Birds of a Feather
Chapter 20: Breakfast at Southern
Summary: After Fawkes rescues Severus Snape from the Shrieking shack, the phoenix decides to stick around.
The usual disclaimer applies. See Chapter 1.
A/N: This story is usually updated first at fanfiction.net. See wolfwillow there.
"So where have you been?" Ron asked when Harry arrived for Auror training on Monday morning. "You missed our study session with Hermione on Saturday."
"At Grimmauld Place," Harry said. "I thought I'd study at home."
"No, I stopped by a couple of times and you weren't in," Ron said, putting Harry on the spot. "What have you been up to?" Ron winked. "Come on, you can tell me."
Harry shifted awkwardly from one foot to the other. "Well, actually, I was in Oslo."
Ron waited, but no details were forthcoming. He thought for a moment. What was Harry hiding? Finally he asked, "Why? Quidditch season hasn't started yet."
"I was feeling a bit cooped up, and I just wanted to go somewhere, that's all," Harry said, as if he went travelling all the time, when in fact it was the first time that he'd ever been outside of the UK. "I wandered around a bit, had lunch, and then I came back. It was nice there." There was no way that Harry was going to admit that he'd been searching for Professor Snape on a Knight Boat when he'd been whisked off to Norway. Ron would think he'd gone crazy. And maybe he had.
Ron looked worried. "Did you have to eat anything weird, like lutefisk?"
That made Harry laugh. "No, I had a hamburger! Don't worry about it."
But Ron did worry about it. Why was his friend being evasive? He's cheating on Ginny! That's got to be it. I better follow him next time.
~~~~~
After several more all-night searches, Severus and the group had still found no sign of whatever it was that had killed twice at Southern Academy. All he had was a theory, with no real evidence to back it up. There had been two comatose victims without a mark on them, both of whom had later died without regaining consciousness, and Angie had told him that the nearby vegetation seemed to be sick and damaged. It wasn't much to go on.
The lack of progress was frustrating, but working all night and sleeping in the morning agreed with him, and Severus had slept soundly. He was still haunted by nightmares at times, but this morning he had dreamed he was Headmaster again. He was dining at the head table with Albus, Minerva, and Merlin. They were discussing how Ms Larose had joined the staff to teach Divination, and interest in the subject had skyrocketed, especially among the older boys. He smiled in his sleep.
When he awoke and went downstairs, he spotted Fawkes in the students' lounge. The phoenix was perched on the back of a couch behind two garishly dressed girls. They had set up some sort of muggle device, and Fawkes was watching a muggle movie with them. On the screen, flocks of birds were attacking muggles for no apparent reason, and the muggles were fleeing in terror. Fawkes seemed fascinated. His golden eyes were glued to the little screen.
Severus wandered up behind them and asked, in a rather menacing tone, "What are you doing with my bird?"
The girls were unperturbed. "We're watching The Birds with him," the one dressed in purple and black announced. Her black socks featured wide red stripes that clashed with her purple shoes. "I think this is the first time he's seen it."
"Is he a phoenix?" the other one piped up. "What's his name?" She was wearing shades of green that did not look good together, and she had bottle caps and other odd bits of metal charmed into her teased-up beehive hair.
"He's a phoenix," Severus said, "and his name is Fawkes." Don't they have a dress code at this school? he wondered.
"Mine is Mysteria," the one in green volunteered, although Severus certainly hadn't asked.
"And I'm Lady Darkness, Queen of the Night," said the purple-and-black one. "Who are you?"
Severus scowled. If those were their real names, he was Santa Claus.
Ignoring her question, he asked, "Shouldn't you be in class?"
"Nope," said the green one. "It's our lunch break."
These two girls made even the strangest Hogwarts student seem normal. Severus left them to watch their movie and went off in search of coffee and breakfast.
Entering the dining hall, he spotted Armstrong at one of the tables. "Come join me, Slade," Armstrong called. Although Severus usually preferred to eat alone, he was curious about how they taught "Magical Martial Arts" at Southern, so he accepted the offer. He served himself from the platters of toast, scrambled eggs and bacon, all of which were being kept fresh by warming charms. There were bowls of fruit salad and oatmeal, too. It was amazing what traipsing around the swamps all night had done for his appetite.
"Do you like teaching here?" Severus asked. He wanted to get Armstrong talking about himself before the man could think to ask him any personal questions.
"Absolutely!" Armstrong replied. "I love it. I've developed an effective program for the kids, and I keep improving it every year. The kids really enjoy it, too."
"They enjoy it? What exactly do you teach them? How to duel and cast curses?"
"No, nothing like that," Armstrong said, pouring himself a cup of coffee. "Not at first, anyway. Since they start school here at the age of ten, we begin with games. The first thing I do is teach them simple camouflage and detection spells so we can play magical Hide and Seek. Then I give them challenging clues and send them to find hidden objects all around the school. There are target practice games, too. After that, we move on to indentifying and avoiding dangerous creatures, especially swamp creatures, and I take them on field trips into the bayous to see where some of them dwell. For the young ones, it's mostly about being alert, spotting threats, and avoiding them. We don't get into any rough stuff until they're older."
By "rough stuff", Severus assumed the man meant dealing with curses, werewolves, and such, rather than dodging hinkypunks. When he was a boy, Severus would have found those games boring, but in those days he'd had a chip on his shoulder and was eager to learn things that he could use against bullies. Fortunately, he'd already mastered a few curses from a book that he'd found hidden away in his mother's trunk. In any event, he had to admit that Armstrong's program sounded reasonable for ten year olds.
Before he could ask what the older students learned, Angie came in with a tall young man in a dark green uniform like hers. They were talking earnestly and took seats at another table.
"That must be her partner, the one who ran off," Severus said, frowning.
"Yeah," Armstrong said. "That's him. His name is Drew Saunders."
Severus' usual reaction would be to insult the young man at the first opportunity, but then his spy instincts kicked in. The fellow might be able to provide useful information, so it would be best not to alienate him right now. That could wait until later.
~~~~~
"This is lovely sherry, Lucius," Rita said after taking a sip. "May I call you Lucius?"
"Of course, my dear" Lucius said, smiling, although in truth he'd prefer that she didn't. She, Lucius, Narcissa and Draco were seated in armchairs around an elegant carved coffee table. A fire burned brightly in the fireplace behind a decorative screen.
"Let's start with how Mr Snape became a Death Eater," Rita said, getting out her quill. "In fact, how did you become a Death Eater?"
Draco glanced furtively at Narcissa. What would his father say to that?
But Lucius remained unfazed. "Now Rita, remember your promise," he said smoothly. "No Quick-Quotes Quill. We want you to write it in your own words, with your own lovely and talented hand."
Reluctantly, Rita put the enchanted quill away in her green dragon-skin purse and took out an ordinary one. "So tell me about it," she purred. "How could a fine gentleman like yourself swear allegiance to that … reptilian … creature?"
"He didn't look 'reptilian', as you put it, until much later, when it was too late," Lucius explained. "When I first met the Dark Lord he was a rather handsome man. He had dark wavy hair that was streaked with white, and his eyes had a mysterious red glow. He was charming, confident and charismatic. I liked him immediately.
"He told me that everyone, including muggles, would be better off if wizards came out of hiding and brought order to the world. You must admit that muggles certainly are making a terrible mess of everything. Crime, pollution, terrorism, weapons of mass destruction, genocide, one war after another, there's no end to it. It's quite frightening, really."
Rita nodded in agreement as she wrote.
"He told me that he was looking to the old, established pureblood families like ours to head the movement and assume their rightful place as world leaders. He said that intermarriage would make wizards as incompetent as muggles, and it was essential to keep our blood pure so our power and intelligence would not be diluted. I'm sorry to say that I fell for it," Lucius said sadly.
Now, don't overdo it, dear, Narcissa thought to herself.
"Hmmm. It all sounds quite logical when you put it that way," Rita said. "But Mr Snape was the product of a mixed marriage, wasn't he? And whatever else he might have been, he wasn't incompetent."
"No, he certainly wasn't," Lucius replied, "but I thought Severus was an exception. At that time I didn't know about the Dark Lord's true parentage, or how degenerate the Gaunt family had become. It appears that, in his case at least, the addition of some muggle blood might actually have improved things for him." Lucius wasn't sure he really believed that, but he knew it would sound good under the circumstances.
"The Dark Lord started to look worse and worse as time went on, like the picture of Dorian Gray in that story by the squib Wilde. Maybe it was due to the way he was deliberately fracturing his soul; I'm not sure. But when he returned in that new body that Pettigrew helped him create, he no longer looked human. Perhaps he wasn't. And it quickly became apparent that he'd gone mad."
"I see," Rita said, jotting it all down. "Let's get back to Mr Snape then, shall we? What made him join You Know Who?"
"We must begin with his student years," Lucius said, "and take a look his beginnings, and then we can consider the events that drove him into the Dark Lord's clutches."
Oh, good! thought Draco. He was eager to hear all about that, even if his father had invented most of it.
~~~~~
It was late in the day before Severus was able to catch Drew Saunders alone. He had been watching him furtively all afternoon. At last, the young man had gone off by himself into an empty classroom, where he seemed to be lost in thought.
Severus closed the door quietly behind him and cast a nonverbal Muffliato over the room. "Mr Saunders?" he said.
Startled, Saunders whirled around.
"I don't think we've been introduced," Severus said. "My name is Solomon Slade. I'm a friend of Angie's brother, Kat, and as you probably know, we're here to help with the problem." He didn't offer to shake hands, but Saunders didn't notice.
"Oh, yeah," Saunders said. "We appreciate your help, Mr Slade, but I've been reinstated by the Agency, and I'll take it from here. You and Mr Fish can go back to your jobs now."
Mr Fish? Perhaps that was Kat's real last name. Severus suppressed a smirk.
"That's very considerate of you," Severus said, "but we are not required elsewhere at present, and we can stay on for awhile. After all, we still have no idea what's going on here, and it's best to err on the side of caution. We mustn't let any harm come to the children."
"No," Saunders said. "No, of course not. The children's safety must always come first. You're certainly welcome to stay, if you wish."
Severus could barely keep himself from grabbing the young man and shouting at him. This idiot can't even protect himself, let alone a school full of children! Aurors, Agents, wizard cops, or whatever you want to call them, they're all useless, self-important, over-confident dunderheads!
Controlling his temper, Severus decided to get to the point. In a soothing tone of voice, he asked, "Can you tell me anything about what happened …" how should I put this? "when you and Angie were overcome? Any sounds, or smells, or feelings? Anything you can remember might be important."
"You mean about what happened …" he paused, "that night? I'm afraid there's nothing. I've tried, of course, but there's absolutely nothing. Whatever it was, it must have Obliviated me."
Saunders looked down at the floor and Severus knew he was lying. He wouldn't have lasted a day as a Death Eater, Severus thought scornfully. Even Stan Shunpike could tell better lies than this. It's time to stop pussyfooting around and get on with it.
"That's unfortunate," Severus said, feigning sympathy. "It must be difficult for you."
"Yeah," said Saunders. "Yeah, it is." Then he looked up, and when he made eye contact, Severus pointed his wand and hit him with Legilimens.
Severus pushed his way into Saunders' mind and found it swimming with bad memories. Scenes of being bullied as a child, of being beaten up and humiliated, and memories of apathetic parents. Given his own experience, Severus considered such things a normal part of childhood. He shoved them aside and forged on. Then came a shocker: the boy had been kidnapped by a group of sadistic wizards, held for weeks, and forced to participate in repulsive rituals that they hoped would open the gates to the nightmare city of R'Lyeh. Even Severus understood that that wasn't normal. No wonder the man was a mess! Agents had rescued him, so he wanted to be an Agent and make the world a safer place. Unfortunately, he wasn't very good at it.
With difficulty, Severus dug down through the memories of the hideous rituals and found what he was looking for hidden underneath: the memory of that night in the swamp. Saunders was walking on a patch of dry ground a short distance from Angie when suddenly he felt cold. Ice began to crystallize on the puddles nearby, and icicles started to grow from the overhanging trees and Spanish moss. Then in a flash, all of his worst memories were released. The bullying, the overwhelming fear and loneliness, and those unspeakable rituals bubbled up in his mind and started to boil over. Saunders' head swam, and he was overcome with terror and despair. Then everything went black, and Severus knew. It was just as he had feared: a Dementor was loose in the swamps.
~~~~~
"How dare you!" Archibald Pringle said when he saw Argus Filch standing in his parlor with Mrs Norris by his side. "I told you never to come here again!"
Filch looked even worse than usual. Totally dreadful, actually. His pale, angular face was unshaven, his hair was stringy, his cloak was dirty and threadbare, and he smelled like he'd been hiding in the sewers. Mrs Norris didn't look too good, either. Her yellow eyes glowed as brightly as ever, but her fur was dull and matted. She coughed loudly, brought up a hairball, and deposited the nasty wet glob on Pringle's Persian carpet.
"I missed you, too, father," Filch sneered. "I've come for my inheritance. Then I'll leave you and this cursed country for good. You'd like that, wouldn't you?"
"You've gotten all that you'll ever get from me, you worthless squib," Pringle said bitterly. "It cost me plenty to buy you that position at Hogwarts. And how have you repaid me? You've become a wanted criminal, a man on the run! Thank Merlin I had the good sense to change your last name!"
Filch snorted. "You only bought me that position to hide me away. What does a school full of wizards need with a non-magical janitor? I spent years mopping and scrubbing by hand, not that anybody cared. I tried to do a good job, I really did, and I tried to keep order, but the brats just kept tormenting me. They enjoyed it, the little sadists. So what if Headmistress Umbridge let me get a bit of revenge from time to time?" He smiled fondly as he remembered his days with her Inquisitorial Squad, helping to enforce discipline. He'd helped the Carrows a few times, too, even though Headmaster Snape had told him to stay out of it and stick to his janitorial duties.
"I helped evacuate the students before the big battle, didn't I?" Filch said proudly. "And so what if I just kept going afterward? What's a squib supposed to do during a wizards' war, anyway? And now they've all turned on me and declared me a criminal, just because I helped discipline some students a few times. First they kicked me out of my job, and then they tried to arrest me! No gratitude, any of 'em." He spat on the Persian carpet, which made Pringle cringe.
"You're a complete disgrace to this family," his father said in disgust. "You cannot possibly be my son."
"Well, I guess it's just a coincidence that I happen to look like you then," Filch said. "It's too bad I inherited your face, but not your power. But if you'll just give me 20 thousand galleons from that safe behind great grandpa's portrait, I'll be on my way, and you and mom can go back to pretending that I never existed." Filch knew that his father didn't trust Gringotts and kept his entire fortune in that safe.
"You'll never see a single sickle from me," his father hissed. "Now get out, or I'll call the Aurors."
Pringle was starting to reach into his jacket for his wand when the sawed-off shotgun emerged from under Flich's tattered cloak.
"Make that 25 thousand," Filch said.
----------------
To be continued ...
Summary: After Fawkes rescues Severus Snape from the Shrieking shack, the phoenix decides to stick around.
The usual disclaimer applies. See Chapter 1.
A/N: This story is usually updated first at fanfiction.net. See wolfwillow there.
"So where have you been?" Ron asked when Harry arrived for Auror training on Monday morning. "You missed our study session with Hermione on Saturday."
"At Grimmauld Place," Harry said. "I thought I'd study at home."
"No, I stopped by a couple of times and you weren't in," Ron said, putting Harry on the spot. "What have you been up to?" Ron winked. "Come on, you can tell me."
Harry shifted awkwardly from one foot to the other. "Well, actually, I was in Oslo."
Ron waited, but no details were forthcoming. He thought for a moment. What was Harry hiding? Finally he asked, "Why? Quidditch season hasn't started yet."
"I was feeling a bit cooped up, and I just wanted to go somewhere, that's all," Harry said, as if he went travelling all the time, when in fact it was the first time that he'd ever been outside of the UK. "I wandered around a bit, had lunch, and then I came back. It was nice there." There was no way that Harry was going to admit that he'd been searching for Professor Snape on a Knight Boat when he'd been whisked off to Norway. Ron would think he'd gone crazy. And maybe he had.
Ron looked worried. "Did you have to eat anything weird, like lutefisk?"
That made Harry laugh. "No, I had a hamburger! Don't worry about it."
But Ron did worry about it. Why was his friend being evasive? He's cheating on Ginny! That's got to be it. I better follow him next time.
~~~~~
After several more all-night searches, Severus and the group had still found no sign of whatever it was that had killed twice at Southern Academy. All he had was a theory, with no real evidence to back it up. There had been two comatose victims without a mark on them, both of whom had later died without regaining consciousness, and Angie had told him that the nearby vegetation seemed to be sick and damaged. It wasn't much to go on.
The lack of progress was frustrating, but working all night and sleeping in the morning agreed with him, and Severus had slept soundly. He was still haunted by nightmares at times, but this morning he had dreamed he was Headmaster again. He was dining at the head table with Albus, Minerva, and Merlin. They were discussing how Ms Larose had joined the staff to teach Divination, and interest in the subject had skyrocketed, especially among the older boys. He smiled in his sleep.
When he awoke and went downstairs, he spotted Fawkes in the students' lounge. The phoenix was perched on the back of a couch behind two garishly dressed girls. They had set up some sort of muggle device, and Fawkes was watching a muggle movie with them. On the screen, flocks of birds were attacking muggles for no apparent reason, and the muggles were fleeing in terror. Fawkes seemed fascinated. His golden eyes were glued to the little screen.
Severus wandered up behind them and asked, in a rather menacing tone, "What are you doing with my bird?"
The girls were unperturbed. "We're watching The Birds with him," the one dressed in purple and black announced. Her black socks featured wide red stripes that clashed with her purple shoes. "I think this is the first time he's seen it."
"Is he a phoenix?" the other one piped up. "What's his name?" She was wearing shades of green that did not look good together, and she had bottle caps and other odd bits of metal charmed into her teased-up beehive hair.
"He's a phoenix," Severus said, "and his name is Fawkes." Don't they have a dress code at this school? he wondered.
"Mine is Mysteria," the one in green volunteered, although Severus certainly hadn't asked.
"And I'm Lady Darkness, Queen of the Night," said the purple-and-black one. "Who are you?"
Severus scowled. If those were their real names, he was Santa Claus.
Ignoring her question, he asked, "Shouldn't you be in class?"
"Nope," said the green one. "It's our lunch break."
These two girls made even the strangest Hogwarts student seem normal. Severus left them to watch their movie and went off in search of coffee and breakfast.
Entering the dining hall, he spotted Armstrong at one of the tables. "Come join me, Slade," Armstrong called. Although Severus usually preferred to eat alone, he was curious about how they taught "Magical Martial Arts" at Southern, so he accepted the offer. He served himself from the platters of toast, scrambled eggs and bacon, all of which were being kept fresh by warming charms. There were bowls of fruit salad and oatmeal, too. It was amazing what traipsing around the swamps all night had done for his appetite.
"Do you like teaching here?" Severus asked. He wanted to get Armstrong talking about himself before the man could think to ask him any personal questions.
"Absolutely!" Armstrong replied. "I love it. I've developed an effective program for the kids, and I keep improving it every year. The kids really enjoy it, too."
"They enjoy it? What exactly do you teach them? How to duel and cast curses?"
"No, nothing like that," Armstrong said, pouring himself a cup of coffee. "Not at first, anyway. Since they start school here at the age of ten, we begin with games. The first thing I do is teach them simple camouflage and detection spells so we can play magical Hide and Seek. Then I give them challenging clues and send them to find hidden objects all around the school. There are target practice games, too. After that, we move on to indentifying and avoiding dangerous creatures, especially swamp creatures, and I take them on field trips into the bayous to see where some of them dwell. For the young ones, it's mostly about being alert, spotting threats, and avoiding them. We don't get into any rough stuff until they're older."
By "rough stuff", Severus assumed the man meant dealing with curses, werewolves, and such, rather than dodging hinkypunks. When he was a boy, Severus would have found those games boring, but in those days he'd had a chip on his shoulder and was eager to learn things that he could use against bullies. Fortunately, he'd already mastered a few curses from a book that he'd found hidden away in his mother's trunk. In any event, he had to admit that Armstrong's program sounded reasonable for ten year olds.
Before he could ask what the older students learned, Angie came in with a tall young man in a dark green uniform like hers. They were talking earnestly and took seats at another table.
"That must be her partner, the one who ran off," Severus said, frowning.
"Yeah," Armstrong said. "That's him. His name is Drew Saunders."
Severus' usual reaction would be to insult the young man at the first opportunity, but then his spy instincts kicked in. The fellow might be able to provide useful information, so it would be best not to alienate him right now. That could wait until later.
~~~~~
"This is lovely sherry, Lucius," Rita said after taking a sip. "May I call you Lucius?"
"Of course, my dear" Lucius said, smiling, although in truth he'd prefer that she didn't. She, Lucius, Narcissa and Draco were seated in armchairs around an elegant carved coffee table. A fire burned brightly in the fireplace behind a decorative screen.
"Let's start with how Mr Snape became a Death Eater," Rita said, getting out her quill. "In fact, how did you become a Death Eater?"
Draco glanced furtively at Narcissa. What would his father say to that?
But Lucius remained unfazed. "Now Rita, remember your promise," he said smoothly. "No Quick-Quotes Quill. We want you to write it in your own words, with your own lovely and talented hand."
Reluctantly, Rita put the enchanted quill away in her green dragon-skin purse and took out an ordinary one. "So tell me about it," she purred. "How could a fine gentleman like yourself swear allegiance to that … reptilian … creature?"
"He didn't look 'reptilian', as you put it, until much later, when it was too late," Lucius explained. "When I first met the Dark Lord he was a rather handsome man. He had dark wavy hair that was streaked with white, and his eyes had a mysterious red glow. He was charming, confident and charismatic. I liked him immediately.
"He told me that everyone, including muggles, would be better off if wizards came out of hiding and brought order to the world. You must admit that muggles certainly are making a terrible mess of everything. Crime, pollution, terrorism, weapons of mass destruction, genocide, one war after another, there's no end to it. It's quite frightening, really."
Rita nodded in agreement as she wrote.
"He told me that he was looking to the old, established pureblood families like ours to head the movement and assume their rightful place as world leaders. He said that intermarriage would make wizards as incompetent as muggles, and it was essential to keep our blood pure so our power and intelligence would not be diluted. I'm sorry to say that I fell for it," Lucius said sadly.
Now, don't overdo it, dear, Narcissa thought to herself.
"Hmmm. It all sounds quite logical when you put it that way," Rita said. "But Mr Snape was the product of a mixed marriage, wasn't he? And whatever else he might have been, he wasn't incompetent."
"No, he certainly wasn't," Lucius replied, "but I thought Severus was an exception. At that time I didn't know about the Dark Lord's true parentage, or how degenerate the Gaunt family had become. It appears that, in his case at least, the addition of some muggle blood might actually have improved things for him." Lucius wasn't sure he really believed that, but he knew it would sound good under the circumstances.
"The Dark Lord started to look worse and worse as time went on, like the picture of Dorian Gray in that story by the squib Wilde. Maybe it was due to the way he was deliberately fracturing his soul; I'm not sure. But when he returned in that new body that Pettigrew helped him create, he no longer looked human. Perhaps he wasn't. And it quickly became apparent that he'd gone mad."
"I see," Rita said, jotting it all down. "Let's get back to Mr Snape then, shall we? What made him join You Know Who?"
"We must begin with his student years," Lucius said, "and take a look his beginnings, and then we can consider the events that drove him into the Dark Lord's clutches."
Oh, good! thought Draco. He was eager to hear all about that, even if his father had invented most of it.
~~~~~
It was late in the day before Severus was able to catch Drew Saunders alone. He had been watching him furtively all afternoon. At last, the young man had gone off by himself into an empty classroom, where he seemed to be lost in thought.
Severus closed the door quietly behind him and cast a nonverbal Muffliato over the room. "Mr Saunders?" he said.
Startled, Saunders whirled around.
"I don't think we've been introduced," Severus said. "My name is Solomon Slade. I'm a friend of Angie's brother, Kat, and as you probably know, we're here to help with the problem." He didn't offer to shake hands, but Saunders didn't notice.
"Oh, yeah," Saunders said. "We appreciate your help, Mr Slade, but I've been reinstated by the Agency, and I'll take it from here. You and Mr Fish can go back to your jobs now."
Mr Fish? Perhaps that was Kat's real last name. Severus suppressed a smirk.
"That's very considerate of you," Severus said, "but we are not required elsewhere at present, and we can stay on for awhile. After all, we still have no idea what's going on here, and it's best to err on the side of caution. We mustn't let any harm come to the children."
"No," Saunders said. "No, of course not. The children's safety must always come first. You're certainly welcome to stay, if you wish."
Severus could barely keep himself from grabbing the young man and shouting at him. This idiot can't even protect himself, let alone a school full of children! Aurors, Agents, wizard cops, or whatever you want to call them, they're all useless, self-important, over-confident dunderheads!
Controlling his temper, Severus decided to get to the point. In a soothing tone of voice, he asked, "Can you tell me anything about what happened …" how should I put this? "when you and Angie were overcome? Any sounds, or smells, or feelings? Anything you can remember might be important."
"You mean about what happened …" he paused, "that night? I'm afraid there's nothing. I've tried, of course, but there's absolutely nothing. Whatever it was, it must have Obliviated me."
Saunders looked down at the floor and Severus knew he was lying. He wouldn't have lasted a day as a Death Eater, Severus thought scornfully. Even Stan Shunpike could tell better lies than this. It's time to stop pussyfooting around and get on with it.
"That's unfortunate," Severus said, feigning sympathy. "It must be difficult for you."
"Yeah," said Saunders. "Yeah, it is." Then he looked up, and when he made eye contact, Severus pointed his wand and hit him with Legilimens.
Severus pushed his way into Saunders' mind and found it swimming with bad memories. Scenes of being bullied as a child, of being beaten up and humiliated, and memories of apathetic parents. Given his own experience, Severus considered such things a normal part of childhood. He shoved them aside and forged on. Then came a shocker: the boy had been kidnapped by a group of sadistic wizards, held for weeks, and forced to participate in repulsive rituals that they hoped would open the gates to the nightmare city of R'Lyeh. Even Severus understood that that wasn't normal. No wonder the man was a mess! Agents had rescued him, so he wanted to be an Agent and make the world a safer place. Unfortunately, he wasn't very good at it.
With difficulty, Severus dug down through the memories of the hideous rituals and found what he was looking for hidden underneath: the memory of that night in the swamp. Saunders was walking on a patch of dry ground a short distance from Angie when suddenly he felt cold. Ice began to crystallize on the puddles nearby, and icicles started to grow from the overhanging trees and Spanish moss. Then in a flash, all of his worst memories were released. The bullying, the overwhelming fear and loneliness, and those unspeakable rituals bubbled up in his mind and started to boil over. Saunders' head swam, and he was overcome with terror and despair. Then everything went black, and Severus knew. It was just as he had feared: a Dementor was loose in the swamps.
~~~~~
"How dare you!" Archibald Pringle said when he saw Argus Filch standing in his parlor with Mrs Norris by his side. "I told you never to come here again!"
Filch looked even worse than usual. Totally dreadful, actually. His pale, angular face was unshaven, his hair was stringy, his cloak was dirty and threadbare, and he smelled like he'd been hiding in the sewers. Mrs Norris didn't look too good, either. Her yellow eyes glowed as brightly as ever, but her fur was dull and matted. She coughed loudly, brought up a hairball, and deposited the nasty wet glob on Pringle's Persian carpet.
"I missed you, too, father," Filch sneered. "I've come for my inheritance. Then I'll leave you and this cursed country for good. You'd like that, wouldn't you?"
"You've gotten all that you'll ever get from me, you worthless squib," Pringle said bitterly. "It cost me plenty to buy you that position at Hogwarts. And how have you repaid me? You've become a wanted criminal, a man on the run! Thank Merlin I had the good sense to change your last name!"
Filch snorted. "You only bought me that position to hide me away. What does a school full of wizards need with a non-magical janitor? I spent years mopping and scrubbing by hand, not that anybody cared. I tried to do a good job, I really did, and I tried to keep order, but the brats just kept tormenting me. They enjoyed it, the little sadists. So what if Headmistress Umbridge let me get a bit of revenge from time to time?" He smiled fondly as he remembered his days with her Inquisitorial Squad, helping to enforce discipline. He'd helped the Carrows a few times, too, even though Headmaster Snape had told him to stay out of it and stick to his janitorial duties.
"I helped evacuate the students before the big battle, didn't I?" Filch said proudly. "And so what if I just kept going afterward? What's a squib supposed to do during a wizards' war, anyway? And now they've all turned on me and declared me a criminal, just because I helped discipline some students a few times. First they kicked me out of my job, and then they tried to arrest me! No gratitude, any of 'em." He spat on the Persian carpet, which made Pringle cringe.
"You're a complete disgrace to this family," his father said in disgust. "You cannot possibly be my son."
"Well, I guess it's just a coincidence that I happen to look like you then," Filch said. "It's too bad I inherited your face, but not your power. But if you'll just give me 20 thousand galleons from that safe behind great grandpa's portrait, I'll be on my way, and you and mom can go back to pretending that I never existed." Filch knew that his father didn't trust Gringotts and kept his entire fortune in that safe.
"You'll never see a single sickle from me," his father hissed. "Now get out, or I'll call the Aurors."
Pringle was starting to reach into his jacket for his wand when the sawed-off shotgun emerged from under Flich's tattered cloak.
"Make that 25 thousand," Filch said.
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To be continued ...