Chapter 58: The Dark Messenger
A/N: Sorry for the very long break. Life got out of hand for a while.
When Minister for Magic Kingsley Shacklebolt arrived in his office a few mornings later the casement window, with its lattice of diamond-shaped panes, was standing open and Severus Snape was lounging in a leather chair with his feet up on a coffee table.
"You've looking well, Severus," Kingsley said as he sat down at his desk. He tried to hide his surprise but probably didn't fool his visitor. "I see that you've made yourself comfortable. What brings you here?"
Severus took his feet off the coffee table and stood up. "I want to bring some murders to your attention. They're from years ago, before the war got going. The sort of thing that muggles would call a 'cold case'. First, however, I would like the fact that I'm not dead to remain confidential."
"No problem," Kingsley said as he took up his quill and prepared to take notes. "As far as I know, the Dark Lord offed you last spring and any rumors to the contrary are complete nonsense. Now about those murders?"
Severus nodded. "It's alleged that Frederick Pilkington hired the Nameless Assassins – I'm sure you'll remember them – to kill Robert Runcible and his daughter Holly after the daughter fled an arranged marriage to his son."
Kingsley remembered the Nameless all too well, thanks to their attempt on his life at the Masquerade Ball. "We can't go after the Nameless," he said. "They're not in the UK at present, as far as we know, and it would cause serious diplomatic problems if we tried to pursue them in Europe. Or wherever they are."
"Of course," Severus agreed. He was planning to deal with the Nameless himself. "But Frederick Pilkington hasn't gone anywhere. I suggest you talk to Rita Skeeter about him. I gather she's the one who dug up the information. She will no doubt want exclusive rights to any stories that result from your investigation, which seems fair."
"Agreed," Kingsley said as he wrote it down. "Ms Skeeter can be a bit 'creative' with facts at times, but I think we should be able to get to the bottom of this thing. If Mr Pilkington had those people killed then we must bring him to justice, even if it means humoring Rita Skeeter."
"My thoughts exactly," Severus said. He turned and walked to the window. "I must be running along now. But your office furniture needed an upgrade, and your security is abysmal." With that, he stepped up onto the windowsill, leapt out, and flew away.
Kingsley stared at the chair and coffee table. They hadn't been there before. And the window? He waved his wand and called out, "Percy! Get the Security Wizards in here immediately!"
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Molly Weasley had called the family together for a traditional Sunday dinner at the Burrow. Almost everyone was there. There would be roast lamb with gravy, roast potatoes, and parsnips. Harry was hoping there would be treacle tart for dessert.
Molly started things off by announcing that she had received an owl from Charlie in Romania. "He says all is well with the dragons, and he sends his love," she told them. "And we're all glad to hear that you and Penelope Clearwater are getting back together, Percy," she added.
Now she'll be hoping for a triple wedding, Hermione thought glumly.
Now maybe we can have a triple wedding! Molly thought happily. That is, if we can get Harry and Ginny and Ron and Hermione to get around to tying the knot. I do not approve of these long engagements. A witch of my age should be enjoying her grandchildren, and yet here I am with none at all! But perhaps Bill and Fleur will bless me with one soon.
"Penelope has forgiven me," Percy said. "She has realized that my loyalty was always to the Ministry, and that I never served the Dark Lord." He hoped Molly would invite Penelope to join them next time.
Ginny had come with Bill and Fleur. She had been staying with them at Shell Cottage to study for her exams and, to be honest, to get away from everything and think things over. "I've joined the local minor league Quidditch team," she announced happily. "They think I'm really good, maybe good enough to go professional."
"Her studies are going well, too," Bill added.
Arthur started bringing the food from the kitchen. There was a place set for George but he hadn't arrived yet. He'd been devastated by Fred's death and had been keeping to himself. They were all worried about him.
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"Wait up, Tilda," Melody called when she saw the second-year Slytherin leaving the library. "I've been interviewing Slytherins about what they did during the battle, and Clayton Urquhart said you had a pretty rough time. Would you be willing to tell me about it?"
"I don't know," the little Slytherin said. "I didn't really do anything. I just hid and I was really scared."
"I was scared, too, and I'm a lot older than you are. Why don't we talk about it?"
"Okay, I guess. If you really want," Tilda said shyly.
They found a quiet spot in an empty classroom and Melody took out her notebook.
"I was in the girls' loo," Tilda told her, "the one down past the Charms classroom, crying my eyes out because some Ravenclaw girl called me a stupid skrewt-faced Slytherin, so I wasn't in the Great Hall when Professor McGonagall told us all to get out. It was really horrible all year, what with the Carrows screaming at me because I couldn't seem to do anything right, and everyone giving us hate-looks, even some of the professors. It was all so awful."
Melody nodded. "Yes it was. The Carrows screamed at me a lot, too. Once they cursed me with warts because I was nervous and flubbed a simple jelly-legs jinx. Everyone laughed at me. Madam Pomfrey broke the curse, but she said it was a really tough one." She shuddered at the memory.
"The Carrows were really horrible," Tilda agreed. "Anyway, after a while I heard a lot of noise coming from the Great Hall and I wanted to find out what was going on, but when I opened the door a curse flashed past, so I closed the door fast. I didn't know what to do, so I just stayed in there.
"After a while I heard someone coming so I went into the last stall to hide, closed the stall door, and climbed up on the toilet so my feet wouldn't show under the partition. Then I heard someone come in and start searching, opening each of the stall doors. I was terrified!"
"I'm sure you were," Melody said. The poor kid was only eleven, she thought. She never should have been caught up in something like this. None of us should have.
"The only thing I could think of was a stupid spell that my big brother taught me as a joke. He called it the 'Zombiefication' spell. So I cast it on myself and it made my face look horrible, all green and melted and sort of warty, with red eyes and funny teeth. I scared the daylights out of my parents with that spell at Halloween, and when that witch opened my door I must have scared her, too, because she jumped back and said, 'Gaack!'"
"That was smart thinking!" Melody told her.
"I tried to cast a stunner at her, but she ran and it missed. I guess it was a good spell, though, because it bounced off the mirror over the sinks and blew up the toilet in the second stall. I heard the water spraying and the witch cursing and running out the door. I never saw her again. I don't even know which side she was on."
"How did you learn to cast a stunner?" Melody asked. "You're too young for a spell like that. Did your big brother teach you?"
"No, Headmaster Snape taught us all stunners and shield spells. He said there might be trouble coming and he made us all practice in our common room, several nights every week."
"Good for him!"
"Anyway, after a while it got quiet outside, and then someone opened the bathroom door, cast a spell to shut off that toilet, and called out, 'Is anybody in there?' It was Professor Vector; I recognized her voice. When she saw me she stared at me for a moment, and then she broke out laughing. 'That's a good one!' she said. 'I haven't seen that spell before.' Then she canceled my spell, told me it was all over and it was safe to come out, and took me to Madam Pomfrey, who gave me hot chocolate."
"You did really well," Melody told her. "Do you suppose you could teach me that Zombiefication spell?"
"Sure. And I think that, some dark night, I'm going to demonstrate it for that Ravenclaw girl who made me cry."
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The Knight Boat had dropped Angie and Greg off in Venice so they could search its ancient libraries for clues to deciphering the werewolf potion scroll. It claimed to contain a permanent cure for lycanthropy, but parts of it were missing, and parts were indecipherable. Venice was known to have had werewolf problems in medieval times, so there might be something useful to be found there.
Maybe we can just forget to pick them up later, Severus mused. He took the message he'd written and sealed it in a black envelope. "Could you keep the birds occupied for a while?" he asked the cook. "I need to send a Dark message, and Fawkes will not like the messenger. There would be bloodshed, in fact."
"No problem," Biscuit told him. "I'll play the tape with the bird songs for them. They love The Surfin' Bird song." Then he took a bowl of raw fish livers out of the refrigerator and handed it to Severus. "I'm sure you know what you're doing, but …"
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"Did you see what that horrible Rita Skeeter wrote about Headmistress McGonagall?" Ron asked. "Skeeter is such a nasty witch!"
"Has anyone here noticed that 'witch' has negative connotations that 'wizard' doesn't have?" Ginny asked. "Some of us have been talking after Quidditch practice, and we think that all of us should be called 'wizards', boys and girls or men and women, alike. After all, our magic isn't any different than theirs."
That was greeted by several seconds of absolute silence. Arthur's mouth dropped open, and Molly was clearly shocked. "That is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard in my life!" she said. "We are absolutely different from them. You should have pride in being a witch! Even the muggles know that there are good witches as well as bad witches. Just look at that story about the Wizard of Oz."
"That's really the only story like that, mom. Witches in most stories are wicked and ugly. And some of us don't see why we should be stuck with that label. Our magic is just as good as boys' magic. We are not second rate, or an afterthought, or evil. Not most of us, anyway. It's not fair!"
Ron opened his mouth to say something but Hermione kicked him under the table. Getting into this argument would be like dancing around in a minefield.
"It's just … just … How could you even think such ridiculous things?" Molly blustered.
Fortunately for all concerned, the door opened then and George came in. "Sorry I'm late," he said as he took off his cloak. "I just finished negotiating a deal to sell the joke shop to Zonko's. It's a good deal. Lee Jordan will stay on as manager." He took his seat. "I want to enroll in mediwizard school. I want to become a healer."
Everyone looked a bit stunned, so George added, "Jokes and pranks are all well and good, but I want to do something meaningful now."
"We're glad you're here, George," Arthur told him. "Pass me your plate. There's lots of food."
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Severus had asked Captain Clark to keep everyone below decks until he was finished. A bright sunny day was not the best time to summon the messenger, so he waved his wand and soon a cold dark mist enveloped the boat. He chanted softly until a flying creature appeared and landed on the railing. It looked sort of like a bird; perhaps a little bit like an Archaeopteryx. It had black eyes and feathers, a very long tail, and its talons were a shiny green. It opened its long green beak and gave a loud hiss. Severus could see its sharp teeth and forked black tongue. He levitated the bowl of raw fish livers to it; there was no way his fingers were going to get anywhere near those teeth! The thing gobbled down the livers and hissed again. Then it snapped up the envelope that Severus floated toward it, flicked its tail, and vanished into the mist.
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"So what was that about?" Captain Clark asked. "It gave us all the creeps, right through the metal deck. Fawkes has been screeching and carrying on, but we didn't let him out."
"I sent a message to the Nameless Assassins using my old identity as the much-feared Dark wizard Severus Snape, stating that I might be interested in joining them. One can't use an owl for a job like that; they won't do it, and they couldn't find the Nameless if they did. One must use a Dark messenger."
"Sort of like that Dark Web that the muggles have?"
"Something like that, yes. I need to find the Nameless so I can bring them down and avenge the murder of an old friend. I have no intention of joining them, of course, but I'm hoping that they will invite me for a 'job interview'. They lost one of their members at the Masquerade Ball, so there should be an opening for a replacement.
"I'd better go apologize to Fawkes," he added.
"Just be careful," the Captain said. He didn't like it, but knew that Severus would go ahead with his plan, with or without their help. Maybe the Nameless won't answer him, he thought. Maybe. If we're lucky.