Owls and Musings - The Sequel

Chapter 10 - The Search

"It was over here, Professor," Rena said as they walked quickly to the alley where she and the others had parted from Alisha that afternoon. They hadn't run into Alisha walking home, and the closer they got to the village, the grimmer it was looking for the lost Ravenclaw. The alley looked even more menacing in the evening gloom than it had in the late afternoon light. Severus came up to her with his wand out pointing down the entrance to the alley. He placed a gentle hand on her shoulder and nudged her to stand nearer to a street lamp.

"Thank you, Miss Wells. Stay here please, while we check out the alley." She wrapped her cloak more tightly around her against the bitter night air and stood underneath the gaslight. The group had already checked at Honeydukes and quickly determined that Alisha had never made it to her destination. Three muttered Lumos lit up the alley. Thankfully, this was not a well-trodden route, and the snow had captured much of what had occurred.

The wizards carefully traced Alisha's boot prints to the mid-point in the alley where another set of footprints was revealed near a bin. A depression in the snow showed where she had landed face first. Severus knelt by the imprint of his daughter's face, letting his fingers lightly trace the features captured therein. He cast his gaze about the rest of the alley, but no more footprints were visible beyond this point. He noticed Harry taking some wand readings of the area and the attacker's prints.

"Well, Potter?" he spat out as he stood back up, crossing his arms in front of his chest. He didn't see Remus flinch as the old Snape persona snapped back into place with Severus' worry over his eldest's welfare.

Harry chose to ignore the tone of voice. He could understand what his old teacher was feeling right now; he would feel the same way if it were one of his children. In fact, it was amazing that this had not happened before now. It was not looking good, and his report was not going to be pleasant to hear. He straightened up from where he was crouched by the set of prints near the bin.

"I'm sorry, Severus. As you can tell, she was felled by a binding curse of some sort and then transported away by either Portkey or Apparition. My guess would be Portkey. Her attacker then Apparated after she was gone; it's as if they had her targeted, but for what - I don't know." Harry took a deep breath. "What is your knowledge on the current workings of your former associates?" he asked as he led the group back down the alley but stopped as Remus placed a hand to stop them. "What is it, Remus?" Harry asked quietly. Snape turned around to stare at the werewolf.

"A scent. I've smelled it before... a long time ago..." He looked over at his friends. "It's not Alisha. I smell her, yes, but this is different. It goes back to the first war..." He dropped his hand from Harry's arm and headed back into the alley, closing his eyes and letting his nose lead the way. It was close to the full moon, only forty-eight more hours before transformation and his senses were near their highest acuity. The other two men turned around and watched him as he cased the area.

Eventually, he reached the body print and bent to sniff the ground where the attacker had stood, but shook his head and walked over to the bin area. He got up close to the wall closing his eyes and sniffing some more, looking uncannily like a two-legged dog. He bent down for a moment then straightened back up to push the bin further down the alley away from the site. He bent back down and picked up a piece of rubbish from the ground. He stood back up, grinning, and walked back to where Snape and Harry stood.

"I knew it! The person who attacked her was Ambrose Parrish. He always had this smell about him, even in school - very distinct body odour." He made a moue of disgust at the memory. "He always ate only one kind of candy." He flourished the chocolate wrapper that he had picked up from the ground. "He only ate muggle chocolate bars. Nasty habit that, and it was just one of the things that kept him low on the Death Eater totem pole. Do you even remember him, Severus?" The men resumed their walk back to the alley entrance and the waiting Rena Wells.

"Vaguely," Snape acknowledged. "A Slytherin a couple of years behind us? Never really very clean in appearance - don't roll your eyes, Potter, mine was an act and his was for real - and you are correct, he was quite low in ranking. I don't remember much else about him, however." They had reached the entryway and walked over to the shivering fourth- year under the lamppost. By unspoken consent the wizards agreed not to let Rena know their speculations other than the fact that Alisha had been kidnapped.

"Oh, Merlin, I knew something bad was going to happen. I should've stayed with her!" she whimpered as they headed back towards the castle.

"Then you would most likely be sharing her fate, Miss Wells, " Snape pointed out sharply. She hung her head miserably. "By virtue of being a Snape, my daughter has had training beyond that of most fourth-years. I feel confident that she can handle herself until we can locate her whereabouts." At least he hoped she could. He would not let his worry show to this girl, however.

As they approached the castle gates, Harry Apparated to Auror headquarters to search their records for last known locations of one Ambrose Parrish. Remus and Severus escorted Rena to Flitwick, letting him know what was going on and placing the responsibility for informing the Ravenclaws on his capable, if tiny, shoulders. They then headed to Severus' rooms where they knew Minerva would be waiting with the rest of the family.

Gustav looked very worried as he opened the door. "I hope you find her soon, sir," he mentioned. Snape murmured a thank you as he held the door open for Remus. Both families were gathered in his parlour, the children sitting quietly on the floor attempting to do homework to keep their minds off of the situation. The women were scattered on the seats, cups of cold, untouched tea sat nearby. A.J. was asleep in Minerva's lap and Tonks' little Benjamin was in a playpen, happily oblivious to the atmosphere in the room and pulling himself around the boundaries of his enclosure. Wizby was in a corner, moaning to herself and wringing her hands and ears.

Remus went to sit on the edge of his wife's chair after picking up his youngest son to cuddle, and Severus went to stand in front of the Floo.

"Miss Wells was able to show us which alley Alisha took to cut through. She never made it to Honeydukes; she was abducted from the alley by a low-level Death Eater named Ambrose Parrish. I'll explain later how we know that," he said quickly, cutting off McGonagall's obvious attempt to question him. She snapped her mouth shut and nodded sharply, eyes blazing. She would, indeed, question him later.

"Harry has gone to Auror headquarters to check out the files. Tonks, as you are familiar with the time period Ambrose was most active, Harry requests that you join him there to help with the search."

"Of course, Severus." She rose quickly and headed toward the door, tripping over a snag in the rug. She managed to catch herself before falling completely to the floor and giving the room a bemused grimace, exited to gather her own cloak and head to the Ministry.

"What are you and Remus going to do now?" Esme asked her husband. She had her new kitten in her lap and was stroking the poor thing a bit too hard in her agitation. The half-kneazle eventually reached around and nipped her thumb before jumping off, its tail held haughtily in the air.

"It shouldn't take Harry long to track down a location for Ambrose, then Remus and I will pay him a visit. I don't think that she will be there; I'll be surprised if she is, but it will be a start. I'm going to go get changed and get some potions ready for when we do find her. If we don't find her until Remus has transformed, I don't know..." He looked over at his best friend.

"Take me with you. I'm totally harmless these days, but they won't know that." He gave a decidedly evil wolfish grin at the thought of facing the abductors in werewolf guise. Snape matched his grin with one of his own.

"That's that, then. We'll travel together in any case." He began to head across the room to change into travelling gear, but was stopped by Emrys.

"Da, can we stay here?" the young boy pleaded.

Severus thought a moment. Years ago, he would have thought it a bit of sentimental rubbish for children to be coddled at a time like this; especially wizarding children. But nearly twelve years of parenting had taught him otherwise. "Yes, son, you can stay here. But I want you children to still attend classes as usual if we do not find her by Monday."

'Yes, sir' and 'Of course, Da' was chorused from around the room. He smiled to himself as he continued on his trek to the master bedroom.

He was not surprised when Esme slipped in behind him, closing the door, a few moments later. She walked into his waiting arms, and they stood there a moment in shared misery. Eventually, she wiped her eyes and taking the lapels of his robe in her hands, stared up at him, a fierce and determined look flashing in her green eyes.

"You find her, do you hear me? You find her, and bring her home! I don't care what you do to those people, just bring her safe back home to us." Her voice caught on a sob, and Severus bent down to kiss her gently.

"I promise, Esmerelda. I'll do everything in my power to find her. They're doing this to hurt me, you know. I can feel it." He gathered her closer to him as he reflected on how much he already missed his daughter. They had chosen the one thing to mess with that was guaranteed to raise his ire. Of course this could all be a trap just for him, but he wasn't going to mention that to Esme, especially if she hadn't already thought of it herself.

"Don't let them, then," she said fiercely. "This is just a pathetic manoeuvre by pathetic men."

"I know, Esme, I know." He held her a moment longer until he heard a soft knock at the door. Remus' muffled voice came through the crack.

"Severus? Harry just flooed; they have a location for Parrish."

"I'll be right there, Lupin." He kissed his wife one more time, then, shrinking his potions box and placing it in his robe pocket, left to join Remus in the parlour.

"We're to Apparate to the Ministry first, and Harry and Dora will give us the location there. We can also pick up some more gear while there." The two men retrieved their cloaks and headed back out the door to a murmured 'Good Luck' from Gustav.

++++

The two men stalked the halls of the Ministry with a determined stride and their faces set in grimaces. Ministry lackeys scurried out of the way as the two strode to the Auror offices. Severus was in full Snape-as-the-dungeon's-bat mode; face set in scowl and cloak billowing in his wake. He heard, but did not acknowledge, several squeaks from former students as they pressed themselves up against the walls to keep out of their path. Remus, on the other hand, was radiating barely controlled rage. His fists balled at his side, he easily kept pace with his lankier friend, matching him stride for stride.

They barged into the office where Harry and Tonks were assembling some gear to help in finding Alisha. They knew she would not be at Parrish's hole, but he should be able to give them a starting place to find her. Harry silently handed Severus a pack, which Severus opened to inspect before accepting and shrinking it to join the potions box in his pockets. Tonks and Remus had moved to a corner of the room to have a whispered moment.

Harry looked over at his former teacher. "Several other Aurors have already gone on ahead to make sure he doesn't leave. They know not to do anything until we get there." Snape grunted. "Severus, this could all be a trap," Harry pointed out.

"I know that, Potter!" he growled. "But this is personal. I need to be there when we get her out."

"I know, I would feel the same way about one of my kids. I just needed to point it out. It has been so long since they've done something this blatant. Any ideas on motive?"

"Other than making me hurt for betraying them? No. But I'm sure that is not the only reason - just a convenient by-product of whatever they are up to. As I don't truly associate with any of those people anymore, I have no clue as to what they are thinking." He snorted at the thought. Most of them didn't think, just followed. So who was the ringleader now? Most of the old crowd was either dead or rotting in Azkaban. He looked thoughtfully over at Harry. "Anyone escape recently from Azkaban?"

"Not that I've heard, and Shacklebolt normally keeps me apprised of things like that. Why? Do you think this may be masterminded by one of them?"

"It's possible. I just can't think of anyone with enough brains left on the outside that would be stupid enough to attempt this. Whereas there are several still alive in Azkaban who are that idiotic."

"Hmmm. Well, let's see what Parrish has to say first, then we'll go from there." Harry looked over at Remus and Tonks. "Are you two ready? It's time to go."

Remus hopped off of a desk and led his wife over to where Harry and Snape stood. Harry grabbed the Portkey that had been sitting near him, and they all reached out to place a hand on the copy of the Daily Prophet.

Harry eyed his watch and counted down. "Three, two, one!" They all felt the familiar yanking behind the navel as the Portkey sucked them away to Mr Parrish's abode.

The group landed in a darkened alley in a seedy little town, and Remus held on to his wife as she stumbled a bit.

"I hate Portkeying," she mumbled.

"You and me both, Tonks!" Harry commiserated as he righted himself from his own stumble. "Give me a broom any day. Ah, here's Shacklebolt," he whispered.

"Harry," Kingsley muttered in greeting. "Snape, Lupin, Tonks," he quietly acknowledged the rest in turn. "We have the shack surrounded and an anti-Apparition ward around the place; it's just around the corner." He pointed with his non-wand hand. "He's still in there. How do you want to handle this, Snape?"

Snape thought a moment, his arms crossed in front of him and head down studying the damp cobblestones beneath his feet. Finally, he raised his head and looked at the Auror. "Have the Aurors go in first and secure him and the house; we'll follow afterwards." The Auror nodded once and led them around the corner. Giving a signal with his arm, the Aurors followed their leader in storming the house. A shouted Alohamora was heard, and the door blasted open allowing four men to enter with their wands drawn. The quartet outside heard banging, curses and hexes thrown and finally, silence.

Kingsley shouted out the door that they could come in now, and the four strode into the centre room of the house. The room consisted of four dirty grey walls with peeling paper, punctuated by equally grey and dingy windows that had yellowing and stained parchment blinds covering them. A bare Muggle light bulb lit the room from the ceiling, and it only served to emphasise the shabbiness of the hovel. Parrish was bound to the only chair in the room with magical ropes, and his face went ashen-white when he saw Snape flow into the room.

"Ambrose," came the deceptive oil-over-silk voice. "I see you know why we are here." He walked up to the man and leaned down to get right in the Death Eater's face. "Where. Is. My. Daughter?" He snapped out each word, throwing spittle as he did so. Parrish winced as the phlegm hit him in the eyes.

"I - I - I d-d-d-d-don't know!" he managed to choke out. "I was given a p-p-p-Portkey and told to abduct her. I swear I don't know where it took her! You've got to believe me, Severus!" He cringed, trying to keep himself as far away from Snape as he could, given he was tied up to the chair.

"Believe you? I can barely stand to look at you, Parrish." He stood back a step and studied the pathetic imbecile in front of him, letting his nose wrinkle at the peculiar body odour that marked the man. "Who gave the key to you?"

The man mumbled something, looking down at his feet, not daring to look Snape in the face.

Remus caught the man by the hair, yanking it back, which forced him to look up again. "What did you say, Ambrose? We didn't hear you," he snarled.

"M-M-M-Malfoy!" the man gasped out.

Snape looked quickly over at Shacklebolt. "I thought he died in Azkaban?"

Kingsley frowned. "He did..." They all looked at Parrish as he shook his head violently.

"No, no, no. Not him," he emphasised, his voice squeaking in fear. "Her. Narcissa." Remus released the man's hair with a muttered oath, and the other three had a quick intake of air. Snape swung back in front of him.

"That's impossible!" he roared in anger. "You're delusional! Narcissa died thirteen years ago at the hand of the Dark Lord," he said incredulously. "I was there, Parrish!" But the little man kept shaking his head.

"No, no - it was a poly-juiced Lucius the Dark Lord murdered. He and Narcissa switched places early in his incarceration. Got the idea from Crouch." He looked up at Snape, spittle dribbling from one side of his mouth as he told his tale. "When he was killed, she could no longer get the poly-juice. They had this cont..." He stumbled over the word as Snape stood over him, eyes black and hard as diamonds.

"Contingency plan?" he offered with a low snarl.

Parrish nodded in agreement. "Right, that. A plan. They had made a Draught of Living Death just in case. So when she ran out of juice, she took the Draught. The guards all thought Lucius was dead, you see? So they buried the body. Well, they only dig very shallow graves, and when she woke up, she dug herself out and escaped the island. She's been laying low all these years but gathering together her forces." He tried to sit up straighter in his chair, but one look from Snape and he fell in on himself, cowering again.

"Of course..." Severus drawled. "' Revenge is best served cold.' Eh, Narcissa?" he pondered aloud. He began pacing around the room. Parrish tried to follow him with his eyes, but it was impossible to follow him totally, and the man seemed to cringe even more when he heard Snape walking behind him, kicking up puffs of dirt with his boots.

"But what does she want with my daughter? This is more than just simple revenge, Ambrose, what's her game? What do you know?" He was standing in front of the man again, leaning in to get up close and personal. Parrish whimpered as Snape leaned in even further, caressing the tip of his wand down the side of the prisoner's face.

"Nothing, Severus, I swear! I don't know anything!" The words came out in a barely audible whimper as the man began to feel cold sweat pour down his face.

"We shall see, Ambrose," said Snape in his cruellest tone yet. "We shall see."

Ambrose silently wet himself as Snape's gaze tunnelled into his eyes and an evil leer spread the former Death Eater's lips apart as the warm smell of urine filled the room.