, she had to conduct a mental battle with him and in the end cast an oblivion spell on him.

However, something still bothered her, and that was Professor Snape's loyalty. True, the Headmaster trusted him, but she wanted to see for herself if he was loyal to Dumbledore and the Order. Therefore, one evening in March, when she was already feeling confident in her sneaking skills, she decided to follow him to London. She had peeked into his mind earlier in the day, hoping he wouldn't sense her, and that's how she knew where he was going that evening.

For about half an hour she stood by the exit of the castle, waiting for him to appear. True, she could go straight to the place, but she ran the risk of making a mistake and him not going there after all, so she decided to follow him.

It wasn't long before Snape himself appeared and walked silently towards the castle gate. Jane waited for him to take a few steps outside and tried to follow just as quietly. When he left the castle, the professor headed for the gates of Hogwarts and after passing them, he apparated. Jane used the apparate-tracking spell and went after him.

She found herself in London, in a part she had hardly set foot in before. There was an icy wind, but no snow. The ground was wet, apparently it had rained recently. Jane followed him for several blocks until he met two maskless figures, their faces dark in the shadows. They were a man and a woman. The man was almost certainly Lucius Malfoy, and she had a vague feeling about the woman that they had met somewhere before. The professor went up to them, greeted them and exchanged a few words. Then he left them alone and started to go back, saying he must have lost something. Jane ducked behind three trash cans by the corner of a nearby building and cast the spell that shielded her from view and prevented any noises from going from her to the outside world. When Snape reached her, however, he just waved his wand and the spell was broken.

'Undead,' he hissed at her as soon as he saw her between the cans, 'what are you doing here?'

'I'm checking you.' Jane lifted her chin. She had to keep her composure despite being exposed. She would probably have to save her skin shortly.

'By order of the headmaster or what?' he continued asking.

Jane was silent.

'Ah, I see.' Snape grinned. 'Self-initiative.'

'Even so, I need to make sure of your loyalty.' Jane was already shaking, but she wasn't about to give up.

'And you know tracking tactics as well as a musician. Ever since the gates of Hogwarts, I heard you trailing behind me.'

Jane just looked at him defiantly.

'And what are you going to do now? Will you betray me to your friends?' she finally asked.

'As much as I despise you, no, I'm not going to do that,' he said calmly. 'I'll send you back to Hogwarts.'

'And if I refuse to go?'

'If you refuse, I'll have to call someone to pick you up like the little child you are.' He was getting impatient.

The teacher wondered for some time how to respond to this insult, but Snape interrupted her thoughts. 'Do you have any idea how dangerous it is to be around while I'm meeting these two? Do you know that they are the most powerful dark wizards after the Dark Lord?'

'N-no. I…'

'And I'd even let you play spies if it weren't for them. But now I'm telling you for the last time – go away.'

'Don't I at least have a right to defend myself against your accusations?' She gave free rein to her quiet anger.

'No time,' Snape and Jane both looked around the corner at Malfoy and the woman walking towards them. 'Undead, get away!' he hissed.

Then he turned on his heels and turned his back on her. Jane didn't wait to see what would happen next, but quickly walked to the end of the block and apparated. Then a sudden shame came over her. After so much learning about how to sneak around, how to observe without being observed, for everything to collapse so quickly and in such a way. It was clear that she wasn't a spy yet, but it would have been nice if she had found out in any other way.

Still, Snape, she reasoned, was risking a lot in front of Voldemort for letting her slip away from the meeting place. Especially if one of the Death Eaters found out. If he was on Voldemort's side, he should have betrayed her by now. However, her instincts were of a different opinion. Besides being a narcissistic jerk, a frowning recluse, and a double agent, Professor Snape was loyal to Dumbledore.

Professor Snape sat in the armchair in his room, thinking with displeasure about his meeting with Associated Professor Undead that evening. The girl wasn't all that interesting, he reasoned. A dilettante at espionage, incapable of duelling, nor particularly bright. Not pretty either, he smiled to himself. She was obviously going to repeat the mistakes of her "famous" father, just as the little imbecile Potter before her. So there was absolutely no reason for him to pay any particular attention to her. Also, she was definitely not an emissary of the Dark Lord watching over him as he had previously thought.

His reasoning was correct, no doubt. Therefore, the conclusions had to be right. Yet he always felt alert around her. Indeed, two very small details about her puzzled him and made him wary.

One, without a doubt, was her name. By some strange circumstance, Undead bore her mother's last name. Professor Snape had never even heard of another such case. After all, as far as he knew, her mother and father were married when she was born, therefore by all the rules of the wizarding and muggle worlds, she should have been Jane Brown. It would suit her – it sounded simple enough, and unpleasant for him, given that he knew her late father.

The other thing was the strange case with the blood after the duel. Jane had tried to gloss over the situation, but it was clear that she was suffering from some ancient curse of unclear origin. At first, Snape had thought the curse was the work of the Dark Lord, but he no longer held that view. It seemed to have much deeper roots, and that worried him. He didn't care much for Jane, but he did think it was dangerous for the Order to have witches and wizards with unknown curses hanging over them as members. Besides, Snape could sense that her name and the curse were somehow connected, but he didn't know how. He had read at least a few books on ancient curses, but he had not come across hers anywhere. There were a few like it, but for them, one had to be of an inhuman race – a medusa or a harpy, and Undead was definitely neither of those.

He remembered her father well, a small man who thought himself very cunning and had almost deceived the Lord once. They had attacked some very rich wizarding family whose mansion was full of gold and jewels. Brown, who was the senior of the group, had enchanted the others to forget about the gold, and he himself was good enough at Occlumency, though he lacked the talent for Legilimency.

He brought the Dark Lord only a few trifles – a cup with the family crest, a gold ring, and so on. The rest, he said, must have been taken to Gringotts Bank. For a while the Dark Lord forgot about it, he had other things on his mind. He was just planning a raid on the Order of the Phoenix, and he had to keep an eye on his other subordinates…

He was reminded of the incident by Brown himself, the second time he had botched the task of bringing his daughter to the Death Eaters. He had been told that he had to somehow lure his ex-wife to come to the designated location and have Malfoy and company take the girl. However, the lady understood from his mind what was waiting for her, secured an escort from the Order, a battle took place in which the girl disappeared somewhere, and only her useless mother remained to participate in it.

The Dark Lord wanted to know how it was possible that Susan understood what her husband wanted from her, and began to pick at his brain. From there sprang both the multitude of designs to deceive the Lord and what had already been done in the matter. The Lord was furious, he grabbed his magic wand, he shouted in his anger: 'Avada Kedavra!'

And John Brown was gone.

Ironically, Jane was also thinking about her father. Although he had left them when she was only three years old and had practically no memory of him, John Brown had returned for her a few years later when she was ten. Her mother had shown her these memories and now she was spinning them in her head.

They were years of terror and dread, the Dark Lord had just assembled his first set of Death Eaters and John Brown was among them. Susan and Jane Undead lived in the small village of Ravendale and hadn't heard anything from him in the past seven years. However, among the wizards in the village, there were terrible rumours about the Dark Mark, which appeared above the houses where the Death Eaters terrorized the people. Horrified, Susan learned one day that her ex-husband had joined them and started thinking about what to do to keep him away from her daughter. She didn't have much time to think, however, because one autumn evening the neighbour came running panting and told her that some men in dark cloaks and masks were coming to their houses. The neighbour in question was a witch, and she took the Death Eater stories very seriously. Susan ran home, hoping she still had time to escape. When she reached the threshold, she looked behind her and saw the masked men coming down the road. There were three of them and they walked slowly and menacingly towards her house. Out of habit, Susan picked up the toy broom her daughter had dropped nearby and carried it into the house. She found Jane at the piano playing something she made up while eating a slice of bread with pumpkin jam left on top of the instrument.

'Janie, honey, I have to tell you something,' Susan said breathlessly.

'Mommy, if it's about the jam, I was just finishing it at the piano. I won't do it again, I promise.'

'Set aside the jam and the piano for now. The neighbour said that the bad wizards I told you about are coming to us. Your father is with them, too. They must be trying to do something to us.'

'Mommy, is Daddy bad, too?'

'I'm afraid so. Now go up to your room like a good girl and don't turn on the light. Mommy will meet them and see what they want. You stay there and be quiet.'

'Yes, Mommy,' said the little one, frightened.

Susan handed the broom to Jane, who took it in her little hands and started up the stairs.

The mother sat in a chair behind the kitchen table and put her hands on her head. She had to figure out what to do, and she didn't even know what they were going to ask of her. She could no longer escape, the yard was open and they would see her.

There was a knock on the door. Susan was startled in her thoughts, got up and hurriedly went to open the door. Standing in the doorway was her ex-husband, age hadn't affected him at all.

'Susan, darling!' he greeted her with false joy. 'It's been so long since we've seen each other!'

'John,' Susan said dryly.

'Let me introduce the chaps – these are Nott and Travers, my associates.'

Brown elbowed them and they both reluctantly removed their masks.

'Come on mates, come in. My wife will accommodate you.'

Susan just pursed her lips but said nothing. Just as she was closing the door, the cat slipped past her and ran out. Her first reaction was to open it and grab her, but she stopped herself. The animal was certainly in a better position out there than the two of them in the house.

'Woman, put some tea on!' ordered Brown, angry that Susan hadn't bothered to show them the chairs, and they had to find them and sit in them themselves.

Susan silently filled the kettle from the tap and placed it on the stove. She knew her ex-husband was annoyed that she was, in his words, "turning more and more muggle" and she did it for her own pleasure.

'You're still the same, I see,' he noted with a frown as she removed the cups from the cabinet with her hands. 'But that won't matter to our daughter once I take her with me.'

"So this is what you want," Susan thought to herself. "Just wait and see."

'I'm not going to let my daughter live who knows where with a man she barely knows. And who doesn't understand cooking, cleaning, and taking care of the younger ones.'

'I'm a changed man, can't you see?' John began to explain. 'I have status now, I can get a house elf and even a female servant. Jane will not be left without care.'

Susan scanned the surface of his mind. He was still the same pig, only more impudent.

'Even if you've changed, I'm not sure it's for the better. The best thing you can do for us is to leave us alone.'

'Yes, and let her grow up like a muggle with you. Jane was lucky enough to be born pureblood, so she rightfully belongs to me. Pack her bags and tell her that she will now live with me in the capital. Faster, woman.'

Susan, however, was staring into his thoughts. There was no lie, he planned to give her about ten minutes to pack the child's things, and then whether the luggage was ready or not, he would take her with him.

'Fine,' she finally said. 'But Jane has a lot of toys and I have to pack them all because she'll miss them.'

'How long do you want to dally?'

'I think about half an hour will be enough.'

'You have twenty minutes.'

The young woman opened the kitchen door and started up the stairs. She reached the upper floor and thought frantically, "The owl, where is the owl?". The old owl was used for practically nothing and usually lived in an empty attic room. Susan took a pencil and some paper (the quills and parchments were shoved into a crate) and climbed up to the attic. She was glad to see the owl preening its feathers in the corner of the little room, which was all soiled by it.

'Come on, honey, you're going to take a letter now,' Susan propped the paper against the wall and began writing.

Dear Lorelai, I need your help. Call Professor Dumbledore to your house, it's urgent. Susan

She tied the note to the owl's leg and told it where to go. After the bird flew out through an open window, Susan went downstairs and went straight to her daughter's room.

'Janie, you and I are going to visit Aunt Lorelai now.'

'Aunt Lorelai! Jolly! Mommy, what are we going to do with Daddy?'

'We'll leave Daddy here. Now be good, put on your coat and your boots.'

She helped her daughter dress, and she threw on some old cloak, which was all faded. "Now there's only one thing left – how to get down from the second floor without crashing." It was dangerous to use magic, it could attract their attention. Who knows what kind of detectors they had? Suddenly Susan remembered the little broom. She took it from the toy heap where it lay and examined it critically. It wouldn't last to the end of the yard, but it was suitable for going down to the ground.

She opened the window and the strong night wind blew her. It was now quite dark, which suited them perfectly.

'Honey, get on the broom in front of Mommy. Excellent. Now hold on.'

Susan pushed herself off the floor, bent to go through the window frame, and the two went flying on the broom that barely supported their weight. They plunged headlong down and fell almost silently into the bushes.

'Mommy, the broom won't hold,' Jane said quietly.

'I know, sweetie. Don't talk,' Susan whispered. 'We'll leave it here.'

The rest was more difficult than the descent. Running across the yard, jumping over the fence and then running to the woods. Jane soon ran out of breath and had to be picked up by her mother. During this time the cold wind pierced them and hindered their progress. When they got far enough into the forest, Susan took out her wand and apparated them somewhere in Wales, then in Surrey. They walked for some time and soon reached a small village. Susan knocked on the door with the child in her arms and anxiously looked around the neighbouring houses. There was no light anywhere, and there was not a man to be seen on the road – the icy wind had driven everyone to their houses.

Professor Dumbledore himself, the leader of the Order of the Phoenix, opened the door for them.

'Professor Dumbledore, I need to speak with you,' Susan said with relief.

The wizard took the cowering child from her arms and made room for her to enter. Lorelai was already waiting for them in front of the burning hearth, over which hung a kettle.

'Thank you very much, Lora, I don't know what to say!' Susan walked over to her and gave her a shaky hug.

'Tell us, what happened? Professor Dumbledore and I were very afraid for you.'

'John has arrived. With two of his own,' Susan sobbed. 'You know about John, don't you?'

'We know,' answered the professor calmly.

'He wanted to take Jane to live with him. I got scared and ran away. They must still be in our house.'

'Calm down, no one's going to take Jane away from you. She will be attending Hogwarts next year, where we will keep her as safe as possible. She's already casting spells, isn't she?'

'Oh yeah. Sweetheart, tell Professor Dumbledore about the blackboard in mathematics class and the cat that chased the dog.'

'Professor,' Jane began matter-of-factly, 'I was bored in mathematics class once. The problem was easy. And as I looked at the board, it erased itself. And another time, the neighbour's dog chased our cat. I got very angry. And by the time I realized it, the cat was already chasing the dog, and he ran away across three yards.'

'Well done, my girl!' said the professor sincerely. 'You will become a witch.'

'And when I go to school, I don't want to study Potions. Because I drank one once and it was nasty.'

Everyone laughed and Susan said, 'That was the cauldron cleaner, dear. Not all potions are like this. And not all are for drinking.'

'I don't care, I don't want to study them,' snapped the little girl.

'If I gave you a sweet, would you agree to study Potions?' asked Professor Dumbledore.

'Two sweets,' Jane said after a moment's thought.

Professor Dumbledore reached into his robe pocket and pulled out some sweets, the kind that were made in Hogsmeade.

'They are all for you. But on one condition – you will lend me your mother for a while, we have something to discuss.'

Jane just nodded, gathered the candies into her skirt, and went over to the hearth to play. During this time the three adults congregated.

'We will provide guarding spells for your house, in fact, the entire village will be put under surveillance and enchanted so it will be difficult for the Death Eaters to find it. There are too many witches and wizards living in it that need to be protected. Tom Riddle and his followers don't know our spells and how to break them. Still, be alert and don't let strangers into your house.'

'Thank you very much, Professor. I, on the other hand, want to propose myself for a member of the Order of the Phoenix.'

He and Lorelai looked at her in surprise, no one had mentioned the Order until now.

'Susan, how do you know?' Professor Dumbledore asked her.

'Professor, Lorelai is a friend of mine, as are one or two other members. Guess how do I know.'

'But I haven't told her anything,' Lorelai tried to defend herself.

'Don't worry, Lora, I know how she found out. We will keep this channel in mind, however little it is used, and try to protect it. I will come over tomorrow to discuss your membership. You rest tonight.'

'Thank you, Professor.' The Headmaster bowed to both of them and started to leave, Lorelai ushering him to the door.

'Sue, how do you know?' Lora asked her afterwards.

'Let's just say I overheard you,' Susan replied, ending further questions.

What happened next, Jane clearly remembered herself. Her admission to Hogwarts, her mother's membership in the Order. She was very grateful to her father that he had done himself in because if he hadn't, she would have done it herself. First, because he broke up their family twice, and second, because of him, her mother died in the deeds of the Order.