AN
Dead person saying bad things.
Goodwin is a very bad example of a priest. I apologize in advance, should his words offend anyone.
August to September 1992, summer of 1st year and 2nd year
"Shall I drive you?" Wilson asked.
"No need," Naenia dismissed him. "That's what I have servants for. Besides, you are supposed to already be there, aren't you?"
Most witches and wizards did not use any Muggle contraptions, but Naenia was often working with them and had to adapt. So she had installed phones in the office of her funeral parlour and in her home and she had bought a mortuary car – she was calling it that, because she still used her old horse-drawn hearse and calling them 'the old hearse' and 'the new hearse' wasn't to Naenia's liking. Emery, Amelia's husband, had been the lucky Inferius to undergo driving lessons and acquire a license.
By the time Lynea and the two adults had made it down to the funeral home from where father Wilson was able to apparate, Emery was already waiting with the car.
The village was further on the edge of the area Naenia provided her services for and so it took them about half an hour to get there. The local police had already closed off the house and there were a few village people gathered in front. As Emery parked next to a police car, Naenia looked at the house and huffed.
"How predictable," she said, before putting on her sunglasses and getting out of the car.
Lynea followed suit, wondering what her grand-aunt meant, but all her thoughts came to a halt when she set a foot outside. A nausea so strong she had to brace herself against the car overcame her and Lynea took in gulps of air, trying to regain her balance. Father Wilson had only noticed the foul magic when he had entered the room Goodwin had died in, but Lynea was more sensitive to magic. She couldn't imagine what her grand-aunt must be experiencing if it was already that bad for her.
Naenia laid a cold hand on Lynea's forehead and let her magic flow through her body.
"Focus," Naenia said quietly and Lynea followed her guidance.
The nausea eased up noticeably. It became easier to breathe.
"No one should ever live in that house again," Naenia said and Lynea silently agreed. The very foundation of this place's magic had been poisoned beyond repair.
"Oh, I do agree," one of the bystanders, a short woman with a flowery shawl, said. "It is a bad omen that our dear father Goodwin has died here. But I never thought someone of your kind would share that sentiment, working with the dead daily and all."
Naenia only smiled and went past her to the house. Lynea hurried to follow. The village people barely spared her a glance, but that was normal. Naenia always made sure no one would question the youth of her apprentice, because Muggle's were a bit peculiar when it came to exposing children to death. Technically, magical people weren't that much different in that regard, but they recognized Necromancers for what they were.
"Look at her," the woman with the shawl whispered to the one standing next to her. "It's no wonder nobody wants to marry her. I wonder who the unlucky husband was that died and left her nothing but an ugly ring."
Lynea snorted at that, but quickly schooled her expression to something neutral again when one of the policemen approached them.
"Inspector," Naenia greeted the man.
"Miss Lémure." The inspector nodded. "We have secured the scene, but so far we haven't found anything out of place. Can't say what killed the poor priest, though. This way, please."
As he led them through the hallway to a door near the end, the magic around them turned even worse and the air grew more and more suffocating. There were spells in place that prevented the Muggles from noticing anything and now that Lynea was looking for them, she could also see the wards that made the inspector leave them on their own. They were recent enough that Lynea assumed father Wilson had put them in place to make sure no Muggle would stay in the room long enough to notice anything amiss. He had done a good job at disguising the body with an illusion, as well. It looked just like a normal dead person lying on the bed, someone who might have died peacefully in their sleep. He had also cleaned the room from all the blood.
Looking past the illusion, Lynea could see the skin and flesh and organs lying in a neat pile next to the carved open body. Lynea had already done a few autopsies under her grand-aunt's guidance – both for forensic work and Necromancy – but she had never seen something quite like this. And still it did not make her feel uneasy. No, the sick feeling in her stomach came solely from the corrupted magic around her.
The two Necromancers took a moment to revel in the power of Death that was still prevalent, despite all the foul magic and father Wilson's many spells.
"I am surprised father Wilson managed to clean up so well," Lynea commented.
Naenia smiled faintly. "It took him a while. There are traces of a conjuration spell and the faint scent of a Calming Draught in the hallway. And even then, it can't have been easy for him."
They quickly set to work after that. There wasn't much the scene or the body could tell them, not after father Wilson had tampered with it so much. Although Lynea strongly suspected that her grand-aunt had noticed and learned a lot more than she had. The magic was always telling Naenia things Lynea never perceived. Lynea only got very bad vibes from it in this case. As there were too many people around for them to truly make use of the Forbidden Arts, they wrapped their work up as fast as they could.
"I cannot determine the cause of death at this point," Naenia told the police. "But I am sure I will be able to tell you soon."
"I heard he was ill," the inspector said and when they had gone outside, he turned to the small crowd of bystanders. "Does anyone here know what ailed him?"
There was a low murmuring and several people shook their heads.
The woman with the shawl gasped. "What if it is contagious? It could kill us all!"
"I highly doubt that," Naenia replied dryly.
"But you don't even know what killed him. It could be anything. It could be a danger to us all."
Naenia raised an eyebrow. "Did I ever imply that I do not know the cause of death?"
"Why," the woman said brusquely, "you did. That's why you had the inspector ask about father Goodwin's illness, isn't it?"
Naenia smiled and the woman visibly gulped. "I am sure it will be fine. But for now, I must do my job."
No one batted an eye at the body floating out of the house and into the waiting coffin, because no one actually saw that. Sometimes, Lynea really envied her grand-aunt's prowess in magic. But only sometimes.
o
When they came back, Lynea's mother was waiting for them at the mortuary, already holding the door open for Emery to bring the coffin inside.
"Where is Theodore?" Naenia asked.
"My brother came by earlier," Phyllida answered. "He was annoyed the wards didn't let him in, but there was nothing to be done with you absent. It was a good thing, too, because I was able to retrieve Theodore, myself, and make sure my brother wouldn't see Harry."
"I wonder what made Nereus come back early," Naenia said.
"I wonder why he had to leave his son with us in the first place," Phyllida returned.
Naenia smiled, but said nothing.
Lynea's mother had already prepared everything for the autopsy, but there was something far more important to be done first. So Lynea approached the body, laid a hand on his cheek and closed her eyes. Where it only took Naenia a touch, Lynea had to concentrate and call on her magic to make it work. But she was getting better at calling the dead every time she did so.
"Witches," was the first thing the body hissed.
Lynea ignored him and went to the sink, so she could clean her hand.
Naenia sighed. "Hello, father Goodwin."
The body turned its head and stared at her with its empty eye sockets. "You!"
Lynea wondered how he was able to speak at all, when he didn't even have any lungs left, but she supposed that was why his voice was no more than a whisper.
Naenia fixed the corpse with her undead eyes and then said, softly, "Lynea, please continue."
"Father Goodwin," Lynea began and the body turned its head to her. "Please forgive us for disturbing your rest. We wish to learn more about your death, so that we may find whoever did this to you."
"As if I would talk to witches," Goodwin spat. "Consorting with the Devil himself."
"We are Necromancers," Lynea said calmly. "We worship Death."
"You spit God's mercy in the face."
"Just answer her question, Goodwin," Naenia said.
The body's face contorted oddly – as if he was trying to make some kind of expression, but the lack of skin and what was left of his muscles didn't allow it.
"A witch came to my house. A man. He was tall and wore a mask that looked like a skull and an old-fashioned cloak. Then he called upon the Devil and made me do his bidding – it must have been Satan or he couldn't have broken God's blessing upon my soul."
"And when was that?" Lynea asked.
The body worked its jaw wordlessly, before answering, "Three days ago."
"And what did he do, then?"
"Made me call in sick."
Lynea sighed. "And then …?"
No answer.
"Goodwin," Naenia said.
The corpse grumbled. "He performed foul witchcraft and killed me, obviously."
"Tearing you limb from limb."
"Yes."
"Is there anything else you can tell us?" Lynea asked.
"Oh, yes," the body rasped out a laugh. "Justice will be served. Just you wait, God's wrath will strike all of you evil witches down one day."
"Nothing, then." Naenia said.
"Go back to rest," Lynea said and put a hand on his forehand.
"Are you quite done?" Phyllida asked, appearing in the doorway and Lynea nodded at her mother. "Good. Lynea, I saved some lunch for you. You can help Naenia after you have eaten."
o
Lynea only told Harry the very gist of the matter, leaving out all the gruesome details. Harry wondered why anyone would murder someone so cruelly, but he lost interest after a while.
Naenia told the police that Goodwin had died because of an untreated heart disease, provided the required report and later turned over the body to his next of kin – in pristine condition, of course. Lynea had learned quite a lot about repairing a completely damaged body with Necromancy from this experience.
They never found out who had murdered Goodwin. If Naenia knew, she never said anything.
The holidays were rather uneventful otherwise. There weren't many days left until the end of August and soon it was time for them to return to Hogwarts.
Theodore arrived the day before the first of September and Naenia gave Lynea's mother the next day off, so she could take the children to King's Cross.
At ten o'clock they were all ready, their luggage shrunk and charmed with a featherlight charm to fit in their bags, their pets put into their respective cages. Because Phyllida couldn't transport three people with side-along apparition, they had to use the Floo Network. As, for whatever reason, there were no fireplaces anywhere in King's Cross Station, they used the one in the Leaky Cauldron and took a Muggle cab from there.
Lynea had never gone through the barrier before, because her mother had always apparated her (or both her and Theodore) directly to platform nine and three-quarters. In theory, one just had to go through the supposedly physical barrier between platforms nine and ten on the Muggle side. But that didn't work.
"That's odd," Phyllida murmured, her hand on the very solid metal barrier.
"What's the hold-up?" another person called.
Judging from their clothes, they were a pureblood witch and her son, doing a poor job at pretending to be Muggles.
"The barrier doesn't seem to work," Phyllida said to the witch.
The witch bustled forward to look for herself and came to the same conclusion. Soon there was a small crowd of witches and wizards, old and young, with their trunks and pets gathered around the barrier. The Muggles were already giving them odd looks. Several parents went forward to test the barrier, some performed some spells under their breath, their wands hidden from the curious Muggles by the magical crowd. This went on for several minutes, until a station guard came by that thankfully turned out to be one of the responsible people for platform nine and three-quarters. He, too, went and tested the barrier and then disappeared after assuring the assembled crowd that he would look into the issue.
He returned with another wizard soon after, this one wearing green robes and sticking out even among the people that hadn't managed to pull off a Muggle look. Several people called out to him, while others just continued talking among themselves, eyeing him warily.
"Honestly, people," the wizard said. "Would you quiet down already? You're making enough racket enough to wake the dead!"
Lynea smiled involuntarily at his figure of speech.
Some people huffed indignantly, but the crowd quieted significantly.
The wizard turned to the barrier and conducted a series of spells and then turned to the crowd with a fake smile. "You may now go through the barrier, one family at a time. I am very sorry for the inconvenience. Rest assured that we shall investigate the matter thoroughly."
There were some cries of indignation, but most were just glad they could finally get onto the platform. They still had twenty minutes left before the train was to leave, but for Lynea that was unusually late. Because they hadn't been the only ones unable to access the platform and most used the barrier, because apparition was highly complicated and quite unsuited for big families (and there was no connection to the Floo Network), the train wasn't as full as it usually was at this point, though.
Draco, having been apparated, had already secured a compartment for them, in which he was playing a game of Exploding Snap with Vincent and Gregory.
Draco looked up, when they entered. "There you are! I started to wonder whether you would turn up at all."
"The barrier didn't work," Harry said.
Draco frowned. "Do you know why?"
Harry shook his head.
"No idea," Lynea said. "They had to bring in some expert to resolve the issue."
"Maybe someone played a prank," Gregory said.
Lynea shrugged. "In that case, it was a very complicated prank. That was highly advanced and very powerful magic."
The door slid open. "Hello, there," Pansy greeted them. "I heard there was a problem with the barrier?"
"There was," Lynea said. "Are the others all here, yet?"
"Daphne and Tracey are two compartments over, but I haven't seen either Millie or Blaise."
"That's because my mother's current paramour kept delaying us," came Blaise's drawling voice from the corridor.
Pansy stepped aside to let him in and he sat down between Theodore and Draco.
"Well, then," Lynea said. "We'll just have to wait for Millicent. There is something important we must discuss."