All Debts Must be Paid

Chapter Sixteen: Jacks

Earlier that morning, Jacks had come to with a groan. He must have been drunker last night than he had thought. He didn't feel precisely nauseous and he didn't precisely have a sore head, but he had certainly felt better. He stuck his feet out of bed and hauled himself into an upright position. Caffeine and lots of it, that's what he needed, he thought.

After a detour to the bathroom where he stood under the shower for ten minutes until he began to feel a bit more human, he walked into the living room and boiled the kettle with a tap of his wand. Then he made some coffee, black because there wasn't any milk. He sat down on the sofa and tried to sort out everything that had happened yesterday. Glancing at the clock he saw that it was half past eleven so he didn't even bother letting them know he wasn't going in - he thought they might have worked that out by now anyway. He sipped his coffee. Damn Davis, although in the end, with Black escaping yet again like that, perhaps it hadn't made that much difference. Macnair though, that was strange. He was more than half tempted to tell the man to bugger off, and yet he had been right about that hunger. He couldn't help but feel that there was more to Macnair than met the eye. He snorted. Perhaps he should have gone into work after all.

There was a tap at the window. He looked round and saw a Ministry owl with a message tied round its leg. Oh no, he thought, that couldn't be good. He stood up and opened the window. The owl pecked his hand when he neglected to give it an owl treat, but he waved it off, annoyed. It shot him a filthy look and flew off, but Jacks was already tearing open the message. He read the few terse lines notifying him of his suspension pending a disciplinary hearing, and his heart sank. He knew what that meant. He really was finished this time.

He slumped back down onto the sofa and was about to take another gulp of hot coffee, when there was a pop, and Macnair appeared by the door. Jacks frowned. That was rude; the man could have Apparated outside and then knocked.

Macnair didn't mess about. "Have you decided yet what you're going to do?"

Good morning to you too, thought Jacks sourly. "Yeah, you want me to go after Black for you, it'll cost you fifty galleons a day plus expenses until I bring him in or you decide you've had enough."

Macnair gave that irritating thin smile. "That seems very reasonable. I'm sure we'll have a very long and profitable relationship."

"I wouldn't count on it. I do this job for you then I'm done." It would just tide him over until he found something else.

Macnair's smile looked positively sinister now. "Whatever you wish, Mr Jacks, I'll be in touch." He Disapparated with another pop.

"Bye," Jacks said to the empty space. He stared at his coffee in thought for a moment, realising he was going to have to go into the Ministry if he was going to get any idea how Black had got out. It was as good a place to start as any.

On that thought he Flooed into the Ministry building, carefully avoiding the MLES floor, and spent the next couple of hours nosing around in the lockups. He didn't find out much. The guards were irritated at being asked questions they said they'd already been asked and were not co-operative.

"Oh come on!" he told them, "We do everything in triplicate around here. There'll be someone around tomorrow as well I expect."

He gave up eventually and would have left but something was niggling in the back of his mind and it wasn't about Black at all it was about Macnair. So he took himself off down to Archives and Records, thinking as he went that he would never have believed that working there would ever come in useful.

"Back so soon?" smirked Heyes who was on the front desk. "Heard you might be coming back," he said.

"Flying visit, left something, " Jacks muttered in passing, thinking bad news always travels fast.

It took him some time to find the file he'd been looking for. To begin with he hadn't even been sure there would be a file. But if there was he wanted to know what was in it. Eventually he found one in the closed files section. A thick manilla folder labelled 'Walden Macnair'. Oh shit.

He stood where he was and read the file from cover to cover, not wanting anyone to see what he was doing. As he read his blood started to run cold. Oh shit indeed. The file contained detailed reports of investigations that had been carried out on Macnair several times during the late seventies and early eighties. They all came to the somehow less than comforting conclusion that Walden Macnair had not been a Death Eater. But Jacks remembered how he'd felt the previous night as Macnair had left, as if he was being recruited.

He put the file away and slowly made his way upstairs. Get a grip, Jacks, he told himself. Why would Death Eaters want you to get Sirius Black? Lots of people had been accused of being Death Eaters and cleared. Just because they had personality problems didn't mean it had been a mistake. In any case he'd rather do a one off job for Macnair and his 'Interests' than go back to Archives and Records, always assuming that was even still an option.

He bought some milk on the way home, but there was someone waiting for him when he got there. Black opened his mouth to say something, and Jacks dived to the side onto the floor and out of the way of what he was sure would be a Killing Curse. He dropped the milk bottle, trying to go for his own wand. It rolled into a corner but didn't break.

"Oh no you don't," Black snarled and yelled, "Expelliarmus!"

Jacks' wand flew out of his hand and into the air where Black caught it with a grin. "Gotcha!" he said. "Right, hands where I can see them, and remember this, Death Eater, you try anything and I'll hex you into next week."

What did he say? Jacks goggled at Black, thinking he must have misheard the man.

"Come on!" Black snapped impatiently as Jacks had failed to move.

"You called me a Death Eater."

"Oh sorry, they not finish initiating you yet? Is it not official? Is that your reward for handing me over?"

Jacks blinked at the other man in confusion and shook his head. "There's only one Death Eater in this room and it isn't me," he declared.

"Oh please, still doing the good little Ministry employee act are we?" Black was contemptuous. "Sticking to the party line about evil Sirius Black?" The expression of disgust on the man's face would have been comical under other circumstances.

"You're denying you're a Death Eater?" Jacks said derisively. "So what was it then, Imperius?"

Black seemed about to lose it completely, but controlled himself with an effort. "I don't have to listen to this shit," he said, and Jacks braced himself for what he thought was coming.

Instead of the expected final Curse though, Black muttered a Paralysis Hex. Jacks rather wished Black had simply stunned him, then he wouldn't have had to think about why he wasn't dead. There was only one reason he could think of - Black wanted information. Which didn't explain why he hadn't started on the torture yet, unless of course he was waiting for someone else. Jacks desperately hoped it wasn't Voldemort.

He watched as Black picked up the milk bottle and set it beside the kettle. "Don't mind if I help myself to coffee do you?" he asked with an evil grin, then proceeded to do just that.

Black had barely started to sip his coffee, when there was a pop and someone Apparated into the room behind Jacks.

As soon as they did so, Black set anti-Apparition wards, then asked the new arrival, "Did you get it?" Jacks' anxiety receded a little. That didn't sound the sort of question someone would ask Voldemort.

"Of course I did. You worry too much, Sirius," responded a man's voice. Oh Merlin, it was the werewolf. He'd been right about him all along. "Of course, eventually. I had to twist Severus' arm a bit for it," Lupin added thoughtfully.

Black looked disappointed. "Pity I missed that."

"I wasn't being literal," Lupin responded, stepping over Jacks' body. He sounded reproving.

"Shame." Black grinned. "Want some coffee?"

Lupin looked distastefully into the sink at where Jacks had left the previous week's dirty crockery. "No thanks," he said, "I'd probably catch something from the mug. He's worse than you are."

Black rolled his eyes. But then they both turned their attention to Jacks, and the banter disappeared, their expressions turning grim. Oh shit, here we go, thought Jacks.

"What did you do to him?" Lupin asked Black. "Full Body Bind?"

Black shook his head. "Paralysis Hex," he said.

Together they lifted Jacks' limp body onto a chair and secured his hands behind his back. Lupin pulled his head up so he could see them and said, "Right, we're going to remove the Hex, and then you are going to drink this." He held up a small vial. "If you really want, Sirius here will do to you, what you had your men do to me, to get me to drink the stuff. Or worse. It's up to you." He didn't look as if he cared one way or the other, while Black looked as if he would be only too happy to ram the vial down Jacks' throat along with his teeth.

Lupin glanced at Black who muttered, "Finite Incantatem."

Immediately Lupin released Jacks' hair. "Well?" he demanded.

Jacks looked at Black who grinned at him. He swallowed nervously and croaked, "I'll drink it."

Lupin looked neither pleased nor disappointed. He merely unstoppered the vial, held it to Jacks' lips and tipped three drops into his mouth. It tasted vile and Jacks swallowed as much by reflex as anything else. Immediately he felt a strange, detached sort of feeling, as if it were happening to someone else.

Lupin glanced at Black, who nodded and asked Jacks without preamble, "How long have you been working with Macnair?"

"Since this morning," Jacks heard himself say. It was a peculiar feeling, almost as if there was another person in control of his body.

Lupin and Black looked at one another in surprise. "Are you sure you gave him enough?" Black demanded.

"Three drops is the standard dose, but we can give him more if necessary." Lupin said, and Jacks woozily thought that it must be as much for his benefit as Black's.

"When did you first meet Macnair?" Lupin asked then, saying to Black, "Could have been working with one of the others before that."

Jacks was already answering, "Last night, but I'd seen him around at the Ministry before that."

Black seemed about to protest, but Lupin held up a hand and asked, "Where did you meet?"

"Crippens bar, Knockturn Alley," Jacks said.

Black snorted. It sounded as if he was well aware of the reputation the place had. Then the two of them slowly teased much of the previous night's conversation with Macnair out of Jacks.

Black listened in apparent disbelief. "Just how stupid are you, Jacks?" he demanded.

Oh please no, Jacks cringed, and tried to stop himself saying, "Ravenclaw, not stupid at all." Oh bugger.

Black sniggered and a smile flickered across Lupin's face. "He can't distinguish between rhetorical and actual questions, Sirius," he told him, "You need to watch what you say."

They carried on questioning him and seemed anxious to find out why there had been renewed interest in Black. Lupin asked, " So who's idea was this operation you're talking about?"

"Mine," Jacks told him.

Lupin and Black looked at one another. "What was so important about re-capturing Sirius now?"

"Nothing," explained Jacks and went on to tell them how he had come up with the idea. "I went to see Kellow and he thought it might work."

Black and Lupin looked puzzled. "This was nothing to do with getting at Harry?" demanded Black.

Why would he want to do that, Jacks wondered, as he answered, "No."

His confusion must have shown on his face as eventually Lupin said, "This only makes sense if he's been operating under the assumption that you're an insane mass murderer, Sirius."

What the hell did Lupin mean assumption? What were they trying to tell him, Jacks wondered as Black said to Lupin, "You mean this had nothing to do with Voldemort, until Macnair realised he might be useful?"

Jacks realised though, with that detachment the potion made him feel, that they weren't trying to tell him anything. They didn't seem interested in what he thought at all. The way they were talking it was as if they were the opponents of Voldemort not the supporters.

"What do we do with him?" Black demanded then.

"That depends," Lupin responded in a level voice. They turned away from Jacks and held a low voiced, muttered conversation for a few minutes. Jacks strained to hear what they were saying, but could only catch the word, Hogwarts.

"Did you know Macnair is a Death eater?" Lupin asked.

"I know he was accused of being one but was cleared," Jacks heard himself say. What were they saying, that he had been a Death Eater and still was? Was that what Black had meant about Macnair realising he might be useful? Again confusion must have shown on his face.

"When did you find this out?" Black demanded.

"Today, after I'd agreed to work for his group. Macnair didn't feel right - I'd put it down to the fact I don't like him, but I looked up his file and found the records of investigations into him."

"What did you think when you found he had been suspected? Lupin asked.

"I thought it explained a lot," Jacks responded, "but I decided he had to be all right because I couldn't think of a reason why a group of Death Eaters would want me to go after another one."

Black gave a mirthless laugh and exclaimed, "You fool! Don't you realise that as soon as you'd done one piece of work for them they would own you?" Then he said hastily, "Don't answer, that was rhetorical." He turned to Lupin. "What now?"

Lupin shrugged. "I think we're done. He can't tell us any more and I don't think he's going to bother us again. From what he's said, and from what, er," Lupin glanced at Jacks before continuing, "our friend, said about him, he's not about to turn Death Eater unless he's forced to. After your escapade yesterday, and from what he said about walking out, I wouldn't think the MLES are going to take him back. We're back where we started."

Black nodded. Then he looked over at Jacks and said with withering contempt, "I'd kick you into next week, like you did to me, but I wouldn't want to reduce myself to your level."

Lupin walked over to where Jacks was sitting and flicked his wand releasing him. He rubbed his hands to get the circulation going but didn't say anything. "The Veritaserum will wear off in about an hour," Lupin told him and he Disapparated with a pop.

"Thanks for the coffee," said Black ironically and Disapparated too.

Jacks slumped forwards and put his head in his hands. He felt seared by the force of their contempt. That in itself was more convincing than protestations of innocence would have been. They hadn't been interested in whether he thought they worked for Voldemort or not. But they clearly believed that they didn't.

Jacks shuddered as he realised that would mean Black hadn't turned traitor after all, and had spent twelve years in Azkaban for something he didn't do. And he remembered all the things he'd picked up that had struck him as odd about Black - from the fact that he'd not completely lost his sanity in Azkaban, to the fact that he'd used non-lethal curses in getting away from the Ministry the other night. Oh Merlin, he'd tried to hand an innocent man back to the Dementors, all because he wanted his job back.

Well got that hadn't he? But he'd wanted more, he thought scornfully. He'd behaved like a total prick to the extent that he'd been prepared to work for someone as dodgy as Macnair and his 'Interests'. He suddenly realised how worthless his protestations of only doing a single piece of work for them had been. He was sure now they would have either blackmailed him into continuing or put him under Imperius. God, Black was right, what a stupid, blind fool he'd been. Then it would only have been a matter of time before he'd have been grovelling on his knees to Voldemort like the rest of them did.

The more he thought about it, the more his sense of shame grew. He'd persecuted Sirius Black, using his friend to do it and they'd paid him back by saving him from turning to the Dark Side. Black and Lupin hadn't saved his life; they'd saved his soul. Merlin, how could you repay that?

He sat, slumped there for a long time, thinking about his options. Eventually he stood up and retrieved his wand from the coffee table where Black had set it down. He knew what he had to do, even if he didn't have a clue how he was going to do it, or indeed if Black and Lupin would let him. Stuff the Ministry; and stuff Macnair, he had a Wizard's Debt to pay.

The End.