Slightly Off-Kilter

The meeting dragged on for hours. Each member got the group up to date on happenings, negotiated information, talked strategy and basically began to tire of each other. Severus was thankful Gayle dozed off two hours ago, otherwise there would be dead bodies lining the wall. Between her and the 'discussions' he didn't know how much more he could take.

"The only problem will be finding out what Voldemort's next action will be," mused Dumbledore over the din. The quiet that followed would have given crickets pause in breaking it.

"We have a partial list of his followers, we could infiltrate again," someone suggested. There were shaking heads here and there.

"No," Severus told them. "With two known spies previously in their midst, he's going to be very wary about who enters the circle and those that are left cannot be brought to our side, unless we have something on them to make them."

"I wouldn't trust them even then," commented Sirius, stretching out his long frame.

"Peter," mused Remus but Sirius interrupted.

"Won't live long enough to be of use."

Dumbledore gave him a stern look of reproach and Sirius sulked a moment before recovering his pensive mood. "There must be something that -"

"Ex marks the spot," mumbled Gayle loudly in her sleep. Severus frowned down at her.

"What did she say?" asked Remus from the other side of the room.

"Ex marks the spot, you dolt!" Gayle shouted, sitting up, bright-eyed and bushy tailed. She turned excitedly to Severus. "Remember?"

Severus stared at her as he shook his head in denial. "No."

She glared at him and walked over to a map of England and Scotland that Dumbledore had set up at the front of the room. She grabbed a peice of chalk and made a huge X on the Shetland Islands. "Ex marks the spot!" she informed them all triumphantly and, head held high, marched to her seat and sat in it, giving them all a smug look.

"She's starkers!" someone exclaimed.

"This is news?" asked Gayle in mocking confusion. She turned to Severus, who was staring at the X in perplexion. "Remember, Severus?"

"Gayle," he said patiently, "was I there for this peice of information?"

She frowned at him and thought a moment. "No."

"Then how could I know?"

"You know everything else," she told him regally, earning a few snickers around the room.

Severus ground his teeth. "I will lay claim to much knowledge, however, Albus is the one who knows everything, not me."

Gayle stared at Dumbledore a moment. "Then why is he asking?"

The room as one sighed in exasperation. Dumbledore's beard and mustache twitched in amusement as he walked over to her and knelt beside her chair. "Remind me, Gayle, what is at the X?"

Gayle rolled her eyes. "Stuff."

"What stuff?"

"The stuff Voldemort put there."

The room's occupants froze and Dumbledore, very carefully pulled Gayle to her feet. "Can you tell me what stuff he put there?"

"You don't remember?" Now Gayle was confused.

"No, I'm afraid not. I am getting on in years. My memory's not what it used to be," Albus confided in a low tone designed to inspire conspiratory relations. There were some private sniggers around the room at the mere idea.

"Ooohhhh," said Gayle in solemn dismay and budding comprehension. "I'm sorry, Albus, next time I'll explain everything in every little detail." Severus' teeth ground again. She leaned in to Albus to whisper loudly, "Are you," she paused, "senile?" She looked scandalized by the very thought.

"Getting there," Albus confided back. Gayle looked miserably at him.

"Toys," she told him in a low tone. "And lots of them."

"Oh for the love of Merlin, this is a waste of time!" bellowed Anabella Figg from the back of the room over mutterings of disgruntlement. One glare from Dumbledore subsided her outburst and the rest of the room went silent again.

"What kind of toys?" asked Albus again.

"Tinker."

"Tinker toys?" Albus frowned. Gayle nodded. With a sigh he stood up and caressed her face fondly. "Thank you, dear lady, for such sensitive information." Gayle grinned at him, happy to have obliged.

Those that could see his face as he turned back to his own seat saw the dismay and disappointment on Dumbledore's face. Those that had known Gayle when she was sane and before the torture were also heartbroken at the wreck the woman's mind had become. Those remaining that did not know only need look at Severus Snape to realize how bad things were for her.

Gayle attentively listened for another half an hour until the meeting was adjourned and then conversed with the few people who bothered to speak to her at all. Crestfallen that her information wasn't taken to heart and desperate to be of some use to someone once again, Gayle latched onto Remus Lupin's arm, begging for reassurances, which he awkwardly gave.

When Severus finally drug her back to his chambers for dinner and rest, Gayle was near tears. The rest of the evening Severus brokenheartedly agreed with her everytime she tearfully told him, "They are tinker toys, Severus, really they are!"