Remedial History

Chapter Seventeen: Letters, and a Map

Theo –

Is everything OK with you? Listen, I wanted to say I’m sorry about what happened on Monday. It’s a really long story, but to keep it simple, somebody sent me an anonymous note threatening to tell everybody about my parents if I didn’t join the P.Y.L. I KNOW you didn’t have anything to do with it now because I checked the handwriting against the History of Magic homework Nick handed back the other night, and it isn’t a bit like yours. (You got an O, by the way. Congrats.) Besides, Professor Dumbledore told me you left school because you were trying to get out and the others wouldn’t let you. Good for you.

There’s a rumour going around that you might be re-Sorted into Gryffindor, which I think would be dead cool. I mean, Seamus and Dean kind of paired up at the start-of-term feast our first year, and so did Harry and Ron, but I’ve never really had a good friend in our House.

How’s Buffy doing? Trevor looks sort of droopy, I think he misses her. When are you coming back?

Cheers,

Neville

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Dear Theodore,

I am writing to let you know that I have identified the traitor in our ranks. It was Millicent Bulstrode. We have dealt with her.

My aunt informs me that your father has been arrested again. I assume this means that you know who our true enemies are now, and you will be present at our next meeting? If so, I must warn you that it would be prudent to distance yourself from your friend Zabini. He has pretensions of taking over the P.Y.L.

Sincerely,

Draco Malfoy

 

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Hey Theo,

Quite the disappearing act you’ve got going, where on earth are you hiding? I just meant for you to stay away long enough for Malfoy to cool down, not to take off for Australia or anything!

Just wanted to let you know it’s safe to come back to the common room. We held the second set of elections a couple of nights ago, and it was a landslide in favour of yours truly. Wish you’d been there to see the show. The Purebred Ferret and the Neanderthal Twins felt the need for a scapegoat after their ignominious defeat, so they took it into their heads that Millicent Bulstrode was the traitor and beat her up rather badly last night. Rough on the girl, but it’s not like she hasn’t dished enough of it out herself over the years.

Anyway – fresh blood, time for some changes around here. Tell me what it was that bothered you so much about being part of the P.Y.L., and I’ll see that it gets fixed. Can’t lose my right-hand man now.

Miss you,

Blaise

P. S. Did you take the manuscript I’ve been working on for my Advanced Arithmancy project, because I can’t find it anywhere. It’s green, with dragon-skin binding.

An ordinary friendly letter, Theo thought. If he hadn’t known for a fact that the postscript was a lie, he might have been willing to believe he’d been wrong about Blaise.

He stared at the wall for a while and chewed on the end of his quill. He started with Neville’s letter, as it looked like the easiest one to answer. But even that wasn’t very easy.

Neville –

I’m fine, and Buffy’s fine. Thanks for writing. I don’t blame you for what you did when you thought I was blackmailing you, and I DO NOT hold it against you. Please understand this, no matter how I act toward you in the future.

About the rumours that I might be placed in Gryffindor, they are false. Or at least I’m going to fight it every step of the way if they try. I want to stay in Slytherin. I don’t think it is right to walk away and let my housemates get deeper and deeper into this P.Y.L. business. I’m going to do my best to convince some of them that it’s wrong, but if I can’t, I want to be able to help our professors keep tabs on what they’re up to, at least.

I might not be able to act friendly toward you and Harry after this, at least not in public. It’s not that I don’t like you, it’s that we both might end up being targeted. You’ve probably heard about what happened to Millicent Bulstrode. It can’t happen again, to anyone. Please understand this, too.

Your friend,

Theo

He re-read what he had written. Something about it felt slightly wrong, but he couldn’t put his finger on what.

Dear Draco,

Thank you for your letter. I am staying in London for the next few days because my sister is in St. Mungo’s. She became very ill after my father was arrested and she needs me to be here.

That was almost true. Draco didn’t have to know that he’d never actually visited Medea. Miss Tonks had asked him if he wanted to see her, but he’d said no.

I want to help fight against the people who put my father in Azkaban. I will definitely be at the next P.Y.L. meeting and I look forward to doing anything for our organisation that I can.

Sincerely,

Theodore Nott

Anything, he thought, reading the letter over. That would have to include recruiting, wouldn’t it? And whatever else Draco (or Blaise, whichever of them was in charge now) came up with. Slowly, the weight of what he was trying to do began to sink in.

Blaise –

I’m in London and I’ll be staying here a few days longer. We’re having a bit of a family crisis, Dad’s been arrested and he’s about to have a hearing before the Wizengamot, and Medea’s in St. Mungo’s, so my folks really need me. It hasn’t got anything to do with the P.Y.L. situation and you should forget everything I said about trying to quit. I got scared, that’s all, because Draco was getting so weird and putting so much pressure on me. He kept threatening to attack me like they did Millicent, and I didn’t think it was good to drag a kid into that, but it’ll be fine now that you’re running things.

That was believable, wasn’t it? He thought back to what he’d told Blaise about his doubts, and he couldn’t think of anything that contradicted his explanation. Except he’d said something about not wanting to give away somebody else’s secret; he needed to explain that.

I should probably tell you that Millicent told me she was a half-blood years ago, only I didn’t remember until Draco started getting all paranoid and scary, and I covered up for her because I didn’t really believe she was the traitor and I didn’t want to see her get seriously hurt. I hope you can understand that, and that you still want me as a right-hand man. I know you’re not the sort of person to do anything violent, so I’m sure the P.Y.L. will be going in a different direction after this, like you said, and I want to be in on it.

Cheers,

Theo

P. S. No, I haven’t taken your Arithmancy manuscript – you know anything with numbers and symbols gives me headaches. Hope you find it, though.

A soft cough from behind Theo’s chair made him jump. He realized, for the first time, that Professor Snape had come up behind him silently and had been reading over his shoulder.

“So this is your plan,” said Snape quietly. “You will return to school, play the part of the loyal, unambitious, and not-too-bright friend, and convince Mr. Zabini that you no longer have doubts about your membership in this Pureblood Youth League. Whilst posing as his faithful second-in-command, you will pass all the information you can glean about the League’s activities to me and Professor Dumbledore.”

Theo nodded. “That’s exactly what I had in mind, sir.”

“Meanwhile, you will talk in private with your friends and fellow members of the League – no doubt beginning with Miss Davis, who has a remarkable capacity for adjusting her opinions to match those of whomever is speaking to her at the time. And you intend somehow to persuade them that their activities are wrong and they should leave the organization. The very organization of which you are supposed to be the most dedicated member.”

Theo blushed. That was what was wrong with the plan he’d outlined in his letter to Neville. Why hadn’t he seen the problem himself?

“You are an idealist,” Snape continued, “which is the polite way of saying you are a fool. You cannot play both games at once.”

“You’re right, sir,” said Theo meekly. “I won’t try to persuade anybody. I’ll just play along.”

“And what would you have done if you had been asked to play along with the attack on Miss Bulstrode?”

“I don’t know,” Theo admitted.

“Then you do not know your business. And here is another thing.” Snape picked up the letter to Neville, which had been sitting on the coffee table. “This letter should never have been written. One does not put such things into writing. Furthermore, being friends in private is not an option. If you were to proceed with this foolhardy plan – which, I assure you, the Headmaster and Deputy Headmistress will never permit you to do – you would have to cut off all contact with Potter and Longbottom. And you must practice thinking of them as Potter and Longbottom, not Harry and Neville.” Snape’s voice took on a contemptuous note as he crumpled up the letter and threw it into the fire.

“Yes, sir,” said Theo, chastened. He screwed up his courage. “Teach me more.”

“I haven’t got time to take on an apprentice,” his Head of House snapped. “Especially a thoroughly backward one.”

“Who are you calling backward?” demanded Regulus, who had just come into the room. Professor Lupin, Miss Tonks, Professor McGonagall, and Professor Dumbledore were with him.

“Mr. Nott here fancies himself a spy in training,” explained Snape.

“Most interesting,” commented Professor Dumbledore mildly. “I must say that this is not exactly what we had arranged for him, but the boy’s wishes ought to count for something. Tell me more.”

“It’s sheer madness, Albus!” said Professor McGonagall in a sharp voice. “We aren’t here to recruit children, we’re here to protect them, and that’s a hard enough job as it is. One has been viciously attacked yesterday, and –”

Dumbledore held his hand up for silence. “I have not said that I approve of the idea, only that I want to hear more about it. Please describe what you had in mind, Theodore.”

Theo explained the cover story he had crafted for his letters to Draco and Blaise, and sketched out his plan as clearly as possible.

Professor Dumbledore turned to Snape when he had finished. “Severus, you interviewed Draco Malfoy and Blaise Zabini, among others, last night. Do you believe they can be persuaded that Theodore does not present a threat to them?”

“Yes. Malfoy transferred his suspicions to Miss Bulstrode when he discovered the truth about her ancestry. As for Blaise Zabini, he appears to be the actual leader of the group at this point, and I should say that he will be happy to take his friend back into his confidence, provided Mr. Nott appears to be the harmless lap dog he has always been before. He seems to have been truthful when he told Mr. Nott that young Malfoy planned to target him, and it appears that he was under the impression that he was helping Mr. Nott when he decided to blackmail the Longbottom boy.”

Theo looked up, startled. He had been so quick to believe the worst of Blaise that it hadn’t occurred to him that his ex-friend might genuinely like him. He began to have an uncomfortable, clutched-up feeling in his stomach.

“But all this is beside the point,” Professor Snape continued. “This may be necessary work, but Mr. Nott isn’t the one to do it.”

“Be that as it may, Severus, he appears to be the only one who volunteered,” said Dumbledore with a slight twinkle in his eye.

“I speak from experience, and I don’t believe he has what it takes. He’s still the sort of boy who wears his heart on his sleeve. He will hand the others weapons.”

Miss Tonks looked thoughtful. “I disagree. From what I’ve seen of Theo, he seems admirably well prepared for the job. Quiet, secretive, unassuming, and capable of defending himself, given a bit more training. Wouldn’t you say so, Remus?”

“Absolutely not.” Lupin’s voice sounded hoarse and tired. “I’ve seen my own generation sacrificed like so many lambs, and I will not stand by and sharpen the knives as we lead another group of children to the altar. It’s positively indecent, and I’m surprised that you, of all people, would support it.”

She took his arm. “I don’t like the idea. Nobody does. But none of us is leading Theo anywhere. It is his choice and he has the right to make it.”

“And he’s not a child, Moony,” said Regulus. “He’ll be of age in a few months. And I was a Death Eater at seventeen.”

“My point exactly,” said Lupin. “You didn’t know what you were doing.”

“No. But Theo’s a hell of a lot smarter and more mature than I was.”

“Fair point, Reg.” Lupin appeared to be softening; Theo could tell Miss Tonks and Regulus were people whose opinions he respected considerably. “But sixteen is sixteen. All boys that age think they’re invincible, and that being a spy is glamorous and exciting. At the very least, I think Theo ought to have a taste of what it’s really like out there. He has the right to know what the costs and compromises are – and see something of the people who get caught in the middle.”

“Are you mad, Lupin?” Snape interrupted. “Are you actually suggesting that I take a child along with me?”

“No, Severus. I was thinking of taking him with me.”

 

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“Very good,” said Lupin. He had insisted on practicing Occlumency with Theo for most of the afternoon, occasionally interrupting the lessons to pass on information about counterjinxes and fighting off curses. “You deserve a reward, I think.” He took a couple of bottles of butterbeer out of his battered briefcase, removed the corks, and handed one of them to Theo.

Theo had, in fact, done extremely well, but he suspected this was because Professor Lupin wasn’t in top form. His mind seemed to be elsewhere.

“You know,” he said after a moment, “life in Gryffindor Tower isn’t as bad as your housemates have probably made it out to be. I think you’ll enjoy it. I did.”

Theo turned the bottle of butterbeer around in his hands and started to scrape off the label with his fingernail. “I wouldn’t be much of a Gryffindor if I just walked away and pretended not to see what was going on, would I? I mean, we’re talking about blackmail and assault here. Maybe next time somebody will get killed.”

“Do you believe your schoolmates are capable of that?”

Theo considered the question. “I don’t know,” he said at last. “Maybe not any one of them in particular, but as a mob urging each other on, and everyone too scared to stand up to the others – they might be.”

Lupin nodded gravely. “Has it occurred to you that most of us would prefer that you weren’t the next victim?”

“I’d prefer it too,” said Theo with a grin. “Make no mistake about that. If there’s one thing us Slytherins are good at, it’s looking after our own skin.”

“I see. Well, I shall tell you up front that I hope you choose not to do this, but I won’t stand in your way if you do. It doesn’t look like Professor Dumbledore is going to stand in your way either, so the choice is yours.” He took a swallow of butterbeer. “Before you decide, I want to take you along on a mission this Sunday. I was going to take Tonks anyway, and I guess there’s room for one more. It won’t be particularly dangerous – I hope. It won’t be glamorous either. It’s rather pathetic, to tell you the truth.”

“All right,” said Theo, wondering what on earth this mission could be.

Before Lupin could tell him more, Jack Evans walked into the room. “Hello, Remus. How are those plans coming along?”

“Slowly,” said Lupin. “It’s been busy around here, so I haven’t had a chance to do as much as I’d like. I’m almost finished with the seventh floor, though, if you wanted to have a look.”

“No hurry,” said Mr. Evans cheerfully. “It took me three years to build the model in the first place, and that was with Mark’s help. I’m resigned to the fact that it’ll take a few more years to rebuild it.”

“You think it’s worth the trouble, then?” asked Lupin, digging around in his briefcase and removing a large sheet of parchment, which he handed to Evans.

“Yes. Absolutely.” There was something very determined about Evans’ smile. Theo didn’t understand what they were talking about, but he had the feeling Jack Evans was another person who would understand the choice he was about to make.

He glanced at the parchment over Evans’ shoulder. He realized it was the same diagram Lupin had been sketching on the morning after his arrival, and, for the first time, he recognized it as a floor plan of Hogwarts.

“I don’t think I’ve seen that room before,” Evans commented. “It wasn’t in any of Lily’s sketches.”

“That’s not surprising,” said Lupin. “Not many people know about it. It’s a room that’s sometimes there and sometimes isn’t, and it fills itself with whatever the person looking for it requires at the time, so it’s known as the Come and Go Room, or the Room of Requirements.”

“That’s where we had the P.Y.L. meetings,” said Theo. “I suppose that’s what Blaise meant when he asked me if I’d figured out how the place worked. Now it all makes sense, the way he could always find butterbeer there when he was looking for it ... or books on the Dark Arts ... or propaganda.”

“Fascinating,” remarked Evans, taking out a legal pad covered in a tight, close handwriting and jotting down a few notes. “It sounds both convenient and incredibly dangerous.”

Lupin smiled. “Most things in our world are, in case you hadn’t noticed by now.”

Evans flipped through his legal pad idly. “Now, this map you told me about – the Marauder’s Map – how does it deal with rooms that are sometimes there and sometimes not?”

“Easily. The map is completely interactive with the physical world, you see, so the room just disappears from the map when it’s gone and reappears whenever someone is using it.”

“Could you possibly show me how it works? Is there any way to enchant part of this map?”

“I’m not as good at the enchantments as Sirius was. He’d have been able to show you something impressive if he were alive. But I’ll see what I can do. Bear in mind that this will be a very crude version.” Lupin tapped the floor plan with is wand and muttered a complicated series of spells. “... Aperiant incolae castelli, animent, revela eos locos et nomines malefico ...”

A couple of small, slow-moving dots appeared in one of the corridors, and a moment later, the names Argus Filch and Mrs. Norris came into view beside them, as if written by an invisible hand. “The janitor and his cat,” Lupin explained. “Not much going on in that part of the castle, usually, especially this late in the afternoon, so I don’t think you’ll see anything very excit – ” His voice trailed off. “What the hell ... ?”

Theo leaned forward to see what was the matter with the map. He drew in his breath sharply. A tiny dot had appeared in the corner of the Come and Go Room. It was labeled Evan Rosier.