The Knowledge One Possesses

TAKES PLACE EARLY JULY OF 1996 (just after OotP)

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Remus Lupin awoke in a place he did not recognize. This would not be the first time, of course, but the circumstance remained unnerving no matter how many times it repeated. He fidgeted a bit as he tried to focus his eyes on his surroundings. It occurred to him promptly that he couldn't move. He was instantly awake at that realization and at the subsequent realization that he was, in fact, nude. He thanked Merlin for a dark room and considered his situation; he was lashed to a chair by his hands, feet, and middle; this was not good. He looked down at himself and tried to puzzle out what had happened to him the previous night.

There had been drinking. Lots of drinking. He was sure of that. Dozens of people late in the afternoon in the Leaky cauldron had knocked back several libations in celebration of the arrest and conviction of a number of Death Eaters. It had been nearly a month since they had been captured, but convictions were now being reported in the Daily Prophet and people seemed to be lining up in droves to buy drinks for anyone connected to the Aurors or Dumbledore. Remus, having once been employed by Dumbledore, and having walked into the pub in the company of several known Aurors, had been invited to share in the debauchery. But he hadn't had THAT much to drink- had he?

He had no doubt lost track of time, though. And he had obviously forgotten to take his potion; that was for certain. He could only hope that his current predicament was the result of his friends having realized his state and tied him down for his own safety. He frowned and shrugged his shoulders, hoping that he would be able to Apparate back to number twelve Grimmauld Place in such a way as not to be seen by anyone. It was then that he became aware that he could not Apparate at all. Just as he was filling with dread and beginning to wonder as to the solution to his problem, a door on the far side of the room opened.

He saw a woman's figure step into the room. He could only hope that this woman was some kindly innkeeper who had come to bring him his breeches and set him free. Alas, it was not to be so. She quietly closed the door behind her and he watched as she withdrew a wand from a fancy drawstring purse and cast a simple "Imperturbatum" on the room. Damn. That was hardly ever good.

She took a few steps toward him and sneered. "Cover yourself!" she insisted, tossing a blanket onto him from off of a cot in the corner of the room. She stepped into the tiny sliver of light coming in from a window behind him and studied his face. Something about her looked strangely familiar. He felt as though he should know this woman, only he could not begin to fathom where from. She was pretty, blonde and well dressed, and she had a scent about her that reminded him of someplace far more posh than his current location.

"Um..." He wasn't sure where to begin. "Might I inquire as to how I got here?" he hazarded asking. The woman leaned against a nearby table and crossed her arms over her chest.

"You're here because I wanted you here," she answered him matter-of-factly. "You are here because three thousand Galleons said you would be. You are here," she stressed, "because an old fashioned bounty on someone's head still does what it's supposed to."

"Three thousand galleons?" he asked, still trying to make out exactly what was going on. "Is that the going rate for a kidnapping?"

"I wouldn't know," she admitted, "it's not as though I make a habit of this."

"Then do you mind telling me what you had me brought here for?" he asked, not sure if his wit would sit well with his captor.

"There are things I need to know," she told him, "you are the only person I could think of who may posses the knowledge I seek; and so I had you brought here, so that I may ask you."

"And you could not have sent for me in a more...er... conventional manner?" he asked her. The pretty witch cackled.

"I suppose you would have answered my invitation," she chuckled. She stood up and took a step toward him. "I suppose that you would have come straight away were you to have received an invitation to meet me," she smirked down at him. "You would gladly have come to me, as would all of your filthy Muggle loving friends, with a half a dozen Aurors in tow. No," she added, "better we do this my way."

"What makes you think I would not have answered an invitation?" he asked her. He was quite confused. There was a very proper lady standing before him in a lace gown and high button shoes who had just had him kidnapped and bound for reasons he could only begin to imagine.

"Have you any idea who I am?" she asked him. Remus shook his head.

"None," he admitted. She laughed again.

"Well, isn't that delightful?" she mused. "And here I thought all of this time you and yours had been cursing my name with some regularity."

"I beg your pardon?" Remus was getting more and more confused every moment.

"It's almost more fun not to tell you," she posited, "but then we'd never get anywhere if I was just here to play games with you, now would we?"

"Um, I suppose not," Lupin answered her, still confused.

"You may not recognize the family resemblance between myself and my dear departed cousin," she said to him, "but I do believe that you..."

"Narcissa Black?" Remus sat bolt upright in the chair, almost losing the blanket from his lap in the process.

"Very good," she congratulated, using a flick of her wand to better cover him with the blanket.

"Prettiest girl in fifth year," he recalled.

"I was the prettiest girl every year," she corrected him, "and don't try to butter me up."

"No," he countered, "I was just trying to..."

"Save your own skin," she said to him. "I suppose I can respect that," she conceded, leaning against the table again.

"What in the name of Merlin might you need from me?" he asked. Knowing who she was hadn't cured a bit of his confusion, and the muzzy state of his brain was not allowing him to process things as sharply as he would have liked.

"I need your help on a manner concerning my husband," she told him, her jaw set and her wand trained on him.

"No," Remus answered her defiantly. He would have no part in helping any Malfoy for any reason. He didn't care if she was Sirius' cousin, she was as good as a Death Eater and she would likely kill him whether he divulged anything or not.

"And we were getting along so well." She feigned disappointment. "Tsk tsk," she sounded, taking a step in his direction. "May I ask as to why this sudden shift in your demeanor?"

"I will do nothing to aid the Death Eaters," he spat. He sneered up at her and continued; "Torture me if you must, kill me if you feel you should, but I will not confess anything that would be of aid to the forces of Voldemort. Your husband and his kind are the filthiest, most deplorable...."

"Oh there's that Gryffindor courage I'm always hearing about," she interrupted him, crossing intently toward where he sat and training her wand on his throat. "But I will mind you to keep a civil tongue in your head," she informed him. "I have not tortured you, have I? I have not harmed you in any way."

"You've had me kidnapped and bound to a chair," he reminded her.

"I have already explained that," she reminded him. "But what I may not have told you is that I have no intention of harming you, Mr. Lupin."

"But you're..." He wasn't sure what the end of that sentence was going to be.

"What I am is a woman in need of information," she insisted. "I am not, nor have I ever been, interested in politics; nor have I any inclinations toward such. I have no mind toward harming you ...or anyone else. I have brought you here because you may be in possession of knowledge that could aid me in a personal matter." She removed her wand from his throat. "Are we clear?" she asked.

"You kidnapped me, but you're not going to hurt me?" He was trying to get this straight in his own head.

"How quickly you catch on, Mr. Lupin," she retorted, "and I fully intend to let you go at the end of our little conversation. But I will tell you now that I will not abide insults against my husband. And I will not abide your silence. You will tell me what I require or you will be made to regret it, do you understand?"

"You don't intend to torture me, but you will if you must?"

"Quite right," she answered him. "That's the basic theory; yes." She smiled down at him. "Have I made myself clear, Mr. Lupin?" she asked.

"Crystal," he said back to her, a worried expression crossing his face. "What is it that you need from me?" She sighed heavily and turned away from him, crossing her arms in such a way that Remus could see her wand as she walked away.

"I need to know about Azkaban," she confessed.

"About Azkaban?" he asked her. Now he was really confused.

"Yes," she confirmed. "I need to know everything my cousin told you about Azkaban; everything. I need to know when the guards change, when meals are served, I need to know if there ever were visitors. I need to know every loose stone or rusted out metal bar in the place. And you are going to tell me."

"I will tell you what I know," Remus answered. He was certainly glad to know that he would be able to both accommodate his hostess and not betray anything precious to the Order. "But may I ask one thing of you?" he hazarded. She turned and cocked her head to the side, regarding him.

"I suppose that's only fair," she allowed. "What is it that you would like to know?"

"Why me?" he asked. He looked her in the eye and continued; "Why don't you just ask your sister Bellatrix? She did nearly as much time in Azkaban as Sirius did, and you'd be getting it first hand. Or you could ask one of her associates. They broke out; wouldn't that be more helpful to you?"

"As for the 'associates' you speak of," she sounded disgusted, "I am not what you would call comfortable with those people. I never have been. Their political leanings are far too extreme for my taste, and they'll spend most of the time regaling the glories of their services to the Dark Lord. Quite frankly, I have no patience for such proselytizing at the moment. As for doing to one of them what I have done to you... I might as well sign my own death warrant were I to do such a thing. I can reasonably assume that you will not turn around and murder me as soon as I remove your bindings."

"Makes sense," he agreed.

"And regarding my dear sister Bellatrix," she added, "I'm afraid she's gone quite mad. I fear I cannot trust her recollections. I love her; because she's family, but she can't be counted on to provide me with accurate information."

"Sirius was your family, too," Lupin reminded his captor, "and Andromeda Tonks... they're your family," he sneered.

"Bite your tongue!" she hissed back at him, turning around to point her wand at his face again. "I warn you," she growled, "one more spot of impudence and my curses fly free. I will not be spoken to in such a manner." She took a moment to compose herself and then pocketed her wand again. Her voice returned to its previous tone as she continued. "It is... unfortunate; the situation with the people that you have just mentioned. But they are no kin to me anymore. They are not even kin to the Blacks. And although I was a Black for the first twenty years of my life, I have been a Malfoy for the last twenty years. My family is my husband and my son, and I will thank you to remember that."

"My apologies," he offered. She smiled a little, in a way that made Lupin squirm in his own skin. He hadn't imagined Lucius Malfoy's wife to be quite like this. And yet he had imagined Sirius' cousin Cissy to be exactly like this. Soft spoken and proper, but with the Black's signature temper and fierce Slytherin cunning, she was just as he had imagined she would be when he used to fantasize about her in third year. He was having quite a time reconciling the two images into one person in his head.

"So tell me," she encouraged, "what do you know of Sirius' time in Azkaban?"

"I'm afraid there's not much I can tell you," Remus admitted to her. She took out her wand and conjured herself a seat not far from his and directly in front of him. "I mean..." He wanted to make sure she knew he was being honest. "I don't know that I know all that much. It wasn't Sirius' favorite topic of conversation. You're right to presume that I would be the person he might have told things to... it's just that he didn't like to talk about it." Remus watched as Narcissa's eyes closed and her lips pursed together for a moment. She sighed a little and then studied him.

"Are you quite comfortable, Mr. Lupin?" she asked. What an odd question. He wasn't sure if he should lie and tell her that he was just fine, or if he should remind her that he was in fact naked, sitting on a wooden chair, and suffering from no small hangover.

"I..." He still wasn't sure how to answer her. "I could use a spot of tea," he admitted. Narcissa nodded. She pointed her wand at a nearby table, which obliged her by moving itself to be situated between them as upon it appeared an elaborate silver tea service and a plate of biscuits.

"I shall free your hands so that you may eat and drink," she informed him. "But I will remind you that you are still bound at the ankles and without benefit of your wand."

"Or my trousers," he mumbled under his breath.

"I beg your pardon?" she asked him. Remus shook his head and gave her a reserved smile.

"Not important," he assured her. She shrugged her shoulders and nodded. Remus felt the bindings on his hands and upper torso loosen and fall away altogether. He reached for the cup of tea in front of him and took a tiny sip.

"Cream or sugar?" she offered as she added a lump to her own cup.

"I'm fine," he assured her, "thank you." He nodded his head and took another sip. In the moment's silence as they both drank their tea, Remus took the opportunity to consider how ridiculous this was. What would Sirius think of his sitting stark naked across a table from Cissy Black Malfoy, drinking tea and eating biscuits, and telling her stories of Sirius' incarceration? He shook his head a little and then looked up at her. "I don't know if I can be any help, really," he said to her. "The Dementors being gone... I'm not at all sure that anything I could tell you would even still be valid."

"That is a chance I am prepared to take," she assured him, her teacup still poised just below her lips.

"Very well then," he affirmed; "I shall tell you everything I know." Narcissa leaned forward in her seat as he began to speak. "No spell works once you're on the inside," he told her. "I suppose you have alarm bells in your home?"

"Yes," she answered, "we've had them forever."

"Well, I hate to be the one to tell you this, but you can't trust them now. Your husband could be being tortured or dying slowly and the bells will not ring. It's part of the magic inherent in Azkaban's walls."

"The night he was arrested they went off as though he were injured," she shared with him. Lupin shook his head as he chewed a biscuit.

"No," he asserted, "you should not trust that. He was likely being led into the prison when that went off. If you hear those bells again, then he's no longer within the walls."

"Do you mean that he could be...?" Narcissa looked as though all of the blood had drained from her face and he was afraid she was about to faint. He barely took the time to consider how odd it seemed to him that anyone could be so in love with Lucius Malfoy.

"No," he comforted her as best he could. "If someone dies, they're taken immediately out of the prison. If it's an unnatural death, that is; one that wasn't entirely expected, the body is sent to St. Mungo's. Either way the family is summoned to claim the body."

"You know this?"

"I know this because Sirius saw more than one death while he was locked in there. And others I know of have been summoned to the prison and to the mortuary at St. Mungo's to receive bodies from Azkaban." Narcissa bit her lip and smiled grimly.

"So I'll get him back, dead or alive," she offered.

"Yes," Lupin answered, re-filling his tea cup from the nearby steeping pot. He'd had no idea just how hungry he had been. "If he were dead you'd have him back by now. They've no time to waste on the dead in Azkaban." Narcissa shuddered. Lupin paused for a moment; he hadn't meant to upset her with that comment. He had figured out by now that the best course of action was to keep her on an even keel. "And he's likely to have his wits about him still," he offered.

"What do you mean?" her forehead crinkled as she asked him.

"I mean that there's a ward for the criminal and insane at St. Mungo's as well. Sirius used to try and fake having gone completely nutters so he could get sent there for a few days; you know, foaming at the mouth and such. The Dementors fed on madness, but there is a point at which the madness is dangerous and uncontrollable, that's when they'd haul any poor soul over to St. Mungo's. They'd patch him up and get him thinking straight again so they could send him back to his cell and let the Dementors have at him again. Sirius always said it was quite comfortable there, and the food was better, and that they always sent for his parents. Not that they ever came." Narcissa snickered a bit.

"Yes, well..."

"If your husband had gone out of his mind they would have sent him there and you'd know about it. The visiting policy at St. Mungo's is quite a bit more relaxed than it is at Azkaban. That's your best bet if you're gunning for a visit."

"No," she insisted. "Absolutely not. Lucius is a strong man and a proud man and there's no way that he would ever..." She was getting riled.

"Alright," he put his hands up in a gesture of surrender. "Alright," he repeated. "I hadn't meant to upset you. But if you're looking to try and see your husband, you may want to consider..."

"I said no."

"Okay," he replied, frowning. "Have you tried the administrator?" he asked.

"The owl comes back, letter in his beak, frightened half to death and missing a few feathers. I've given up."

"Probably for the best," Lupin conceded. "I hadn't known if that particular aspect might have improved with the departure of the Dementors, but it sounds as though it most definitely has not."

"Mm," Narcissa confirmed with a nod over her teacup.

"And you haven't tried just showing up?" he posed. Narcissa's eyes got wider.

"I refuse to just 'show up' and pound at the gates of Azkaban demanding to see my husband like some sort of a fallen woman."

"So you'll lie, steal, cheat, or bribe your way in the door, but you refuse to knock?" He was more than a little miffed by her tactics, but he supposed it was just the Slytherin in her that refused to swallow her pride and play by the rules.

"A bribe is out of the question," she corrected him.

"Really?" He was surprised. "I would have thought that a lady who would spend three thousand on a kidnapping would have no qualms about lining the pockets of whomever necessary to get what she wanted."

"It's not my qualms that are in question, Mr. Lupin. You are correct in your presumption that I would be willing to spend whatever might be required in order to achieve my aims. However, it seems as though all of my attempts to communicate with the administrators at that ghastly establishment have been brutally rebuffed. And one Mrs. Amelia Bones is quite beyond reproach I have found. Although I have it on good authority that she's to be dealt with presently; until such time does come that I may attempt to contact her successor, I'm afraid I have no recourse as to the Ministry."

"Ah..." Lupin was suddenly very uncomfortable. "Am I to presume that 'dealt with' is a polite way of saying...?"

"I really wouldn't know," Narcissa answered him. "I have merely been told that she is to be replaced presently. Now, return to what you were saying about how magic doesn't work inside the prison. I am I safe to assume from your statement that the wizards currently guarding the prison do so without the use of their wands?"

"I'm afraid not, Cissy," he dared address her by her childhood nickname. He knew it was risky, but this was quite possibly the most surreal conversation he'd ever had and he didn't so much mind adding another dimension of oddity to it.

"But you said...." She hadn't minded his calling her that at all, it seemed. Or if she had, any issue she might have taken was far overshadowed by the actual information that was being exchanged.

"I fear I wasn't entirely clear on that point," he corrected. Remus frowned, trying to think of how to best say what he meant. "What I meant to say was that magic cannot flow through the walls. You can't send a messenger to a prisoner; you can't hex a prisoner from outside, or a guard for that matter. You can't enchant anything on the inside from the outside. And you cannot Apparate in or out past the front gates."

"Well, that I expected," she told him. "I certainly did not think that a fortress like Azkaban would have less security to it than my own home." Remus nodded. She had a point.

"And the few people who go inside who are not members of the staff or being held captive are stripped of their wands. They take good care that the prisoners remain where they are and in their proper state."

"Proper state?" she quizzed. Her forehead crinkled again.

"They mostly care that no one is slipped a potion or granted a killing curse that they may be begging for." Remus watched as Narcissa's face went sour again. He was quite sure that she was suddenly nauseous, as evidenced by her abrupt discarding of a biscuit and covering her mouth with a napkin. "Of course," he added, "that was in the days of the Dementors, I'm sure it's not so bad now." Narcissa gave him a sad but genuine-looking smile.

"I thank you for attempting to ease my discomfort, Mr. Lupin," she said to him. She wiped her brow with her napkin. "I'm afraid I haven't the stomach to hear things so gruesome."

"No proper lady should," he answered her. It was true. He almost hated having to tell her anything about the horrors of Azkaban. No pretty lady in a fine lace gown with manicured hands and high button shoes should have to know that someplace so awful even existed. She may be 'Mrs. Evil Death Eater', but as he saw her at this moment she was still just Cissy Black; beautiful and untouchable, four years his senior and the wet dream of every boy at Hogwarts. He was saddened a little by the hand she'd been dealt of late.

"Thank you," she said, smiling serenely at him. He figured she could tell that he had been genuine in his comment. "So you say that Sirius reported that there had been visitors on occasion?" Remus nodded.

"There had been, but he never knew who they were. He only ever heard wands being demanded of people and figured that they must be visitors as the wands of the prisoners had been confiscated and broken before the locks were fasted to their cell doors." He watched as Narcissa nodded her face still slightly green. "Do you want me to stop?" he asked her. She shook her head.

"No," she answered him quickly. "I need to hear this. I need to know."

"Very well," he answered, running his hands through his hair. "What else is there?" He thought for a second. "Everything's bewitched," he told her. "It may look old and rotten and like the whole place is about to fall apart, but stronger doors and better locks there have never been. Sirius never told me the details of his escape, exactly, but I will warn you of this..."

"Yes?"

"If you're planning to try and get in to break your husband out... don't."

"I beg your pardon?" she challenged. She sounded quite offended.

"Hire someone to do it for you," he suggested. "Hire a dozen goons to break down the place one stone at a time if you'd like, but don't you set foot inside that place."

"And why shouldn't I?"

"Because, Cissy, I see the pallor of your face as you sit here over a civilized cup of tea and listen to me tell secondhand tales of the perils inside of those walls. You were not bred to witness such things."

"Neither was my husband," she reminded him. Remus nodded.

"Where that may be true, a man's constitution is more likely to...." His comment was interrupted by a clatter across the room. The door sprung open with the blast of a powerful hex and pounded so hard against the wall as it did that splinters flew from it. Narcissa sprang to her feet and trained her wand on the entry as a young woman burst in, her wand at the ready and her hair a flaming orange. Remus sprang to his feet, the blanket on his lap falling momentarily to the floor. As he realized this fact, he quickly bent down to retrieve it and set about the task of tying it around his waist as he fumbled to ask, "What are you doing here?" The orange-haired girl looked back and forth between the mostly naked Remus and the lady he had been taking tea with. Horror was spread across her face as she explained herself.

"I put just the tiniest locator spell on you," she told him. "You hadn't taken your potion, and I knew that, and I knew it was a full moon, and when you never came back last night I thought that something awful might have happened to you, so I came to..." She seemed to be at a total loss for words. "I had no idea that you were..." She looked more than just a little bit embarrassed and thoroughly at a loss for words. It suddenly occurred to him what she might be thinking.

"This isn't what it looks like, Tonks," he announced, taking a step out from behind the table. Narcissa spun around and looked Lupin in the eye.

"Tonks?" she asked, her eyebrows raised. Remus nodded. "Nymphadora Tonks," Narcissa repeated, turning back around to face the young woman.

"I'm afraid that you have me at a disadvantage, ma'am," Tonks answered, taking another step into the room but never lowering her wand.

"I'm afraid I have you at several, young lady," Narcissa smarted back. "But what I take your comment to mean is that you wish to be made aware of my identity."

"Nymphadora Tonks," said Lupin as he took another few steps toward her, "meet Mrs. Lucius Malfoy."

"Malfoy?" Tonks pointed her wand in Narcissa's direction again and nearly got off a curse before Remus had the chance to raise his hand to stop her. "Then you were kidnapped," she confirmed.

"Yes, Miss Tonks, what a very astute observation," Narcissa sneered. "However, I am sorry to report that if you are here to affect a rescue then you have arrived a bit too late. Mr. Lupin has been free to go for some time now." Lupin considered this for a moment and it occurred to him that he had been let loose from his bindings and that he was completely unsure as to when that had happened. "I shall take my leave of you now," she told the two of them. Narcissa sashayed past Tonks and into the doorway. "And Mr. Lupin..." She turned to address him. "We never had this conversation."

"Certainly, Cissy," he said back to her. She swept from the room, her skirts making a swooshing noise as they passed through the door. Remus heard a 'pop' and he could only assume she had Apparated.

"Cissy!?" Tonks sounded both confused and angry. "You're on a first name basis with the wife of a known Death Eater?"

"She was four years ahead of me in school," he told her, turning to the tale and snagging another biscuit. "We never ran in the same circles, exactly, but she was Sirius' cousin, so I'd had some dealings with her."

"Sirius' cousin?" Tonks sounded even more confused. "That would make her..."

"Your Aunt Cissy, dear," he answered her.

"Should I go after her?" Tonks asked, turning toward the door and then back to Lupin. "I mean, has she...?"

"She was quite civil to me, I assure you," he answered. " I think it's best just to let her go." Tonks shrugged her shoulders and nodded.

"What did she want?" Tonks asked him as she regarded the tea things on the table.

"You heard her, we never had a conversation." Lupin looked Tonks in the eye. He meant that. Whether it was out of some loyalty to Sirius' family or a fear of reprisal from Cissy Malfoy herself, he wasn't sure; but he was sure that he would keep his word to her.

"Right." Tonks frowned, clearly understanding that she wasn't going to get any information out of him now.

"We should get back to headquarters," Remus suggested. Tonks nodded and crossed to him. She pulled something from an inside pocket of her robes.

"Brought you your wand," she told him. "I nicked it when you were good and liquored... same time as I cast the locator charm." She grinned at him.

"That was most thoughtful of you, Tonks," he commended her, taking his wand in to his hands. He did very much want to get back to headquarters; however, there was one minor need that was pressing greatly upon him. "Tonks," he addressed her. She looked at him wide eyed. He grinned at her and asked frankly, "You wouldn't happen to have brought along the trousers this was pocketed in?" Tonks scrunched her nose and shook her head.

"No," she answered. Lupin shrugged his shoulders in resignation.

"Ah well," he said back, tucking the blanket a little tighter around his waist in preparation to Apparate. "Serves me right for getting drunk," he commented.

"Ready to go then?" she asked. He nodded. A 'pop' and that was that.