Darkly Bound

     21.

     The three of them were lying on the floor like rag dolls. I collected each of their wands. I kicked Avery over and retrieved not only his wand, but found he'd taken Snape's. That one I pocketed. The rest, I hurled down hard, driving their tips into floorboards so they stood, quivering in front of me.

     I pointed my own wand at him, "Ennervate."

     Avery groaned and tried to stand. His eyes locked on the three wands lodged in the floor, then traveled upward to meet mine.

     "Who..? Where did....?"

     "How absolutely pathetic!" I watched him scramble to his feet and adjusted the level of my wand to a spot exactly between his eyes as he rose. How I kept it steady I don't know, the pain was becoming more excruciating by the minute. Avery looked around the room in a panic.

     "Did you do this? How did this happen? Where's Severus?"

     "Where's Severus? Oh that's sweet. Miss your old chum, do you? Did I interrupt your reunion? I am sorry. Shall I ask him back? See how he feels about it?"

     Avery was quaking. "Who the hell are you?" he croaked.

     I felt a cruel smile beginning. "You don't know? That's a shame. But thank you for asking. I have always wanted to say this: I am your worst nightmare." I'm sure I looked the part. Blood smeared robes and matted hair with a bleeding scalp. I reveled in the effect as I moved a step closer to him and he cowered. "Listen you sniveling piece of garbage. There are a dozen ministry Aurors just waiting for the signal to come in here and haul your sorry asses off to Azkaban. But I have a bone to pick with you first, Mr. Avery." The room was swaying, and the metallic taste in my mouth was definitely the taste of blood, but I wouldn't let him see any weakness.

     "I don't even know you!"

     "You don't want to know me!" I quieted my voice to a near whisper. "Mr. Avery, have you heard tell that just before you die your life flashes before your eyes?"

     Avery's eyes widened, if it were possible, into an even more panicked expression, "You can't kill me!"

     "Oh you're quite wrong there. I can. And I have all the evidence I need to justify doing so right here." I nudged his wand, the one which had emitted the forbidden curse, with my foot.

     He looked from his wand to mine and narrowed his eyes. "If you were going to kill me you'd have done it already."

     "Perhaps. But about this life-before-your-eyes business. I'd like to see if it's true. I think this might be a good opportunity, don't you?"

     He took a step backward.

     "Don't you move!"

     "You're mad!"

     "Of course I am. Now do you mind? I'd like to show you something." I fired at him images I had drawn from Snape's memories of their days at school together. Memories going all the way back to their first arrival at Hogwarts. I watched his face carefully for any reaction. As soon as I saw a glimmer of recognition, the tiniest hint of reminiscence, I forced in the brutal images of the torture that had taken place earlier in this very room. It made an interesting juxtaposition; school-boy pranks to assault, Yule Ball to Cruciatus Curse, and it was having a profound effect on Avery.

     "Stop it!" he covered his face and cried out.

     I was happy to do so as it was having just as horrific effect on me as it was on him. My arm was going numb from holding my wand steady and the pain that had been in my head had started down my spine.

     "He's a traitor! He betrayed the Dark Lord!" screamed Avery. "The master will be most pleased with us when he finds out what we've done to him."

     The room seemed to tip violently and I knew it was time to end this. I pulled Snape's wand out of my robes, pointed it upwards and sent the signal to bring in the Aurors.

     They apparated immediately all around the room and were astounded at the scene in front of them. One stepped forward towards me but stopped and waited. I didn't take my eyes, or wand, off Avery as I threw a veil of confusion over him that the Auror never sensed. Avery was moving forward, slowly, barely at all, sure I didn't notice. I watched him sliding closer as the Aurors roused the other two Death Eaters and gathered their evidence. I watched as he slowly reached for his wand thinking that I had been distracted.

     He wrapped his hand around the handle of the wand and looked up at me. He looked trapped and panicked when he realized I'd not missed a move. In a desperate effort, he yanked his wand free. Just as he righted himself and had started to bring his wand up I let him have what I'd come to deliver.

     "Crucio!"

     He hit the floor like a sand bag.

     The Auror jumped forward. "No, No! Stop it! Stop! Finite Incantatum!"

     Avery stayed on the floor gasping and twitching.

     I got out of the way of the ministry Aurors while they finished their work and prepared to transport their prisoners. The lead Auror, the one who had watched me curse Avery, walked over to me, "Are you ready?"

     "Yes."

     "I'll need your wand."

     I turned it over to him wordlessly.

     "I'm sorry about this. You know I have no choice." He seemed very young but had sad eyes. "It'll be clear in the report. You were threatened."

     I smiled at him. "Would you do something for me? Would you see that this gets back to its rightful owner?" I handed him Snape's wand. "Just get it to Albus Dumbledore. He'll see to it."

     "Yes Ma'am."

     "Oh, and if you could just help me up, because I don't think I can do this alone."

     "Yes, of course," he held out his hand to me, pulled me out of the chair. And so we started for Azkaban.

     22.

     When we arrived I was in a state of complete disorientation. The pain had become a physical entity now, I could reach out and touch it. There were plenty of torches and lanterns, yet the place seemed very dark, as if I was seeing it through a dirty window. Then the most extraordinary feeling came over me--like being completely wrapped in black velvet. I could see nothing, hear nothing, feel nothing. Even the stream of my own thoughts became silent.

I was in a tiny boat, on a rough sea, holding on tightly for fear of spilling out into the waves. The boat was rocking harder and harder, I held on tighter....

     "It's about time she were outa here!"

     "Oh shut up, you old bat! And stop that now!"

     "This ain't no holiday spa, you know!"

     I woke up with a gasp to find a huge witch shaking me roughly by the shoulder. "What the....Stop! Oh God! What the hell is this?"

     "Alright, she's awake, now get lost!" I heard the second voice, a man, snap at the witch. I looked at him. He looked vaguely familiar. "Are you alright? Do you remember what happened?"

     I looked around the room...it seemed to be some sort of hospital or infirmary, very institutional and very, very dreary. The comfort of patients was not of the utmost concern here.

     "I can't hear--feel anything." The constant undercurrent of human thought and energy that I was used to was gone. I couldn't even pick up any thoughts or feelings from the young man standing right next to me.

     "No, you won't. It's the Dementors. That's why they've got you in here. That and you've got a terrible concussion."

     Dementors. Azkaban. It was coming back now. That damned Avery and his cruciatus curse. I supposed I should be feeling remorseful now. I wasn't. I'd do it again. I looked back over at the young man. "You were there. You've been very kind and I don't even know your name."

     "Harlan Thorpe."

     "Nice to meet you, Harlan. Thank you. How long have I been here?"

     "Four days."

     "Four days! I've been asleep for four days?"

     "I haven't been here the whole time, but the mediwizards thought it best. What with your head, and being so close to the dementors."

     "Mediwi...? Did a someone give me something?"

     "I'm not sure. I was giving my evidence about then. How'd you do it Miss Claros? How'd you get all three of them alone? You sure took a beating!"

     I covered my eyes and tried to block out the memory. "It's a long story, Harlan." I sat up, too quickly, and my head started to spin.

     "Well you'll have to tell it. You have to go give your deposition. That's why we had to get you up. They won't wait any longer."

     "And you are here now because...?"

     He looked embarrassed. "Well, I...um.... Oh, this is awkward..."

     "Because you are the one who apprehended me--the vicious miscreant that I am."

     "Something like that, yes. Sorry."

     "Well I'm sorry about this too, Harlan, I truly am."

     He looked helplessly around the stark room. "Look, it has been four days, I'm sure they wouldn't mind if you wanted to eat something first."

     The very thought of food made my stomach lurch. "No, not just now. I'd rather just get this over with. I just tell them what happened, right?"

     "That's it."

     It took hours. Everything I said was torn apart and dissected by a team of ministry bureaucrats. "Look," I said in exasperation, "there is no way you are going to be able to understand this. You just have to take my word for it. I'm telling you what happened, how it happened and why it happened. I'm on your side. Why am I the criminal here? Didn't I deliver three Death Eaters to your door? What else do you need?"

     "We need, Miss Claros," said one particularly annoying man who looked exactly like a toad, "for you to explain to us why you could not have simply disarmed Mr. Avery."

     "I did. Twice."

     The toad blinked his large eyes. "Miss Claros I don't need to explain to you that this event creates a dilemma for all of us. Not only do we have to examine your use of a forbidden curse, but the whole event stinks of the dark arts."

     "Ah. Well. That would be troublesome."

     "Indeed. You will return to the infirmary now. We will let you know when we require you again."

     Thorpe was waiting outside for me. "How'd it go?"

     "How was it supposed to go?"

     "Oh."

     "Yeah."

     "Isn't there anyone who can help you? I mean--you're a Hogwarts Professor!"

     "Harlan, it's been four days. Four days! Has anyone tried to contact me at all? Has there been any word from Hogwarts?" I could see in his eyes there had not. "I'd imagine that if anyone at Hogwarts was planning to help me they'd have been here by now, wouldn't they? No, I'm sure they consider themselves well rid of me. The last thing I did on the way out was lie to the Headmaster. Excuse me, I'm not feeling very well. You don't need to come in with me, I promise I won't run off." I left him in the hallway and returned to the dreary, dank infirmary.

     Several days passed like this, mind-numbing boredom in the isolation of the infirmary broken only by spirit-crushing interrogations by official after official. I'd long since given up any hope of news from Hogwarts and was toying with the idea hoarding a supply of spoons so I could tunnel out through the floor under my flimsy cot. It wasn't that I expected to accomplish much, but I figured it would pass the time and annoy the matron. It was clear they had no idea what to do with me and were going to take their time in figuring things out. Maybe they were hoping I would escape and solve their problem for them. All I knew was that if I stayed much longer I might as well move in for good. The possibility of my regaining any prescient ability after such a deadening experience would be slight at best. I could feel the drain of energy as a physical force and found myself spending more and more hours of each day in a state of near torpor.

     "Someone here t' see you!" I almost welcomed the miserable matron's intrusion.

     "Who?"

     "I dunno, do I? I was just told to send ya."

     "Alright, alright." I got up and followed her to the door. Thorpe was waiting outside. "Don't you have work to do?" I snapped at him, unfairly.

     "This is my work today."

     "Right, I'm your prisoner. Who is it this time?" I asked wearily, not looking forward to another round of the same endless questions.

     "Your solicitor!"

     I was confused. "What? A lawyer? I don't have a lawyer."

     Thorpe was acting like a six-year old on Christmas morning. "You do! You have Marcus Cowley!"

     "Who the hell is Marcus Cowley?" I was not in the mood for games. "Thorpe--"

     "Cowley is the best there is. Only takes big, high profile cases. Actually I thought he'd stopped taking cases altogether. He was advising the ministry for a while, right at the top. You don't get any bigger than Cowley."

     Wonderful, I thought. Now I was a public relations pity case. "Well I don't know this Cowley person, I can assure you of that. I certainly hope he's not expecting me to pay him on a teacher's salary-- a former teacher's salary."

Based on the inflated accounts of his legal triumphs as told by Thorpe on the way to the interview, I had convinced myself to expect a character on the lines of Rumpole of the Bailey. But the gentleman who was waiting for us was no blustery bigger-than-life character, but a rather average looking blondish middle aged wizard with a bristly mustache and a satchel bursting with scrolls of parchment.

     "I am so sorry, Miss Claros, or do you prefer Doctor?" He extended his hand. "Marcus Cowley. I should have come earlier. I do apologize. There was some delay in my learning of your situation, as you would imagine, and then--well no more excuses. How are you?" He pulled a chair over and sat down.

     I looked at him and my mind went completely blank. Not that there had been much in it to start with, but now it was wiped clean. I blinked to refocus. "Doctor? I don't use ‘Doctor'. Where did you come from? Did Dumbledore send you?"

     "Dumbledore? Oh no, not Dumbledore. It's important that Hogwarts stay out of this. You can understand that, I'm sure." He took a pair of reading glasses out of his robes and held up some documents. "Now, I've read all these depositions. In particular, Mr. Thorpe's and yours. I don't see any disparities here, everything seems clear,"

he looked up. "Do you agree?"

     "I'm not sure."

     "No?"

     "Well," I wasn't sure how to proceed, "there are some--details? Yes, details that may not be quite clear from what's there. There's more to it than just that."

     He took off the glasses and sat back. "There usually is, isn't there?"

     "Where do you want me to start?"

     "With whatever you think Severus Snape might have left out."

     "You've seen him?"

     "He was quite helpful in filling in the details for me. Oh, and he gave me this for you." He reached into the pocket of his robes and pulled out what appeared to be a letter. I opened the seal and unfolded the parchment. A single card fell out. It had been taken from my personal deck. The Hanged Man, with something scribbled across the front. I squinted at the lettering. ‘A wrong is unredressed when retribution overtakes its redresser.' This was Snape at his most Snape-ish. He couldn't just say something outright, he had to turn it into a riddle. I had to admit, this was a good one. I looked up at Cowley.

     "Alright, go on."

     "Right. I've taken the liberty of meeting with an acquaintance of yours at the ministry. Mr. Peter Tilbury."

     "Tilbury! That--"

     "Now wait, you might change your opinion after you hear this."

     "I doubt it, the last time I met Tilbury he was a cruel manipulator."

     "He was testing you. Tell me, did you ever find out what his opinion of that test was?"

     "No, Dumbledore burned the letter."

     Cowley raised one eyebrow and looked like he was muzzling a laugh. "Did he now?"

     "Mr. Cowley, let's not dance around this. What's Tilbury got to do with this now? Tilbury can't do anything about the fact I used a forbidden curse against a living person."

     "He might. There are no witnesses to anything that happened before Thorpe and his team went in on your signal."

     "Yes there are witnesses! I saw what happened, Dumbledore and Moody did too. Have you spoken to either one of them?"

     "No, I haven't spoken to them. Tilbury has everything that I need. He has his little Muggle-syle files all tucked away with all his stamps of approval all over them."

     "None of this has anything to do with what I did in there. The officials are right. I should have just disarmed the bastard again."

     "You're absolutely sure that's not what you did?"

     "I knew exactly what I was doing. I tricked Avery into reaching for his wand. Thorpe doesn't know that. I waited for him to take aim at me so that I'd have a witness."

     "And you did this while under extreme emotional distress, while in considerable pain, and with a possibly severe head injury? Mr. Avery swears you appeared quite insane. Mr. Thorpe and others on his team concur."

     "I am not going to plead insanity to get out of this!"

     "It won't come to that. Let me do my job. I'm going to call the directors in now. You're not to say a single word." He looked pointedly at the card I was tapping on the table. "Not one word."

     I noticed no signal, but the Toad and two other officials entered the room looking nervous. Cowley turned on them. "Gentlemen, I don't think I need to explain to you the seriousness of what has occurred here. Have you read the report I gave you when I arrived?" The transformation was incredible. The sympathetic, soft voiced counselor was gone, and in his place stood a dynamic, forceful character, full of indignation. The Toad and his cronies cowered. "Do you have any idea of the ramifications of keeping a sensitive such as Dr. Claros in a place like this for so long? She is an Auror! Of great value to the Ministry!"

     "Th--there-- there have been precautions taken!" Toad stuttered.

     "We shall see about the effectiveness of those precautions shortly. I have all the paperwork necessary, signed and authorized, for her immediate release into my custody."

     I gasped and Cowley looked quickly over to me as if to remind me to keep my contribution to the conversation at that.

     "On whose authority?" barked Toad.

     "On the authority of Mr. Peter Tilbury, Director of the Department of Dark Arts Authorization ane witnessed by the Deputy Minister of Magic himself. You will release Dr. Claros at once." He proffered a stack of documents to the Toad. They looked quite splendid, covered with all sorts of scrollwork and seals. I was impressed, if they weren't.

     "This department authorizes the use of forbidden curses?" Toad seemed incredulous.

     "That is no business of yours. Your obligation is to sign that document immediately and allow me to escort my client out of this place." A quill appeared in his hand and he held it out to Toad, who took it gingerly and scratched on the parchment. "Thank you," Cowley said, quite politely, and rolled the documents into a neat scroll. Turning to me he said, "Are you ready?"

     "Ready?"

     "You are free to go now."

     Toad looked relieved. I was no longer his problem. He suddenly became quite gracious. "Please allow me, Dr. Claros, to escort you."

     I stood up in a daze and looked back at Cowley who nodded and waved his arm in the direction of the door.

"That's it?" I whispered.

     He nodded again, "A little more paperwork at the Ministry, but yes, that's about it."