Reconstruction of a Death Eater

Chapter 36 - Gathering Momentum

The ballroom of the Riddle House was filthier than it had ever been, the gathering doing their best to ignore the stink of dirt and corruption that permeated the very stones of the walls. The torches flickered and danced, shadows looming and leering, as the gathering bent their knees to the dirty flagstones, heads bowed as their Master ascended the throne and looked down on them in hissing contempt.

"My faithful servants," he leered, but did not bid them to rise; he liked to see the cream of the pure-bloods grovelling at his feet in the dirt while he knew he had the power of life and death over them at a whim. These wretched animals were his playthings, his to command or destroy as he saw fit. He spoke to them of the Grand Plan, of their places in his organisation and the way they were going to triumph, and drank in their adulation as his due. He encouraged them to clap and cheer by distributing small doses of his attention to various members, making them writhe and sweat under his Cruciatus Curse with immense enjoyment of their pain. He spoke of the resurrection of the Headmaster and showed his followers just how insignificant the man was, a has-been, a spent match, a nothing. He almost laughed when they moaned and gibbered at the mere sound of the old fool's name. Those lily-livered dirt crawlers earned themselves a long and most painful dose of the Cruciatus Curse for their cowardice. This was power! He outlines his plan for the twenty-ninth of February, the ritual he would perform to make the very elements bend to his own design. "Severus, where are you?" he finally called in a playful, singsong tone that boded no good for the recipient of his attention.

"My Lord." A shadow moved in the shadows and the Potions Master glided forward to kneel before him.

Lord Voldemort glared down at the bent hood, knowing the man did not kneel subserviently but in the manner of a Japanese warrior, not subservient but proud. It enraged Voldemort, but he had never been able to break Severus even after the treatment he had received last year, he had not broken in spirit, only in body. The only way to break Severus was to kill him and even then, he would probably come back as a really nasty ghost. The small remaining fraction of Tom Riddle was amused at the thought, and Lord Voldemort hissed as he bent to study the servant more closely. "You have something to tell me?" he asked silkily, his cold, hissing voice rasping on the nerves of all ears.

"The object is prepared, milord, although I have not been able to confirm its provenance any more closely than originally. However, it will conduct magic effortlessly," the man said without expression.

"You have done well, my Severus. Show me."

A long, pale hand held out the scruffy soft toy looking even more battered and worn than it had before. There was now a slightly green cast to the cloth, a property that seemed to absorb the ambient light without casting a shadow. Even longer bone white fingers reached forward, a thumb caressing the side of Severus' hand as the Dark Lord picked the toy out of his grasp and studied it closely. "Humm, it is ready," he murmured softly, stroking the plush head in an obscene parody of affection. "Alisont, have you finished the task I gave you?"

A second figure scrabbled forward on his knees and bowed deeply before the Lord, speaking into the stones in terror. "I have, my Lord. Moving the Ministry files from one building to the next gave me a perfect opportunity to grab the plans you required, and I did so as soon as I possibly could. I had them copied and brought your the originals while I altered the copies to make sure there was no trace of the tunnels and earthworks left on file at the Ministry. This is the only set of plans that shows the complete extent of the tunnels, the water and the sewerage pipes anywhere in the wizarding world, I do assure --"

"Crucio! A simple yes would have sufficed," Lord Voldemort said in bored tones.

Severus carefully gathered the fluttering pages from the convulsing man's hands before handing them up to his Lord. His eyes bored into the diagrams, not understanding them but memorising the information for retrieval from his Pensieve as soon as possible. The rest of the gathering were moving uneasily as their peer continued to writhe and gasp under the pain induction curse until he stopped moving completely. All the while, the Potions Master never blinked or flinched as Lord Voldemort perused the plans carefully.

"Very good ... oh. Dispose of it, Severus," he muttered, waving a vague hand at the corpse twisted on the floor.

Severus pulled his wand slowly, knowing a fast movement might be seen as hostile, then transfigured the body into a pebble. Keeping his movements slow and careful, he dropped the pebble into his pocket but did not slide his wand back up his sleeve yet. Such casual disregard for life was sickening but perfectly normal in this mad and bad gathering of conscienceless fools.

"Lucius." The Lord looked up from the paperwork, and Lucius hurried forward to kneel beside his former lover, his head bowed low.

"My Lord," he murmured unctuously.

"Are the battle groups ready?"

"My Lord, they are," Lucius said firmly with an even lower bow. "We are ready to rise at your slightest word and annihilate the enemy wherever they stand."

"Excellent, excellent, and will we win?"

The hesitation was but a second, but it was too long and Lucius writhed under the Cruciatus curse until he vomited blood on the floor.

"Severus, will we win?"

"Of course we will," Severus replied without hesitation. "There will be a great victory, and everyone will speak your name with hushed reverence."

"Flatterer." The Cruciatus Curse flung him back on his back but only lasted long enough to make him ache in every joint.

Severus struggled back to his knees and nodded to the Lord. It looked like thanks but was not, even as the skeletal Lord swirled away in a swish of ragged robes. Unobtrusively, Severus cast a cleansing charm over Lucius and a pain relieving charm too, even though wand magic was not his best method. The blond lord shuddered and managed to nod his thanks almost unobtrusively as he too struggled back onto his knees using Severus' shoulder to lever himself up. He came quickly to attention as the Lord swirled back to the gathering. "Final preparations will begin as soon as the auguries are favourable to our cause; then the strength I hold will be at its fullest. I will annihilate Harry Potter, Hogwarts, the Wizengamot and everything else that might attempt to stand against me in a glorious burst of power such as this world has never seen before!"

A loud, enthusiastic cheer went up from the gathering of lieutenants, while the two men in the front of the crowd nodded and smiled, clapping as enthusiastically as their peers but the sideways glances they exchanged were of a different character. As soon as they were released, Lucius mouthed 'Malfoy' and both men disapparated simultaneously.

They appeared on the driveway before the bound oak doors that led into the Malfoy Great Hall, Lucius groaning as his very bones protested their treatment. Severus took his elbow to steady him for a moment then sighed deeply. "You want a potion?" he asked heavily as Lucius began to limp away to the family entrance near the east wing, their robes and masks transfigured back into everyday apparel.

"A potion and a bloody tall glass of Ogden's to wash it down with," Lucius muttered ruefully as they entered the private study and the master went straight to the far cupboard, matching actions to wishes. Severus accepted the glass and dropped wearily into his usual chair while Lucius flung himself onto the sofa with an equally heavy sigh. There was silence while the whiskey levels fell and the aches eased under the soothing influence of the potion Severus had given his old friend. "You know he's mad, don't you?" Lucius murmured so quietly, Severus wasn't entirely sure he had heard him. "Mad as a meat-axe and twice as dangerous. Promise me you will look after Draco, Severo, regardless of the outcome. I never wanted it to come to this, wizard against wizard, friend against friend. It was supposed to be glorious; a triumph for the purity of magic, a reaffirmation that we were Merlin's chosen ones. Instead we are trafficking with demons, dabbling in voodoo and working in secret cells like Muggles in a very bad spy thriller. My father must be spinning in his grave."

"My grandmother is cackling her fool head off too," Severus acknowledged equally softly. "She probably thinks it's poetic justice."

The two old friends sighed in unison and continued to drink in silence.

~~*~~

"I have colour coded the files to make it easier to work with them," Percy Weasley said pompously as he addressed the three people around the conference table. "The blue files are those who I believe are innocent of any wrong-doing, sent to Azkaban without trial, without any real evidence and therefore should be dealt with first."

The pile was startlingly large, almost half the files in the stacks that were neatly assembled in the large warehouse office the investigative team had been assigned.

"Example," Scrimgeour demanded harshly.

Percy pulled a random file out. "Angela Ramsey, accused by her neighbour of being a Death Eater and jailed two years ago. She was seen wearing a black robe and white mask coming in late at night."

The other two men leaned forward expecting more detail, but the redhead simply closed the folder and went to grab another. "Hold on, what else?" Rodney Salamanca asked encouragingly.

"Nothing else, that was all," Percy replied and again reached for another folder.

"But ... but ... that's ridiculous! How can a girl be jailed for wearing a black dress?" Megan Johansson demanded aghast."

"And a white mask," Auror Scrimgeour reminded her quickly.

"Did they find the mask? Was it a dark night? What sort of robes were they? Good God, a real Death Eater doesn't parade around in robes and a mask in public! Surely someone must have thought there was something a little odd about this case?"

Percy blinked and flicked through the folder again. "No, no protests except by her parents. She was taken into custody and shipped to Azkaban the same day, no trial, no hearing."

"Oh my God, that's appalling, how many cases are like that?" Rodney asked shocked.

"All the blue files, more or less," Percy said evenly.

Even Rufus had the grace to look ashamed as the other two shot furious looks in his direction. "It was a time of hysteria, and we were told to do what we could to mitigate the problems, to be seen to be doing something by any and all means," he defended uneasily.

"And you saw shipping innocent people off to Azkaban as a viable solution?" Megan asked in disgust. "Why the hell didn't you just tack 'V-V-Voldemort wants you' posters to the doors of the Ministry?"

"Careful," Percy said dryly. "Loose talk like that will get you a snapped wand and a one way ticket to Azkaban."

"Was that a joke, Weasley?" Scrimgeour asked ominously.

"No, it was directive one hundred and sixty two, treasonable slander against the Wizengamot, actually."

"At least the Dementors have left Azkaban, and these people should be still reasonably sane," Rodney muttered, cradling his head in his hands.

"Well, no, that's not strictly true either," Percy said quietly. "Not all Dementors left the island to join He-Who-Should-Not-Be-Named, there's still a healthy breeding colony on the island."

"Oh my God, can it get any worse?" Johansson asked in a hushed tone.

"The Dementors are no longer controlled in any way; they have free run of the island and can feed anywhere they like, not only on happiness, but on, er, souls, too. We believe a number of people were inadvertently Kissed when the Dementor control spells and artefacts were removed."

The ramifications of that statement sent both Rodney and Megan rushing off to vomit. Rufus and Percy exchanged long and careful looks. "I think we will need a time turner and a lot of Obliviate charms to clean up this mess," Percy murmured thoughtfully, and Rufus smiled, it was good to work with a professional.

~~*~~

Severus carefully coaxed the memory strand out of his head and dropped it into the waiting Pensieve. The small audience shivered as he gave a convulsive shudder then stepped forward and looked up expectantly.

Albus sighed. "Each of you observe as much as possible and see what you can glean from this memory. Are you coming, Severus?"

"Why not?" the dark wizard muttered in disgust.

Shacklebolt, Tonks, McGonagall and Dumbledore gripped the lip and dived right in, Remus grasped Severus' arm and pulled him down to kiss him gently before they entered the memory together.

"Bloody hell!" Tonks muttered as she stared around in disgust. "Needs a good scrubbing out, this place does."

"Blood is a bitch to get out of flagstones, don't you know?" Minerva muttered, making the metamorphmagus snort in laughter.

"That's Aunty Bella for you."

"Tonks, Minerva observation not stand-up comics, please," Remus reminded softly, making both women wince and blush a little.

Shacklebolt and Snape exchanged small grins over the werewolf's head but were careful not to draw attention to themselves. "Here we go," was Severus' only comment as the Snake Lord began to speak, a rambling harangue interspersed with torturing his followers at random it seemed. The watchers yelped when Severus caught a random snap of Crucio, but the real Snape assured them it was not an aimed curse, just unfortunate.

"Why don't they avoid the blasts?" Tonks asked in puzzlement.

"Because their neighbours would cut them to ribbons for it," Severus said flatly. "These are blessings from the Lord, Tonks, you can't refuse his manna."

"I think they are all mad," Minerva muttered in bewilderment.

"Or so scared they will piss themselves if someone shouts 'boo'," Shacklebolt amended grimly.

"Now that might be a fun thing to try at the next meeting," Severus smirked and earned a whack on the arm from Remus.

"Oh, my poor Tom, what has he become?" Albus mourned as the Dark Lord wound down his speech and called for Severus.

"Mad as a hatter," Severus replied to the rhetorical question with a wry smile, watching himself approach the dais and fall to his knees. "That bloody granite gives my knees gyp!"

"Showing your age, lad," Shacklebolt teased absently, but was observing the process very closely. "He works at the Ministry," he remarked as the second Death Eater came forward and flung himself prone on the ground.

"I have his corpse in my pocket, I'll give it to you later," Severus murmured in reply as he again watched the scene, the others crowding around to view the plans too. He knew they gave him very dodgy glances and smirked when Albus bent to get a better look, pleased he had been able to hold the papers so still for so long before passing them over to Tom. "Sorry, that was the best I could do, what with one thing or another."

"Bloody Lucius!" Tonks hissed as the Malfoy Lord came forward. She curled her lip then gulped as the Cruciatus Curse hit him hard and long. "Your Dark Dork is really hard on his followers, isn't he?" she asked brightly as the memory Lucius vomited on her shoes.

"Yes," Severus answered tersely as the memory faded and they returned to the office.

Remus grasped his shoulder commiseratingly then glanced around the group. "So, what have we got, people?"

"I think the plans are too big for a single building, really," Tonks said thoughtfully. "I mean, he mentioned sewers and tunnels, but there were a lot of pages and they were big pages so it was probably not all one place."

"I've seen something like it before," Shacklebolt muttered thoughtfully, helping himself to tea.

Remus paced slowly over the hearth rug, his head bent in thought before he clicked his fingers and said 'marauders' out of the blue. The rest of the office's inhabitants turned to stare at the small man. "Oh, sorry. It reminded me of the Marauder's Map, of when we were making it, the same sort of confused lines and.... Oh God, Headmaster, it's Hogwarts. Look, here." Parchment appeared in the werewolf's hand, a quill launching to his fist as he bent and drew swiftly, the lines sure and bold. "Look, this is the bay where the first-years dock, here is the pier and here are the stairs...."

Severus bent and drew a red line even as Remus finished his step representation. "This is an underground tunnel, I would say it is what connects Hogwarts to the Hogsmeade sewer system. This is the water purifying tunnel which brings water into the castle from the lake. Headmaster, do we have a set of plans for the castle?"

The plans materialised on the desk by Remus' hand, and Shacklebolt was quick to lay them out, Tonks spreading the rest out over the floor when the surface proved inadequate. Minerva and Albus sat back and watched fondly as the four younger people crawled over the floor, pointing and exclaiming, mapping secret passages and service tunnels with snorts of disgust or surprise. Even Severus put aside his dignity to do his part.

"Wish I'd known these were available when we were making the Marauder's Map; we thought it was so complete but it is nowhere near it," Remus commented in disgusted tones.

"No wonder that bloody basilisk was so able to get around undetected, this place is riddled with holes and tunnels," Severus muttered with a sour look at the whole set of parchments. "Merlin forefend a couple of Death Eaters get into this system of catacombs, we'd never wrinkle them out in a hundred years, it's like Swiss Cheese behind the walls."

"This is why he needs werewolves," Remus mused, tracing a finger along a vertical conduit that led right into the heart of the Gryffindor tower. "Werewolves are strong enough to make this climb without difficulty and without magic. We could get right into Harry's dorm without even being spotted until it was too late."

The four sat back on their heels and looked to the two elders sitting on the sofa sipping tea. Albus nodded, a deep sigh cutting through them all. "We need to do a survey of the castle and get wards, charms and hexes put into place as quickly as possible. It looks as if Hogwarts will be the scene of the final battle on this evidence. What do you feel, Severus?"

The Potions Master sat very still, his chin on his chest for a long while before he raised his head. "Three times he was denied, three thorns in his flesh, three reasons to hate and despise this place, three spurs to force him into action, no matter how foolish we more sane outsiders might find it. He's looking for auguries and signs to tell him when the time might be right so the defensibility or lack thereof would not stop him giving it his best efforts. Lucius told me the Death Eaters had been divided up into cells like a Muggle spy organisation, so I fear my information will not be complete, but I will certainly do my best to find out what I can as always. Hopefully we will have a little warning before the final push. On the other hand, we do have a very fine body of almost trained Aurors at this school, and I would suggest drafting them into helping put up the wards and charms would be a very good idea. Ask Moody to fill you in, Headmaster, they are really very good."

"Careful, Severus, you nearly sounded like you approved," Kingsley teased quietly and was rewarded by a patented Potions Master sneer which made Tonks giggle.