Remedial History

Chapter Eighteen: Evan Rosier

“Who’s Evan Rosier?” asked Jack Evans.

“Lord Voldemort’s chief propagandist,” explained Professor Lupin. “It makes sense, in a strange way. Draco Malfoy needed a recruiter with a great deal more charisma than he had himself, so naturally the Room of Requirements supplied him with the very best. But Evan Rosier was killed sixteen years ago. Or at least – he was supposed to have been killed.” He stared at the map, face drawn tight with tension, and finally said, “I’m going to send word to Tonks at Auror headquarters to check the files on Rosier and find out what became of his body.” He began writing feverishly in the little spiral-bound notebook, which seemed to be some sort of communication device.

“Can you use magic to come back from the dead?” asked Evans.

“Absolutely not. It’s one of the central laws of our world.”

“Can you use it to fake your own death, then? Using this – this Polyjuice stuff, for instance?”

“Yes. And any number other of other ways as well.” Lupin laid the notebook aside and bit his lip. “I’m bound to say I don’t like this at all.”

Jack Evans looked at him curiously. “What’s the matter? You’re not usually a worrier.”

“Because if Rosier’s really hiding out in the Room of Requirements, he’s probably spying on the D. A. – and Harry tells me their next meeting is tomorrow night. There isn’t any time to lose.”

Theo wasn’t sure what the D. A. was, but he could tell from Lupin’s tone of voice that the matter was important.

Miss Tonks Apparated into the room, landed slightly off-balance, and crashed into the fireplace. She had a sheaf of parchment under one arm. “Rosier’s body was cremated,” she announced. “In front of several reliable witnesses. What’s this all about?”

“He’s still hanging around, apparently,” said Lupin. “On the seventh floor of Hogwarts, to be exact.”

“What?”

“I don’t understand it either. But take a look at this map.”

“Could the body they cremated have been somebody else Polyjuiced to look like him?” Jack Evans asked again.

“Not unless the people on the case were complete incompetents,” she replied, “and Mad-Eye may be paranoid, but he’s far from incompetent. There are spells that can reverse the effect of Polyjuice potion, and it’s standard procedure to use them on everyone killed by Aurors to confirm the identity of the bodies. But I’ll double-check. MAD-EYE!”

A moment later, Professor Moody stumped into the room. “You needn’t shout like that, lassie. Thought for a minute we were under attack, I did.”

“Alastor, can you confirm that Evan Rosier is dead?” Lupin asked.

“Dead as a doornail. Saw to it myself.”

“Are you positive you got the right man?” asked Mr. Evans.

Moody looked at him as if he were out of his mind. “‘Course I’m positive. Took half my nose with him, didn’t he? If somebody did that to your face, son, you’d make good and sure you’d got the right man.”

“But,” said Lupin urgently, “if half the things I’ve heard about that crowd are true, we’re talking about a young man who was obsessed with escaping death ... with immortality ... Theo, have you still got that book you found in the Come and Go Room?”

“Yeah. It’s in my bag upstairs.”

“Go and get it, please.”

Theo ran upstairs and returned a few minutes later with The Book of Immortality. A sudden thought had struck him as he was going through his bag.

“I reckon Rosier might be spying on us, too,” he said. “Draco told me his aunt said the P.Y.L. had ...” He struggled to remember Draco’s exact words. “... A powerful ally inside Hogwarts who was paying attention whether people were with us or against us. Draco thought it was Professor Snape, but perhaps it isn’t. Maybe this Rosier person was the one who tipped his aunt off about Millicent being a half-blood, and she told Draco.”

For the first time, Moody looked as if he thought there was something in the idea. “That’s possible. He knew old Bulstrode slightly, that much I’m sure of. Snape could probably tell you more about his friends and associates.”

“Get in touch with him, will you?” said Lupin. Moody left the room. “Theo, let me see that book.”

After fifteen minutes of leafing through The Book of Immortality, Lupin was forced to admit defeat. “I can’t see anything in these experiments that would allow Rosier to cheat death. Even if it were possible, this magic looks much too amateurish. It’s the work of – well, very gifted teenagers, but teenagers all the same. But this isn’t my field of expertise, and much of it is so hard to read that I may be missing something ... Oh, hello, Severus,” he added, closing the book as Professor Snape Apparated into the room. “We were hoping you could help us with something.”

“I told you I never wanted to see that book again,” said Snape, not bothering to return his greeting. He had lost his bat wings, but his ears still looked a little bruised.

“What can you tell us about Evan Rosier? As a person, I mean?” Miss Tonks looked up from her parchment for the first time in some minutes.

“I would have thought that your profession would allow you to access a great deal more information about Evan Rosier than any of the rest of us are privileged to enjoy.”

She gave an irritated sigh. “It does and it doesn’t. Auror records don’t exactly tell you much about the man behind the files.”

“Very well. He was, in many ways, the golden boy of Slytherin House.”

“Good-looking?” asked Miss Tonks.

“I suppose so. I am no great judge, but women seemed to find him attractive – and some men, for that matter. He was ambitious, academically brilliant, and a natural leader. Or rather, I should say, a natural manipulator.”

Theo tried to banish the thoughts of Blaise that kept crowding into his head, unbidden.

“He came from an old, pureblooded aristocratic family and, for the most part, chose his small band of intimates from those of his own background ... along with one or two who had only intelligence and secrecy to recommend them. He had, you must understand, a strong interest in experimental magic, particularly the darker side of alchemy, and this was sufficient to make him seek out those who were his intellectual equals without regard for their birth. Rosier’s friendship meant an entryway into a society they knew nothing of, access to rare ingredients and materials, and the dream of discovering a way for men to become immortal. And so they became steeped deeper and deeper in the Dark Arts...”

“‘They’ meaning ‘you’?” asked Miss Tonks sharply.

Snape glared at her. “Let it suffice to say that when the Dark Lord became aware of their interests, he found them – or us, if you insist – easy prey. He offered them arcane knowledge about the Dark Arts and promised that they would share the fruits of his own quest for immortality. His promises, of course, were empty. Rosier and his right-hand man, Simon Wilkes, were dead before their twentieth birthdays, though not before leading the rest of us into the jaws of hell ... This is tedious. Must I go on?”

“No. I think you have told us nearly enough.” Lupin’s face was difficult to read, but there was a certain gentleness in his voice, and Theo was conscious that the tension between the two men seemed to have softened, though not disappeared, since their duel. “This is why we asked. We’ve got a ... well, we’ve got reliable evidence that a man by the name of Evan Rosier is currently in the Come and Go Room, on the seventh floor of Hogwarts. The same place where this secret society Theo told us about has been holding their meetings.”

Snape paled. “Impossible.”

“It’s true. It may not be the same Rosier, but if it isn’t, it’s another man by the same name. Are you absolutely certain that Lord Voldemort never kept his promise?”

“Positive. The Dark Lord does not share. If Rosier discovered anything at all of use, it is most likely to be found in that book.”

“Can you tell me which handwriting is his?”

“That one. The cramped-looking one you see in all the marginal notes.”

Professor Lupin returned to perusing the book. “Hmm. ‘Ask B. B. for advice about imp.’ Well, that’s enlightening. And there’s another note in the margin a bit later on: ‘B. B. says not diff. but tricky, irrevers., must be done @ midn.’ – I’m guessing that’s “difficult,” “irreversible,” and “midnight.” And there’s something that looks like a Latin incantation, but so abbreviated I can’t make head or tail of it. Can you?”

“I cannot. Evidently Rosier was conducting research he did not share with the rest of us – except, apparently, Mrs. Lestrange. If you care to invite her over for tea and see what you can get out of her, be my guest.”

It was obvious from the expression on Lupin’s face that he did not consider this a helpful suggestion.

“Are you sure B. B. is Bellatrix Black?” Theo asked suddenly, remembering his own confusion about the initials written on the flyleaf of the book. “Lots of people have the same initials – and why would he have to make a note in the margins to ask her something if she was one of the people who worked on the book with him?”

“Who else would it be?” asked Professor Snape. “He would never have asked anyone outside our own House, I can tell you that much, and there weren’t any other Slytherins with those initials.”

Suddenly Miss Tonks laughed. “Oh, yes, there were,” she said. “There’s been another Slytherin with those initials for the last eight hundred years or so, and he isn’t going away any time soon.”

Lupin stared at her for a moment, and then a look of comprehension spread over his face. “The Bloody Baron,” he said.

“Exactly,” she said. “In case the alchemy experiments didn’t work out, Rosier might have decided to hedge his bets and become a ghost as well. I’m guessing that ‘Ask B. B. for advice about imp.’ means he interviewed the Bloody Baron to find out how to leave an imprint of himself on the world.”

“I think you’re right,” Theo said excitedly, “and he’s haunting the Come and Go Room. The images we saw at the P.Y.L. meetings were just like Nearly Headless Nick’s memories. Kind of a shimmery, misty stuff that came together and took on a little color.”

“What’s this about Nearly Headless Nick’s memories?” asked Miss Tonks.

Theo explained about the way Nicholas had projected his memories in class, and about everything the P.Y.L. had seen and heard at the meetings. “We even saw Professor Moody losing part of his nose, and he said himself that Rosier did it to him.”

“But wait,” said Jack Evans, looking up from the file on Evan Rosier, which he had been reading over the Auror’s shoulder with great interest. “It says here that he died about a year before the end of the war. How could he have shown Theo the ruins of Lily and James’ house if he was already dead?”

Theo thought for a moment that Mr. Evans had found a flaw in their theory, but then he remembered. “The same way Nick showed us how the Princes in the Tower were murdered, even though he wasn’t actually there. He said he’d gone over it in his head so many times it was almost as if he’d seen it himself. I guess the end of the war must have been the same sort of experience for Rosier – such a devastating blow that he couldn’t stop thinking about it.”

“Absolutely brilliant, Theo,” said Miss Tonks, grinning. “It all fits, doesn’t it?”

Theo, who was not used to being called brilliant, returned her smile shyly. “Yeah. I would never have noticed it if you hadn’t come up with the idea, though.”

“If I may interrupt this mutual admiration society for a moment,” said Professor Snape, “has anybody given any thought to what we are going to do about the fact that a deceased propagandist is haunting the school and recruiting the next generation of Death Eaters, or is this merely an intellectual exercise with no practical applications?”

Miss Tonks gave him an annoyed look. “Details, details,” she muttered.

“He’s right, you know,” said Mr. Evans. “This is something we need to act on right away.” He started pacing across the room. “Speaking as a parent, I’ve got to say the whole situation is beyond worrisome. I thought they were supposed to have decent security at Hogwarts? How come Rosier hasn’t shown up on any of the school’s Dark detectors and such?”

Theo had another sudden insight. “I ... I think he has, sir. It must have been Rosier we were seeing in Just Todd’s Foe-Glass. We thought it was broken because all it would show was this whitish misty stuff, but I bet it was really showing a ghost hiding in a dark wardrobe!”

“Who’s Just Todd?” asked Evans.

“Our Defence Against the Dark Arts professor. He likes gadgets.”

“It figures,” said Professor Snape. “Of course that imbecile would fail to recognize the significance of what he saw, and of course he wouldn’t think to inform the rest of the staff. He probably went surfing or something and forgot all about it.”

“I didn’t know there was anywhere to surf around Hogwarts,” said Miss Tonks with interest. “I thought you needed an ocean.”

“Miss Tonks, we are discussing a man with the approximate intellectual capacity of a thimble. I would not be surprised in the least if he attempted to go surfing in a toilet bowl.”

Professor Lupin made a noise which sounded suspiciously like a snicker. “Starting to wish you hadn’t forced me to resign, Severus?”

“In one word – YES! And don’t ever expect me to say that again.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” said Lupin sweetly. “Once was all I asked.”

Snape gave him a look that could have melted glass, and Jack Evans made a brave attempt to turn the conversation back to the subject of Rosier’s ghost. “So, did Professor Todd –”

“They do have surnames in America,” Snape put in, “they merely refuse to use them. I believe his is Bicycle.”

“Did Professor Bicycle tell anybody what he saw in his Foe-Glass?”

“Just the manufacturers,” said Theo. “They sent him a gadget called an Imprint Eraser for free, but we couldn’t work out what it was for. It flew around the room and had flashing lights, and it sang a song about clothes dusters.”

“Clothes dusters?”

“Yeah.” Theo tried to remember how it went. “There’s something strange ... da nuh na na na ... who you gonna call ... CLOTHES DUSTERS!”

Evans collapsed in a sudden fit of mirth. The others looked at him strangely.

“What is it?” Lupin asked.

“I – I know what the Imprint Eraser does,” said Evans, still laughing. “And it’s brilliant. It’s exactly what you need right now.”

 

                                                            *          *          *

“It’s past curfew now,” said Professor Lupin, glancing up at the grandfather clock in the hall of Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place. “We’ll wait a few more minutes, just to avoid the risk of running into anybody in the corridors, and then take the Floo network to my old quarters at Hogwarts.”

Theo nodded. Somehow Lupin and Snape seemed to have reached a tacit agreement that Theo was going to accompany them; he wasn’t sure why, but he was afraid they would change their minds if he asked.

“Ready?” Lupin tossed some Floo Powder into the fire. “Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor’s rooms, Hogwarts!”

Theo climbed out of the fireplace and looked around Just Todd’s sitting room with interest. He had never seen the private quarters assigned to any of the professors before, and it was clear that Hogwarts treated its staff well. Most of the furniture was antique and extremely valuable-looking; it included an enormous sofa, several comfortable-looking armchairs, and a mahogany desk that looked like it probably held an infinite number of secret drawers. A wizard chess set with intricately carved ebony and ivory pieces stood on a table in the corner. One wall was covered with a moving mural of a tropical beach, complete with rolling waves, swaying palm trees, and a bikini-clad women’s volleyball team.

“You choose the mural yourself,” explained Lupin, as one of the girls removed her bikini top and waved. “I had an underwater seascape showing all the magical creatures native to the Great Barrier Reef, but I guess he – er’m – prefers things that are educational in a slightly different way.”

He knocked on a door that, Theo supposed, led to the professor’s bedroom. After a moment, Just Todd appeared in the doorway, wearing only a pair of plaid boxer shorts and a T-shirt that read, “I’M THE BIG KAHUNNA.” Although he was blinking sleepily, he seemed animated. “It’s the Sevster! How are you, dude?”

Professor Snape gave him a look that would have frozen molten lava, and Professor Lupin went into a fit of coughing which was quite obviously an attempt to stifle laughter. “‘Scuse me ... not over my cold yet,” he mumbled unconvincingly. Gaining control of himself, he said, “I’m sorry to wake you up at this hour, Professor Bicycle, but we were wondering if we might borrow your Imprint Eraser for a few minutes...”

“Who are you, dude?” asked Just Todd.

“I’m Remus Lupin. I used to have your job.”

“Oh yeah, I heard all about you. You’re the werewolf. That’s cool.”

Lupin looked startled; he was obviously unused to having his condition described as “cool.” “Right, so if you don’t mind, could we have a look at that Imprint Eraser, please?”

“Sure, whatever.” Just Todd disappeared for a moment and returned with the Imprint Eraser, still in its original packaging. “It’s kinda late, you know, so don’t bother bringing it back ‘til tomorrow. There ya go. Later, dudes.”

Lupin looked the Imprint Eraser over and handed it to Professor Snape. “You’d better have the honors, I think.”

All three of them tiptoed through the empty halls of Hogwarts to the seventh floor and walked back and forth past the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy. We need a ghost to exorcise, thought Theo, and the door of the Come and Go Room appeared in the opposite wall. Theo nudged it open. The room was empty except for the massive wardrobe he had noticed on his first visit. This, he realized, must be where Evan Rosier had been concealing himself.

“Stay back,” whispered Snape. “In case the device doesn’t work, it’s better if he thinks I’ve come alone.” He approached the corner where the wardrobe stood.

“Ah, Severus,” said a soft male voice from inside the wardrobe. “I was wondering when you were going to find the time to look up an old friend.”

“Hello, Evan,” said Snape rather stiffly. “I’m rather busy with my teaching duties during the school term, in case you didn’t know.”

“Very busy indeed, I imagine,” said the voice. “I suppose that explains why I have won more converts to the cause in the last three months than you have in five years. Well, you were never exactly charismatic, were you, old mate? Not like Bella and Simon and me. Ah well, at least you’ve done an adequate job of preparing them intellectually. Their ears were ripe for the words of truth.”

Theo could only just make out Professor Snape’s face in the dimly lit room; he was tight-lipped and seemed to be struggling to look as if this information pleased him. “Tell me more about how you accomplished it,” he said smoothly.

“Easily, Severus. They came to me by the dozens – discontented, dispossessed, deprived of their rightful heritage by the mudbloods and Muggle-lovers who rule in their place. You may be content to serve one of them yourself, my friend, but our sons and daughters will rise up and fight. I have sown the seeds of ambition and I expect to reap a glorious harvest. I showed them the beautiful face of war, and I watched as they learned to wield the curses that will make them stronger than the blood traitors who dared to call themselves victorious. Our dream has never been dead; it has only slept.”

“‘The beautiful face of war,’” murmured Snape. “Did you show them its other face as well? The one with a bleeding forehead and the hollow eyes of death? Did you show them your own face, Evan?”

“I am surprised to hear you talk that way,” said the voice from the wardrobe. “Shall I go and tell the Dark Lord you are not ... prepared to fight again? He will be most interested to hear that, I expect. And no, I did not choose to show myself then, but I think I shall now.”

The spectre of a very young man, little more than a boy, drifted out of the wardrobe. He had finely chiseled features and a proud, aristocratic tilt to his chin. Silvery blood matted a mop of hair that looked like it had been fair, though it was always hard to tell with ghosts, and gushed from an ugly-looking wound in his chest.

The ghost’s eyes widened as he looked around the room. “You haven’t introduced me to your new friends, Severus,” he said. “Why, that’s Lupin, isn’t it? Curious that you should have brought one of that gang of Gryffindors here. And that’s the boy who was absent from the last few Pureblood Youth League meetings. You’re keeping strange company nowadays ... I imagine I am not the only one who will find this surprising.”

“Don’t count on being around long enough to bear tales, Rosier.” Snape removed the Imprint Eraser from its box.

This time, the device didn’t sing any songs or flit aimlessly around the room. It made a beeline for Rosier and silently traced its way around the ghost’s outline. Theo saw Rosier’s mouth grow round with shock a moment before he dissolved into a formless mist, and then vanished entirely.

Professor Snape turned around with a twisted smile. “Perhaps school reunions have their points, after all.”