The Necromancer Amulet

Chapter Six - Dark Secrets

As the autumn progressed, Secessa got into her teaching routines quickly, and was soon overburdened with work. She had received and owl from her friend hiding in Muggle Moscow which was a huge weight off her shoulders, but other than that, there were little changes in her weekly routine.

She enjoyed her Wednesday mornings, when she finally got some time to correct the essays that were piled up in large heaps on her desk, and would spend that time in the staff room, often in the company of Professor Snape. Most of the time, they worked in silence, but every once in a while she would ask his opinion on one thing or the other concerning her classes, just to see how he reacted to it. In fact, he responded surprisingly well, and seemed very pleased at her questions (although savagely so), and she learnt more of his wide knowledge in the Dark Arts. This, however, only increased her suspicions of him being a wizard gone bad.

As they spent more time speaking about the Dark Arts with each other, she discovered a peculiar gleam in his eyes whenever they touched upon the darker curses. She also noticed, at the corner of her eye, that he sometimes watched her with a thoughtful expression while she was working. It made her feel uneasy, and she would always play over their conversations in her head to see if he had slipped up.

Secessa's classes progressed fairly well, but not as well as she would have liked, especially not for the seventh years, who were far behind schedule. In the sixth year, most students had managed to produce fair shield spells by October, and she was especially pleased with Mr Potter's advances. Most of her pupils quickly got used to her way of teaching, and, to her contentment, kept nonsense out of class.

Every second week, there was a staff meeting in a panelled room adjacent to the staff room, where all teachers gathered at a long mahogany table and shared information on the progress of the different classes. Usually, it was as tedious as the staff meetings at Durmstrang. The only difference was that the Headmaster provided with chocolate frogs for some meetings, to spice them up with enormously silly jumping contests (the teachers obliged him, though all of them not completely willingly). There was usually little comment on Secessa's work from any of the teachers, except once when Dumbledore asked her to include the Patronus Charm in the fifth-year syllabus. She did not object at all, of course - anything to improve the standard.

Her relationship with the other teachers improved as well as time passed by, and she prided herself to have an unrestrained but polite relationship with all of them, even the big oaf Hagrid, whom she secretly thought was uncivilised. And slowly but surely, as the days got darker and colder, the layer of ice that had surrounded Secessa since the age of twelve, began to melt. She almost ceased her habits of looking over her shoulder and retreating behind her silent mask.

Then, one day in late October, events outside Hogwarts took a nasty turn. Secessa arrived early for breakfast that particular Thursday, and had hence finished her meal and was about to leave when the owls arrived. As they swept down in abundance, delivering parcels, letters and papers, something odd happened to the usually bustling Hall - the noise went right down. She looked down with a frown at the students, who were reading their daily paper with terrible graveness. A girl at the Hufflepuff table began to cry, at the same time as Professor Sprout rushed down the Hall to whisk her out of there. Several students stared at them as they left.

Secessa looked down the High Table, and saw Flitwick quietly sharing a Daily Prophet with Professor Sinistra. Further down the table, Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall were whispering to each other worriedly. She leaned over Flitwick's shoulder to read the paper headline. It read:

WIZARD MURDER SHOCKS COMMUNITY - RETURN OF THE DARK FEAR

There was a picture of a smiling, silver-haired man underneath, but she could not make out the name beneath the picture. There was also, a bit further down, a picture of a collapsed house, a Dark Mark hovering grimly above it. She put her hand to her mouth in shock.

A chair was drawn beside her and a very dour-looking Snape sat down, and seemingly uninterested in whatever was going on he poured himself some tea. Secessa scowled; today he was being unduly callous. As soon as she was ready to let down her guard, he surprised her. Frowning at her plate, she sneaked a glance back up at him; he leaned back surveying the hall with his usual malice as he slowly sipped from his cup. He blinked, and Secessa noticed the deep shades underneath his black eyes. My, thought Secessa conversationally, he looks like he has been up all night.

It hit her.

He already knew.

Stumbling a little she rose quickly from her seat. The Potions master seemed not to notice, but Professor McGonagall turned at the sound of her chair and looked at her questioningly, and Secessa quickly put her hand to her head, as if indicating a headache. The Gryffindor Head nodded briefly, and returned to her conversation with Dumbledore.

The rest of the day passed in a haze. Secessa felt frightened again, as though she was about to be attacked any moment, and kept on glancing at the classroom door while she taught. When her last class was finished, she sighed with relief, ran up to her quarters, collected her fur-lined Durmstrang cloak, and rushed down the spiral staircase. She knew there was an exit at the ground floor, and slipped out through it, leaning towards the door with her back as it closed behind her. It was raining outside, and the air was damp.

Calm yourself, she told herself as she stood in the drizzle, if he was here to take you in for questioning, he would have done so already. She had to stay, of course. There was nowhere else for her to go. However, she certainly wasn't going to stay ignorant about his dealings for much longer; she had to find out what was going on - for her own safety's sake.

Her plan wasn't perfect but she had a feeling it just might work. Pulling up her hood for protection against the rain, she started walking across the grounds, towards Hagrid's hut.

She found Hagrid outside, in the small pumpkin patch behind his house, trying desperately to prevent three Augureys tied with ropes to his rickety fence from taking flight.

"I won' hurt yeh, I promise!" he wailed despondently. "Yeh'll injure yerselves, behavin' like tha'!"

The vulture-like birds, however, paid no heed to him and croaked hoarsely, fluttering their oily wings in distress.

"Need any help, Hagrid?" Secessa asked politely, and Hagrid jumped and turned. He was half-covered in mud and Secessa automatically took a step back.

"It's the soddin' birds!" he said, seemingly in as great distress as the creatures to which he was referring. "Now why did it have ter rain today? Turns 'em all irritable an' grumpy if they can' fly. And I need ter keep 'em fer the fifth-years tomorrow! Breaks me heart ter see 'em like this!" He wiped a tear from his eye with his hand.

"I used to tame beasts for a living you know," Secessa said calmly. "Can I have a try?"

He looked at her hopefully, hair in disarray. "Well, if yeh think yeh can do summat, yeh're welcome ter try."

Secessa moved closer to the distraught birds, bringing out her out her wand.

"Yeh won' hurt 'em will yeh?" Hagrid asked worriedly, obviously taken aback at the sight of her wand.

"Don't worry," she said softly, "this is not going to hurt a bit."

Flicking her wand over the birds, she produced a silvery mist that settled around the whole pumpkin patch. "They will calm down soon, just wait," she said simply, and they waited. Very soon, the birds had indeed calmed, and settled on the ground docilely, rustling their feathers as if nothing had happened at all.

She stood back. "It prevents the rain from reaching them," she told Hagrid, smiling, "see?"

"Well I never!" Hagrid was positively beaming. "I always said yeh was a clever witch, I could see it on yeh when yeh firs' arrived here!"

Secessa smiled back, very satisfied; to bond with Hagrid had been easier than she thought it would. Hence, getting some information from him was hardly going to be a problem.

"So what are yeh doin' down here?" he asked as he picked up a trough he had used for feeding the birds, and started walking towards his hut.

"I needed a walk, to clear my head. Awful thing that happened, wasn't it?" She said the words cautiously, not wanting to upset Hagrid more than necessary, as she needed him to be able to speak coherently (something he seemed to find hard even in a calm state of mind).

He leaned the trough towards the side of the hut and looked at her, still misty-eyed. "Great man, Elphias. He'll be greatly missed, that's fer sure." His voice was breaking a little.

"I...never knew him."

They stood in silence for a while, rain still drizzling down, and Hagrid obviously tried to get a grip as he put on a falsely cheerful voice. "So how's the teachin' goin'? None of yer students causin' trouble, I hope."

She saw her opportunity, and made her voice a bit sad. "I'm doing fairly well I think. But I feel very inexperienced when I see some of the teachers. How long have they all been teaching at Hogwarts? Twenty, thirty years? I can't help comparing myself to them, and it is hard sometimes."

Hagrid put a comforting hand on her shoulder and looked at her with beetle-black eyes, still misty. "Now that's nothin' ter worry about. As far as I've heard, yer doin' fine. And ye don' need ter worry about yer experience, either. I've only taugh' here three years meself, and Madam Hooch and Professor Snape haven' been here for tha' long either."

She feigned relief. "Really? I thought Professor Snape had been around here for ages?"

"Nah, only fer...what can it be," he counted on his fingers, "...fifteen years or so. Well, it's not as long as twenty fer sure," he added apologetically when he realised that fifteen years probably was quite a long time anyway.

She smiled at him, happy for the information. "Well, I suppose I won't need to feel like a complete novice, then."

He beamed. "Righ'. Now, there's no sense in standin' here an' gettin' wet, is it? Would yeh like a cuppa?"

Politely declining the offer of tea, she said goodbye to Hagrid, and walked back towards the castle, nervously scanning the area for the Potions master's presence. The grounds, however, were empty, and no one could have seen her little chat with Hagrid. Dinner seemed to be on its way as she entered the castle, but she ignored her rumbling stomach and hurried past the Main Hall, towards the library on the fourth floor.

Fifteen years, she thought as she entered the deserted library, now that is convenient. Right after the Dark Lord's fall, he comes to Hogwarts to teach. One hardly needs to question what he did before that.

Madam Pince stood by a table close to the entrance, busily mending some very shabby-looking books. The gray-haired librarian tried to ignore her for as long as possible, but looked up eventually. Secessa had never realised before, but it looked as if the old lady was distantly related to Hagrid's Augureys.

"Yes?" Madam Pince's sharp face clearly said 'go away'.

"Do you keep records of old trials at the Ministry here? There is a particular trial concerning a curse that I wish to look up."

"There is none of that here," the librarian said curtly. "Trial records are considered confidential, and are only delivered at special request. You will need a written permission from the Headmaster for that."

Secessa was disappointed. "Do you keep old copies of the Daily Prophet, then?"

"We keep year-books. Eleventh row, at the back." The librarian immediately returned her attention to the books.

Being able to take a hint, Secessa quickly moved out of Madam Pince's way and down to where she was told. Passing the History section, she picked up Notable Magical Names in Our Time, and browsed through it while she was walking until she found the entry she sought:

Lord Voldemort. Dark wizard of the 1970's. Founder of the Circle of Death Eaters and responsible for several killings of wizards and muggles. Claimed to pursue the establishment of a pure-blood reign in the wizarding world. Downfall in 1981, having been defeated by Harry Potter.

1981, she thought to herself as she walked up the Daily Prophet yearbooks and retrieved the copy she wanted. Let's see then.

But there was no mention of the names of Death Eaters in the book, except for the ones that had been imprisoned in Azkaban after the Dark Lord's disappearance. "Dolohov..." she muttered as she read, "...Travers...Mulciber...where are you, Snape?" She wished she could get hold of trial records, to see whether he had been on trial, and then acquitted, but the Ministry was hardly going to give out prescribed information to a foreign teacher with a dubious background.

She flickered to the end of the book and then irritably flipped the pages back to the beginning again. And there, on one of the first pages, she saw him.

He was not easy to spot, and it was no wonder she had overlooked the picture in the first place. The article was called "WIZENGAMOT TAKES MEASURES AGAINST DEATH EATERS", and the picture was of a self-important man in a bowler hat, talking to crowd of people outside the door of a courtroom. But in a corner behind the crowd, Dumbledore stood speaking gravely to a person clad in black, partially hidden behind a pillar. Snape was obviously hiding from sight, but every now and then he would pop out his head and throw a sharp look at the people, as if waiting for them to leave. He was younger, but very recognisable.

Secessa shut the book and lay it down on the table in front of her. So he was involved, in some way at least. But never imprisoned or charged in any way, probably thanks to Dumbledore. A turn-cloak, perhaps? Somehow, everything that had happened fifteen years ago and today was linked, but how? She could not make sense of it.

"Looking for something, Secessa?" said a voice from above her head, and she looked up, startled, to face Dumbledore. She had no idea for how long he had been standing there, gazing down at her through his half-moon glasses. Her cheeks reddened slightly.

"I was...reading up on history."

"A wise thing to do, if you do not know it."

Looking down at the book, she tried to collect her thoughts. "Yes, I felt it was needed."

"We had a small staff meeting after dinner today, but I am afraid you missed it."

She looked up again, surprised. "I missed dinner? What is the time?"

"It is after eight. Actually, Madam Pince seems to be eager to close the library." He gave her a shadow of a wink as she leaned back to look behind him. The librarian stood watching them with a frown a few paces away, arms crossed.

"Oh, I'm sorry," she said, embarrassed. "I lost track of time." She quickly picked up her books and put them back on their shelves.

"I assume the staff-meeting concerned recent events?" she said, as they exited the library together, followed by an angry Madam Pince who shut the door firmly behind them. Dumbledore stopped in the arched hallway outside the door.

"Yes. I believe you saw today's Daily Prophet?"

She nodded. "I saw the headline. And the photograph."

"The man who was killed was called Elphias Doge. He was a friend of mine, and of others here at Hogwarts."

Secessa suddenly realised that the Headmaster had a tired look to him. "I am so sorry. I spoke to Hagrid earlier as well, and he seemed very distraught. He said Mr Doge was a good man."

"He was. His niece, Rose Knightley, is a third-year here."

She recalled the girl crying at breakfast. It was one of her better students. "Am I to expect a leave of absence?"

"For some weeks, yes."

They were quiet for a while, as the Headmaster seemed absorbed in his own thoughts.

"There might be more deaths still," Dumbledore said finally, "but many of Voldemort's followers are still in Azkaban, so he does not have the power to launch a full-scale war upon those who oppose him, as yet."

"But it is only a matter of time," she concluded, feeling grim at the thought.

"I am afraid so. In fact, Hogwarts might not end up the safe haven you expected it to be." He seemed to be measuring her with his eyes. "Is there anything you would like to ask me?"

She looked down at the floor, again very aware of her own fears. It took her some determination to look up again and lay bare her troubles to the wizened Headmaster; her need for someone to turn to was greater, she decided, than her pride.

"It seems that one of the teachers working here is connected to the Dark Lord and his followers," she said evenly. "It concerns me, greatly."

"Ah." Dumbledore regarded her sharply. "You are speaking of Professor Snape, of course."

"Obviously there is some reason why you employed him after the Dark Lord's fall," Secessa said, encouraged by his response, "and why you don't think that he is a liability to the students. But I would like to have my fears subdued, nevertheless." She looked him in the eyes, firmly.

Dumbledore sighed.

"I regret that you could not have been told of this in a more appropriate way. Severus is firmly against any mentioning of his past. I think you can well understand why. You should not judge him by it, however; he turned on Voldemort before his downfall."

Wearing a frown, Secessa pondered this for a moment. She wanted to trust the Headmaster but wasn't quite able to.

"May I ask why?"

"Well, you may ask, but as this is a matter between Severus and myself, I cannot answer your question."

"Of course."

She was disappointed but did not let it show. Dumbledore continued to study her intently.

"I fear that dark times are ahead, and that your time here will not remain peaceful for long. Your coming here is only one of many signs. Voldemort is rising, and soon he will strike against anyone who defies him. It is important that we are not divided from within when he does. I ask of you only to trust my judgement on this."

"Naturally. I do not wish to mistrust Professor Snape or any other member of staff for that matter. But it lies within my character to be careful. As it seems to lie in his."

Her voice was sharp at the edges now, as a whole day's strain began to take its toll.

Dumbledore looked at her gravely. "Sometimes, Secessa, we must make sacrifices for the higher good. And this includes overcoming our fears of the unknown and trusting others."

Looking at him tiredly, she wondered if she would ever survive to retire to a wonderful world of trust and innocence. It certainly didn't seem like it - she hadn't even had a glimpse of such a place so far in her life.

"I will think about what you have said," she said finally. "And now I would like to get permission to go down to the kitchens for some food. I'm starving." She felt a bit embarrassed at dismissing the Headmaster in such a way, but on the other hand she desperately needed to be alone.

"Certainly, Secessa." He looked at her with sympathy as she turned away from him and walked down the stairs, relieved to have escaped his penetrating gaze.