Owls and Musings - The Sequel

Chapter 11 - The Cell

Alisha slowly opened her sticky eyes to complete darkness. No, not quite complete, there was a thin sliver of light along the floor across from her. A door. She did not move yet, as she slowly took stock of how her body felt inside and out, as her father had taught her. Her first impression was that she was cold. She could still feel her clothes around her, but her cloak was gone. She ached something awful, and her legs and arms felt injured in some way. She tried moving each limb, but the pain nearly made her pass out as she felt bone grate on bone. So, they were broken. It felt as if her chest, too, had been kicked or beaten as it hurt to take any deep breath. When she moved her head, she could feel sore spots all around it, and her face felt bruised and scraped as well. Torture. Whoever had kidnapped her had tortured her. But why? She didn't know anything that would be worth something to someone.

She tried to remember how she had gotten into this predicament. She remembered going shopping in Hogsmeade with her friends and turning down the alley to cut over to Honeydukes. Try as she might, though, she could not remember anything after that point. She began to shiver on the cold stone floor, and giving in to the exhaustion, was soon unconscious again.

A bucketful of cold water thrown on her, shocked her awake sometime later with a gasp.

"Good work, Tuttle. Now leave us," a cold haughty voice said.

"Yes, mistress." The sound of a pop was heard as the small squeaky voice apparently Disapparated.

"You can open your eyes; I know you are awake," came the disdainful voice above her. Alisha slowly opened her eyes. In front of her, with a conjured ball of light hanging near her shoulder, was a tall, thin woman with patrician features gone to seed and lank, pale hair that hung to her waist. She had her wand pointed down at Alisha. Alisha knew who the woman was; everyone in the wizarding world knew her.

"Narcissa Malfoy," she managed to whisper between her dry and cracked lips. She was desperately thirsty and hungry now, and colder than before with the water that had been thrown on her. She tried to lick some of the moisture off of her face, but couldn't get much. "I thought you were dead," she croaked.

"Very good, Miss Snape. Yes, everyone is under that impression. Well, they were wrong!" A high cruel laugh rang across the tiny cell as she enjoyed her own private amusement. She knelt down so that she could look Alisha better in the face. "Hmmm, I see that my boys were a little enthusiastic with their hexes. Now we can't have that, can we? Tuttle!" She stood back up as she screeched for the house-elf. A distinct pop was heard.

"Yes, mistress?" Alisha could just barely make out a cringing female house-elf that had Apparated to stand near her mistress. Her pillowcase was patched and torn in several places and was grey with years of ground in dirt. Her ears drooped and her hands and toes had multiple plasters on them, obviously covering up previous punishments.

"Let us get some potions into Miss Snape. Bring me some Skele-Gro, and some bruise lotion. We can't have her looking like this for her denouement." She shot an evil, slightly insane grin at Alisha.

"Of course, mistress." The elf bowed, twisting its hands together.

"Oh, and Tuttle?"

"Yes, mistress?" The elf paused in mid snap.

"Make sure the potions come from Severus' old batches." This time she chuckled at her little private joke.

The elf nodded her understanding and Disapparated.

Alisha remembered one of her father's lessons: Keep the enemy talking. "Why have you kidnapped me?" She figured she might as well start with the obvious question.

"Well, to hurt your father for one." Narcissa whirled back to face her captive. "He failed me, you see. He didn't protect my Draco!" Her voice took on the high singsong aspect of the mentally unbalanced. "He let him get hurt and die. Then he took my husband away from me and finally, he betrayed our Lord!" she growled. "Our Lord trusted him right up until the end, and Snape turned on him." She pouted as she started pacing the chamber, the little ball of light following her like a puppy dog, illuminating the dank stone walls. Now Alisha could see the rough stones that made up the floor she lay on. Dirt was everywhere, and the water now made a thin slurry of mud in her little corner. "So, I am going to use you to bring him back!" she declared to the broken Ravenclaw.

Alisha was stunned, but she had to keep the woman talking. "You've lost me; bring whom back?"

"The Dark Lord." She waved her hands above her as she continued speaking, eyes seeing off into the distance. "On the full moon in two days, the stars will be aligned just right to perform the ritual that will bring our Lord back to us. And you? Well, you will become the vessel for our Lord!" Her face took on the aspect of one in rapture at the prospect of seeing Voldemort again. Alisha moaned, inwardly she thought, but apparently not as Narcissa turned back to her again.

"Where is that naughty elf? Tuttle!" she screeched.

"Here I am, mistress!" The elf popped back into the room, abject terror on her face as she approached Narcissa. "I'm sorry it took so long. Tuttle bad elf. Tuttle will go iron her hands now." She handed the bottles to her mistress and snapped herself out of the room, resignation and fear evident in the look she gave Narcissa before leaving.

"You do that, you little toerag," she mumbled. She stalked over to Alisha and grabbing the girl's mouth, squeezed it open to pour the potion down her throat. Alisha gagged and spluttered, but most of the disgusting mixture went down, and she could feel her bones slowly re-knitting themselves. Narcissa threw the jar of ointment at Alisha's feet. "When you can move again, use that to clear your bruising." She turned towards the door, taking the ball of light with her. Rapping her knuckles on the door, it was opened from the outside and she left the girl, still lying in the puddle of mud.

+++++

Remus was tired, but he stayed awake as Severus, Kingsley and Harry discussed the information they had gleaned from their interrogation of Ambrose Parrish. As far as useful information went, it fell quite short. But beggars could not be choosy. After the questioning, the Aurors had taken Parrish into custody, and the team of four along with Shacklebolt had handed Alisha's wand to Severus, which they had found in Ambrose's bedroom, and headed back to Snape's quarters at Hogwarts to discuss the ramifications of what they had obtained. Tonks had eventually gone to bed, taking her children off of Esme's hands. Remus rubbed his hands over his face and felt the stubble of his beard - quite long now with less than twenty-four hours to go until moonrise. He leaned back in towards the table to listen more intently to the conversation.

"We need to get over to Malfoy Manor to cast for signs of Alisha," Kingsley was pointing out.

Harry and Snape were both shaking their heads. "I've told you, Shacklebolt," Snape growled. "She won't be there. Narcissa is smart enough to know that we will search there first. No, she is keeping her somewhere else. She wants her for some sort of ritual - but what?"

"There isn't any astronomical date anytime soon, is there? Besides the full moon?" Harry asked, casting a glance in Moony's direction. "Death Eaters love exploiting those days for their rituals."

Remus shrugged, searching his mind. There was something, now that he thought about it. One of his students a few days ago had commented on it. He held up a hand to halt the conversation as he closed his eyes to concentrate on that niggling thought. Now what had been the circumstances of that class...Right, he had it. Fifth-year Defence class with the Ravenclaws and Gryffindors. Fannie Potts and Mitchell Brewer had gotten into an argument about tomorrow night's significance; not only was it a full moon, but - Fannie had pointed out - it was also...

"Conjunction!" he fairly shouted from his seat. The other three men stared at him as if he had gone around the bend. He opened his eyes and blushed under the scrutiny. "Sorry, but that's the significance. That is why she is choosing tomorrow night; a planetary conjunction - and not just any conjunction. All of the planets will be aligned as well as being a full moon!"

Severus looked stunned and he quickly looked from his friend to his former student. "Do you remember that obscure passage we came across in those old scrolls we found several years ago when we raided that house in Wales? You brought me in because there were so many dark writings that had been stored in the hidden room in the cellar?" Harry hooded his eyes as he thought back, then snapped his eyes to his colleague. "That bizarre ritual to bring back the dead? You can't be serious."

"Oh, but I am, Potter. You see, I remember a similar scroll in the Malfoy library." He leaned closer to the man sitting next to him. "Think about it, who would Narcissa want to bring back so badly she would use such a ritual? And the sky positions are correct tomorrow night."

"She wouldn't dare bring back Draco!" Harry protested. But Snape shook his head hard, causing his hair to swing wildly. "Not Draco; Tom." He looked at each of the men in turn as he elaborated. "The Death Eaters are without clear leadership. The leaders are either dead or locked up and as good as dead. They won't follow Narcissa for long, and she knows it; she is not a strong enough witch to hold their loyalties. No, she needs to bring back their one and only true leader, Voldemort."

"She can't, I destroyed his souls - all seven of them. What would occupy the body? Oh, no..."

"Exactly, you only really destroyed six of them. Without the Horcruxes binding his remaining soul to the earth, you were able to kill him, releasing the seventh bit to the afterlife. Calling him back from the dead would mean the ability to reconstitute that last small bit of soul, into a whole new body. That is what she needs my daughter for; to offer a sacrifice for the Dark Lord to occupy." He looked over at the other two men. "The ritual that Potter and I found uses the body of a virgin to offer up a clean soul for the dead to possess, conquer and reanimate the new body. The pull of the planets and the full moon in alignment makes the crossover of the dead soul - or in this case what pitiful bits of it remain - to this plane of existence that much easier. It thins out the veil between the realm of the dead and that of the living." He leaned back in his chair, obviously as exhausted as the rest of the team. "So, now we have a good idea what she is probably going to do, the only question left is where. Any ideas, gentlemen?"

None were forthcoming and Snape grumbled in frustration. Abruptly he got up and began to pace around his parlour. When still no suggestions were forthcoming, he headed down the hallway to check on his sleeping family.

Rebecca was sharing her room with her brothers and Brigida, all of them needing the comfort. He gently made the rounds of the beds, tucking in here, straightening out a limb there. He left the room with the intention of checking on his wife, but found himself at Alisha's room instead.

He waved a hand at the torches and they sprung to life, illuminating the treasures belonging to his eldest. Several bookshelves contained old schoolbooks as well as favourite books of fiction. On her desk were various awards won in several competitions that the Ravenclaws held amongst themselves. He took a moment to rifle through them before placing them back down. On her bed, in place of honour, was the teddy bear she had brought with her from the orphanage. Tattered even more than when he originally had seen it, it still looked very much loved and adored by its owner. Tears carefully mended, fur rubbed raw in places, he felt sure that it quietly awaited its mistress' return. He sank down on the bed and carefully took the teddy in his hands. After a few quiet moments, he kissed the teddy bear on its forehead and with a careful pat, replaced it back into its honoured spot.

Heading back to the parlour and past the dead-ended group of men sitting around his table, he grabbed his cloak and headed towards the door. "I need a walk to clear my head. I'll be back in a while." He flung his cloak around his shoulders and slammed his way through the door, flinging it closed behind him.

Three a.m. in the castle was a quiet time, and Snape had a clear passage through the corridors and out the main doors of the school. He walked down across the lawn and headed towards the lake. The nearly full moon was hanging low in the sky and shone across the waters, eventually landing on the luminescent marble of Dumbledore's final resting place. Severus spared a glance for the tomb but walked to the lake and stood there, in the cold still air, watching his breath mist in front of him and thinking of all the places that Narcissa would find significant enough to use for the ritual. It just had to be that ritual; he felt it was the only thing that made sense with Ambrose's information and the timing of it all.

His thoughts wandered to his missing girl. How trusting she had been that first day he had met her, clambering into his lap at the orphanage and handing him her bear to kiss. When they had finally been able to take her home with them that summer, she had been enamoured with the twins. She helped Esme with them, as much as a three-year-old could. And meeting Wizby! What a sight that had been. The two of them were about the same height, and Alisha had just stared at the elf for a good five minutes in part awe and part confusion. She then asked Esme if this was another sister. Wizby's eyes had gotten huge, and she quickly corrected the little girl - but the two had bonded very quickly after that.

He remembered her being so proud when she had first learned all her letters, then read her first words, and finally how ecstatic she had been when she had gotten her blue primary robes for studying with Professor Weasley. His mind jumped the intervening years to her sorting and how proud he had been when the hat had announced "Ravenclaw!" He saw in his mind's eye the beautiful and bold face of his eldest daughter; blue eyes twinkling, black curly hair floating around her face like a storm cloud, how her smile always reached, and lit up her eyes, in merriment.

He lost all track of time as he stood there and only became aware of his surroundings and the approach of dawn when he heard a soft hoot behind him. He automatically put his left arm out for the eagle owl to land upon. She mantled her wings a bit as she caught her lover's arm with her claws, and he slowly brought his arm in to cradle her against his chest; gentle stroking his hand along her head and back, feeling the soft warmth of her feathers. She leaned into the stroking for a few minutes, but eventually turned her head to nip at his fingertips and he walked back to the tomb and set her on the marble top. Esme slowly transformed in the moonlight, and he handed her down to the ground.

"We've had a visitor at the castle," she announced. "One of the lost has come home, Severus; Derek Constantine is here."