Birds of a Feather
Chapter 12: A Show of Hands
Summary: After Fawkes rescues Severus Snape in the Shrieking Shack, the phoenix decides to stick around.
The usual disclaimer applies. See Chapter 1.
Fawkes flew back into the barn. He was going to get Baboon-Face! But then he saw Severus staring at the man. The Death Eater was dancing around and trying to fight off a bunch of … hand-creatures?
How delightful! How imaginative! Fawkes had planned to take revenge himself, but his Severus had already taken care of it for him. The other phoenixes did not keep wizards, Fawkes knew, but he couldn't imagine why. Wizards could be so entertaining and their antics were so much fun. It was so thoughtful of Severus to have arranged this show for him. Cackling happily, he landed in the rafters and settled down to watch.
~~~~~
Severus stared in amazement for a few moments. Dolohov's face was turning bright red as he struggled with the hands that were gripping his throat. Perhaps he ought to do something about it, he supposed, even though Dolohov certainly didn't deserve any help.
"Hold still, you idiot!" Severus shouted as he fired a stinging hex at one of the hands. It missed as Dolohov twisted and thrashed. Well, that was easily remedied. "Petrificus Totalus!" Dolohov froze, and then one by one, Severus' spells forced each hand to lose its grip and fall to the floor.
Some of the hands tried to scamper away, but Severus worked quickly and levitated each of them into the big iron cauldron. Then he dropped the heavy lid on it and secured it with a locking charm. He could hear the hands scrambling and scratching inside, like crabs in a bucket. It made his skin crawl.
Then he felt something on his leg. To his horror, a long-fingered, feminine-looking hand had just crossed the top of his boot and was starting up his pant leg. He'd missed one! He pointed his wand at it, but it scurried behind his knee where he couldn't hex it, and then it started climbing up the back of his leg. It tickled! He twisted around trying to find some way to cast at it, and it pinched his bum! He swore. The nerve of the thing!
Fawkes squawked with glee! This was almost as much fun than the time that Lockhart had tried to turn Peeves into a grapefruit!
Severus sat down as hard as he could, smashing the hand against a crate. He could feel it squirming weakly beneath him. Then he sprang to his feet, leaving the thing exposed. As it staggered up onto its fingertips he cried "Levimanus! Now I've got you!"
The hand waggled its middle finger at Severus as he floated it up into the air. He sneered back at it, and when he dumped it into the cauldron with the rest of the hands, he placed a double locking charm on the lid.
~~~~~
Severus quickly searched Dolohov and recovered all of their wands. I felt wonderful to have his own wand in his hand again! Then he rushed to the front door and looked out.
He was greeted by quite a sight. Yaxley, Rowle, the dealer and the woman lay stunned and bound on the ground, and everyone else was running around trying to shoo away pixies. The dragonfly was helping them.
"Go back to Cornwall, ya nasty little devils!" Biscuit snarled as he swung his broom at a clutch of them. They cheeped and flitted away unharmed.
"I thought I told you people to go for help," Severus shouted at them. Although perhaps it was just as well that they hadn't. He certainly didn't want to have to explain himself to a bunch of Aurors.
"And miss all the fun?" Clark called back, laughing. "Not a chance!"
Severus scowled and resisted the urge to hex him.
~~~~~
It was after Severus had levitated Dolohov out of the barn and placed him with the others that they saw the gorilla. It had finally escaped from the cellar and it was lumbering slowly toward the barn. The remains of a flowered curtain hung from its shoulders like a tattered poncho.
"What … is that?" asked Captain Clark.
Well, it, um, looks sort of like a zombie gorilla," Biscuit said, trying to sound innocent.
"Well, now I've seen everything," the captain said as he drew his wand.
~~~~~
Fawkes watched curiously from the barn roof as Severus and Clark cast stunners at the gorilla. Judging from the intensity of the red flashes, they were powerful spells, but they had no effect at all. What was this thing? Some sort of bizarre Inferius? Fawkes had never seen anything quite like it. The gorilla continued to move mindlessly forward, and his friends started to back up.
Fawkes decided to intervene before anyone got hurt. He swooped off the roof and struck at the gorilla's eyes. His claws clicked against something hard and he realized that the eyes were glass. Oops! Maybe this wasn't going to work as well as it had with the basilisk. The beast reached for him and he flew off.
Then Severus tried a different approach. "Finite Incantatem." The gorilla staggered and then slowly came to a stop, like a wind-up toy that had run down. Severus had ended the spell that was controlling it.
Fawkes circled the gorilla and cawed at Severus. That was a clever move. He and Severus made a good team! He returned to the barn roof and crowed.
"That poor animal," Lydia said, staring at the motionless gorilla. She had returned to her human form. "No creature should end up like that."
"No worries, dear," Jack said as he put his arm around her. "I'm sure its soul is long gone. That thing is just an empty husk. Those two yobbos must have killed the poor thing and enchanted its corpse."
"I'm glad we put a stop to their cruelty," Lydia said sadly.
~~~~~
Seabiscuit apparated to the ship and brought back a batch of corned beef sandwiches, a pot of coffee, some Pepperup potion, and some sweets for Fawkes. He also brought Kat his favorite pirate hat. Now that the excitement was over, they realized that they were all exhausted. No one except Fawkes had slept since the hijacking had started, and there was still a lot to do.
First, there was a lot of healing to be done. Lydia was unscathed, but Stan had a broken nose, Biscuit had a black eye, and there were lots of nasty cuts, scratches, bruises and pixie bites on almost everyone, including the stunned prisoners. Dolohov's eye and arm were in bad shape, but Severus and Clark did what they could, and he would recover.
Next, they had to decide what to do with their prisoners. "I'd like to Obliviate them, if you don't mind, Captain," Severus said to Clark. "It would be simpler if they didn't remember us." Of course, what he really meant was that it would be simpler if they didn't remember him. If they told everyone that they'd seen Severus Snape, it would complicate his life immensely. It was so much simpler being Solomon Slade. He still had to bear all the pain of his past, all the guilt, remorse and sorrow, but at least he didn't have everyone in wizarding Britain hounding him because of it.
The captain knew exactly what he meant. "Go right ahead," he said. It would simplify things for him, too. There would be no questions to answer, and no paperwork to do. "It's fine with me if they can't remember anything that happened after they got to Dublin."
So Severus cast a strong sleeping spell on each of them and set to work modifying their memories. He'd had plenty of practice with memory modification during his years as a spy, and he was quite skillful at it.
He started with Rowle. He opened the big Death Eater's eyes and looked into his sleeping mind. It was a simple mind, mostly empty except for thoughts of violence, and he had no trouble finding the memories and removing them.
Yaxley's mind was more interesting. He was having a colorful dream about several veelas and a very large puffskein. Severus was tempted to stay and watch for a few minutes, but he knew he had to go after the memories instead.
Jones' mind was a nasty place. It filled with greed and little else, although Severus found out that his real name was actually Melrose Hogg. No wonder he'd changed it to Jones. Susie was real brain behind their partnership; her mind was filled with all sorts of complex schemes. She was the one who'd created the spell that had animated the dead gorilla.
Dolohov's mind was just plain scary. Memories of repulsive things that he'd done and enjoyed lurked everywhere. His memories of the hijacking were stubborn and hard to remove, but Severus managed to pry them loose. He was careful to leave behind enough memory of the hands to give the Death Eater some very vivid nightmares, however.
~~~~~
They locked the sleeping prisoners in some of the unoccupied animal cages while Severus made a quick search for useful brewing equipment and potion ingredients. He found some interesting books in the cottage, too. The things he missed most about Hogwarts were the library and his potions lab.
Biscuit had just returned from feeding and watering the animals. Thoughtfully, he'd left bowls of Acme Monkey Chow and water for the prisoners, too, in case they were hungry and thirsty when they woke up. "I'd watch out for the cellar," he warned. "There's something down there that smells really rotten."
Severus opened the door a crack, caught a wiff of it, and quickly shut the door again. "Burmese stinkhorn fungus," he said. "They must be growing it down there. Vile stuff."
"What's going to happen to the animals?" Biscuit asked. "We can't just turn 'em loose in Scotland."
"The Ministry can take care of them," Severus told him. "I suggest we call the Aurors and leave before they get here. They'll seize the illegal substances, arrest the prisoners, and return all the creatures to wherever they came from."
"What do you suppose they'll do with those horrible hands?" Lydia asked.
"They'll probably end up in the Department of Mysteries, along with the gorilla. They like that sort of thing there," Severus told her.
"Well, let's call the Aurors and get out of here then," said Clark. "Has anyone seen a floo around here?"
"I know an easier way," Severus told him. He stepped outside, pointed his wand into the air, and shouted "Morsmordre!" Black smoke and green sparks shot into the sky, and the Dark Mark bloomed over the site.
"That will bring them quickly enough."
"Cool!" said Kat. "Will you teach me how to do that?"
"Absolutely not," said Severus.
~~~~~
Severus stood on the deck watching the moon rise while the others headed below. Fawkes had flown back earlier and was probably sound asleep on his perch.
"Come on," Biscuit called, "we're gonna celebrate!"
"In a moment," he replied.
He felt the deck vibrate under his feet as the captain started the magic engines and the ship turned out into the Atlantic. Laughter floated up from the passengers' lounge below decks. It felt good to be alive.
To be continued ...
Summary: After Fawkes rescues Severus Snape in the Shrieking Shack, the phoenix decides to stick around.
The usual disclaimer applies. See Chapter 1.
Fawkes flew back into the barn. He was going to get Baboon-Face! But then he saw Severus staring at the man. The Death Eater was dancing around and trying to fight off a bunch of … hand-creatures?
How delightful! How imaginative! Fawkes had planned to take revenge himself, but his Severus had already taken care of it for him. The other phoenixes did not keep wizards, Fawkes knew, but he couldn't imagine why. Wizards could be so entertaining and their antics were so much fun. It was so thoughtful of Severus to have arranged this show for him. Cackling happily, he landed in the rafters and settled down to watch.
~~~~~
Severus stared in amazement for a few moments. Dolohov's face was turning bright red as he struggled with the hands that were gripping his throat. Perhaps he ought to do something about it, he supposed, even though Dolohov certainly didn't deserve any help.
"Hold still, you idiot!" Severus shouted as he fired a stinging hex at one of the hands. It missed as Dolohov twisted and thrashed. Well, that was easily remedied. "Petrificus Totalus!" Dolohov froze, and then one by one, Severus' spells forced each hand to lose its grip and fall to the floor.
Some of the hands tried to scamper away, but Severus worked quickly and levitated each of them into the big iron cauldron. Then he dropped the heavy lid on it and secured it with a locking charm. He could hear the hands scrambling and scratching inside, like crabs in a bucket. It made his skin crawl.
Then he felt something on his leg. To his horror, a long-fingered, feminine-looking hand had just crossed the top of his boot and was starting up his pant leg. He'd missed one! He pointed his wand at it, but it scurried behind his knee where he couldn't hex it, and then it started climbing up the back of his leg. It tickled! He twisted around trying to find some way to cast at it, and it pinched his bum! He swore. The nerve of the thing!
Fawkes squawked with glee! This was almost as much fun than the time that Lockhart had tried to turn Peeves into a grapefruit!
Severus sat down as hard as he could, smashing the hand against a crate. He could feel it squirming weakly beneath him. Then he sprang to his feet, leaving the thing exposed. As it staggered up onto its fingertips he cried "Levimanus! Now I've got you!"
The hand waggled its middle finger at Severus as he floated it up into the air. He sneered back at it, and when he dumped it into the cauldron with the rest of the hands, he placed a double locking charm on the lid.
~~~~~
Severus quickly searched Dolohov and recovered all of their wands. I felt wonderful to have his own wand in his hand again! Then he rushed to the front door and looked out.
He was greeted by quite a sight. Yaxley, Rowle, the dealer and the woman lay stunned and bound on the ground, and everyone else was running around trying to shoo away pixies. The dragonfly was helping them.
"Go back to Cornwall, ya nasty little devils!" Biscuit snarled as he swung his broom at a clutch of them. They cheeped and flitted away unharmed.
"I thought I told you people to go for help," Severus shouted at them. Although perhaps it was just as well that they hadn't. He certainly didn't want to have to explain himself to a bunch of Aurors.
"And miss all the fun?" Clark called back, laughing. "Not a chance!"
Severus scowled and resisted the urge to hex him.
~~~~~
It was after Severus had levitated Dolohov out of the barn and placed him with the others that they saw the gorilla. It had finally escaped from the cellar and it was lumbering slowly toward the barn. The remains of a flowered curtain hung from its shoulders like a tattered poncho.
"What … is that?" asked Captain Clark.
Well, it, um, looks sort of like a zombie gorilla," Biscuit said, trying to sound innocent.
"Well, now I've seen everything," the captain said as he drew his wand.
~~~~~
Fawkes watched curiously from the barn roof as Severus and Clark cast stunners at the gorilla. Judging from the intensity of the red flashes, they were powerful spells, but they had no effect at all. What was this thing? Some sort of bizarre Inferius? Fawkes had never seen anything quite like it. The gorilla continued to move mindlessly forward, and his friends started to back up.
Fawkes decided to intervene before anyone got hurt. He swooped off the roof and struck at the gorilla's eyes. His claws clicked against something hard and he realized that the eyes were glass. Oops! Maybe this wasn't going to work as well as it had with the basilisk. The beast reached for him and he flew off.
Then Severus tried a different approach. "Finite Incantatem." The gorilla staggered and then slowly came to a stop, like a wind-up toy that had run down. Severus had ended the spell that was controlling it.
Fawkes circled the gorilla and cawed at Severus. That was a clever move. He and Severus made a good team! He returned to the barn roof and crowed.
"That poor animal," Lydia said, staring at the motionless gorilla. She had returned to her human form. "No creature should end up like that."
"No worries, dear," Jack said as he put his arm around her. "I'm sure its soul is long gone. That thing is just an empty husk. Those two yobbos must have killed the poor thing and enchanted its corpse."
"I'm glad we put a stop to their cruelty," Lydia said sadly.
~~~~~
Seabiscuit apparated to the ship and brought back a batch of corned beef sandwiches, a pot of coffee, some Pepperup potion, and some sweets for Fawkes. He also brought Kat his favorite pirate hat. Now that the excitement was over, they realized that they were all exhausted. No one except Fawkes had slept since the hijacking had started, and there was still a lot to do.
First, there was a lot of healing to be done. Lydia was unscathed, but Stan had a broken nose, Biscuit had a black eye, and there were lots of nasty cuts, scratches, bruises and pixie bites on almost everyone, including the stunned prisoners. Dolohov's eye and arm were in bad shape, but Severus and Clark did what they could, and he would recover.
Next, they had to decide what to do with their prisoners. "I'd like to Obliviate them, if you don't mind, Captain," Severus said to Clark. "It would be simpler if they didn't remember us." Of course, what he really meant was that it would be simpler if they didn't remember him. If they told everyone that they'd seen Severus Snape, it would complicate his life immensely. It was so much simpler being Solomon Slade. He still had to bear all the pain of his past, all the guilt, remorse and sorrow, but at least he didn't have everyone in wizarding Britain hounding him because of it.
The captain knew exactly what he meant. "Go right ahead," he said. It would simplify things for him, too. There would be no questions to answer, and no paperwork to do. "It's fine with me if they can't remember anything that happened after they got to Dublin."
So Severus cast a strong sleeping spell on each of them and set to work modifying their memories. He'd had plenty of practice with memory modification during his years as a spy, and he was quite skillful at it.
He started with Rowle. He opened the big Death Eater's eyes and looked into his sleeping mind. It was a simple mind, mostly empty except for thoughts of violence, and he had no trouble finding the memories and removing them.
Yaxley's mind was more interesting. He was having a colorful dream about several veelas and a very large puffskein. Severus was tempted to stay and watch for a few minutes, but he knew he had to go after the memories instead.
Jones' mind was a nasty place. It filled with greed and little else, although Severus found out that his real name was actually Melrose Hogg. No wonder he'd changed it to Jones. Susie was real brain behind their partnership; her mind was filled with all sorts of complex schemes. She was the one who'd created the spell that had animated the dead gorilla.
Dolohov's mind was just plain scary. Memories of repulsive things that he'd done and enjoyed lurked everywhere. His memories of the hijacking were stubborn and hard to remove, but Severus managed to pry them loose. He was careful to leave behind enough memory of the hands to give the Death Eater some very vivid nightmares, however.
~~~~~
They locked the sleeping prisoners in some of the unoccupied animal cages while Severus made a quick search for useful brewing equipment and potion ingredients. He found some interesting books in the cottage, too. The things he missed most about Hogwarts were the library and his potions lab.
Biscuit had just returned from feeding and watering the animals. Thoughtfully, he'd left bowls of Acme Monkey Chow and water for the prisoners, too, in case they were hungry and thirsty when they woke up. "I'd watch out for the cellar," he warned. "There's something down there that smells really rotten."
Severus opened the door a crack, caught a wiff of it, and quickly shut the door again. "Burmese stinkhorn fungus," he said. "They must be growing it down there. Vile stuff."
"What's going to happen to the animals?" Biscuit asked. "We can't just turn 'em loose in Scotland."
"The Ministry can take care of them," Severus told him. "I suggest we call the Aurors and leave before they get here. They'll seize the illegal substances, arrest the prisoners, and return all the creatures to wherever they came from."
"What do you suppose they'll do with those horrible hands?" Lydia asked.
"They'll probably end up in the Department of Mysteries, along with the gorilla. They like that sort of thing there," Severus told her.
"Well, let's call the Aurors and get out of here then," said Clark. "Has anyone seen a floo around here?"
"I know an easier way," Severus told him. He stepped outside, pointed his wand into the air, and shouted "Morsmordre!" Black smoke and green sparks shot into the sky, and the Dark Mark bloomed over the site.
"That will bring them quickly enough."
"Cool!" said Kat. "Will you teach me how to do that?"
"Absolutely not," said Severus.
~~~~~
Severus stood on the deck watching the moon rise while the others headed below. Fawkes had flown back earlier and was probably sound asleep on his perch.
"Come on," Biscuit called, "we're gonna celebrate!"
"In a moment," he replied.
He felt the deck vibrate under his feet as the captain started the magic engines and the ship turned out into the Atlantic. Laughter floated up from the passengers' lounge below decks. It felt good to be alive.
To be continued ...