Owls and Musings - The Sequel

Chapter 12 - The Traitor

Derek Constantine sat in the head's office and looked around him. The portraits were all feigning sleep except for Dumbledore, who was humming quietly to himself and sucking on a piece of candy. Every now and then he snuck a sideways look at the young man, but did not utter a word, content to let the former Slytherin contemplate his life's actions.

Derek had been to this room several times as a student for various reasons, but none like this. He felt a cold sweat run down his back as he thought about what he was doing; betraying his friends. But were they his friends? How could someone be a friend who would kidnap a young girl and beat her until her bones broke, just for the fun of it? He had watched her grow up in the castle, her and her siblings. They were his Head of House's children! Oh Merlin, Snape! The man had tried to talk him out of joining; he recognised that now. And he had been right. He dropped his face into his hands hoping to block out the images in his mind, but it didn't work. He dropped his hands back into his lap again.

He twisted the robes in his hands in consternation. McGonagall had let him into her office and had gone off to summon someone. He could take a wild guess as to whom she was getting to come and talk with him, especially with the information he told her he had to impart. He had been sitting here now for almost an hour, waiting for the headmistress to return. He had walked around the office confines a few times, tried the door and had found it warded shut, as well as the Floo and the windows. So, even if he had wanted to change his mind and return, he couldn't. He was well and truly stuck on this course of action.

Why had he ever thought that joining with the darker wizards was a good choice? He hadn't been into the dark arts much in school - although most of his family had been Voldemort supporters. He had pretty much just skated through school with decent marks, more than enough OWLs and a respectable handful of NEWTs. He had been much too complacent about his life choices. His father had promised him that furthering his associations with 'the old crowd' would advance his career in his solicitor practice. His father had always managed his life - picking his friends before Hogwarts, ensuring he always attended the right parties, met the right people - and it had seemed natural to follow him into business as well - which meant joining the select group of men his father hung around. Obviously, now, that had been a mistake.

Another quarter of an hour, and he noticed the sky brightening outside the leaded window glass. He heard several feet climbing the stairs behind the door and steeled himself for the conversation ahead.

McGonagall entered the room followed by Professors Snape and Lupin, and - he gulped as he saw the third person - Harry Potter. McGonagall took her seat behind the massive wooden desk that dominated the centre of her office, placing her clasped hands in front of her on the mahogany top, and the other three men arrayed themselves behind her, assuming attitudes of watchfulness.

"Gentlemen, Mr Constantine arrived about an hour ago stating that he had news for us," Minerva began. "So, Derek, what do you know about Miss Snape's abduction?"

Derek looked from one man to another, returning to direct his words at Snape. "Sir, I'm sorry. You were right last year. I was a fool to have joined." Snape glowered down at his former student.

"You are not the first, Mr Constantine, nor will you be the last to make that error in judgement. You have come to your senses now?"

"Yes, sir. I can see now the lies they have been trying to feed me. When I saw your daughter brought in... well, it was the last straw." He dropped his head in his hands and groaned.

"Where is she, Derek?" Remus asked. "We need to know where Narcissa is holding her."

"That's the thing, I don't know. We use Portkeys to get there. But I know where the ritual will be tonight and at what time." He shook his head for a moment then looked at the group in front of him. "I couldn't get to her. If I could've, I would have Apparated her out of there. I swear it!"

Snape looked at Derek for a moment as if contemplating his next move. "Mr Constantine, I am sure you will understand why I will request this." He turned to Harry. "Potter, I have in my pockets a bottle of Veritaserum. I believe you are still an Auror in Reserve and can legally administer the potion?"

"Of course, Severus," Harry acknowledged.

"Mr Constantine, will you submit to Veritaserum as administered by Professor Potter?"

Derek did not hesitate. If it would help in any way, he would take any potion Snape would ask him to partake. "Yes, sir," he swiftly answered.

Snape took the bottle out of his robes and handed it to Harry who came around the desk to administer the three drops on Derek's tongue. They waited for the telltale glazing to occur in his eyes, and then Harry started the interrogation.

++++++

A pop in the air near her left hand alerted Alisha to the pan of cold gruel that had appeared again in her cell. She scrambled for the pan and upended the contents into her mouth. There wasn't much - just enough to keep her alive. This had been the third pan she had received this way since Narcissa had healed her fractures. She had no idea as to how much time had elapsed since her kidnapping. She put the pan down and another pop heralded its disappearance. Since Narcissa had left, she had not seen a single person or creature in her cell. When she had been able to move her limbs, she had applied the bruise cream all over her body - using up what was left in the jar. Then she had taken to explore her cell by touch, trying to find a possible way out of her predicament. But there was nothing. The cell, while old and dirty, was still well constructed. Not a chink in the mortar, and the door was well warded and could only be opened from the outside.

Now, as soon as the pan had disappeared, the door to her cell opened and she had to shield her eyes from the glare of the Lumos at the end of Narcissa's wand. As she became accustomed to the light, she saw the woman was arrayed in white ritual robes, her hair washed and dressed and makeup covered the ravages of time on her face.

"My, my, my... we can't have you facing our Lord looking like that! Stand up!" Her voice had the command of an Imperio behind it and Alisha struggled to resist, but in her weakened state was forced to comply and shakily stood up to face her jailer. A few muttered spells from Narcissa, and her torn clothes were repaired and cleaned and her body had been Scourgified as well.

Narcissa walked slowly over to the girl and paced around her as she verified that the girl was presentable for the ritual. Alisha shivered involuntarily as Narcissa made her circuit; the woman terrified her. But her Da had been teaching her the basics of Occlumency recently, and she knew that those lessons would be helpful in maintaining her stoicism throughout this ordeal. She tried to blank her mind and fill her surface thoughts with bits of trivia while keeping track of Narcissa with her eyes.

The witch stopped in front of her again, reaching out a manicured claw of a hand to tilt Alisha's chin from one side to the other making little mewing sounds as she did so. Alisha forced herself to stay still, but it was hard to do with the feel of Narcissa's sharp nails biting into her skin. What she really wanted was to kick, scream, spit in Narcissa's face and tear the hair from the woman's head. But that would only make things worse - much worse - and she wanted to be alive when her Da saved her, at least she intended to be alive... she gave herself a mental shake; defeatist attitudes would not save her. She steeled herself and concentrated more fully on her captor.

"Yessss... this should do. Walk in front of me, girl, and don't try anything heroic!" Narcissa pushed Alisha in front of her, and feeling the stab of a wand in the middle of her back, the Ravenclaw stumbled a bit before regaining her balance and walking to the open door. She took no notice of the guard outside, just kept her eyes straight ahead of her.

The guard fell into place behind Narcissa at her beckoning, and the three of them made their way along the dank corridors of the dungeon until they reached a set of wooden stairs. The guard moved up next to Alisha and, grabbing her arm above the elbow, urged her up the stairs. The door at the landing opened onto a dark crevasse in the stone. Narcissa moved ahead, now leading the little group. They walked a little way beyond the door, and then Narcissa stopped.

"This is far enough outside the wards." She turned to the guard. "Take our sacrifice to the site, I will be there momentarily; I have few things to do before we start."

The guard dragged the girl to him and, roughly holding on to her, began to twirl the two in place and Disapparated.

With a feeling of disorientation that she always hated, Alisha and her guard appeared with a solid pop in a grove of trees behind some tall bushes. Before she could even get her bearings, he had let go of her and his hands were replaced by ones she knew - but she still shied away at first as her father's hands gathered her in close to him for a solid hug. He held on to her until she realised she was safe and that her Da had rescued her.

With the comforting homey smells of her Da's clothes filling her nostrils, Alisha let herself go with relief. Severus held her as she sobbed silently into his robes, rubbing her back consolingly and dropping light kisses on top of her head while murmuring quietly to her. Eventually she wound down and was able to look at her father.

"Where are we?" she whispered. She looked around for the first time at the place her guard had brought her, wiping her eyes with the back of her hands and sniffing back the congestion in her nose until Severus handed her a black handkerchief. She smiled her thanks up at him as she made good use of it. When she shivered involuntarily in the cold, he removed his cloak and slung it around her shoulders.

"We're not far from where Narcissa is planning her ritual for tonight - except we are turning the tables on her." This answer came from Professor Potter. She noticed a wolf sitting at his feet and realised with a start it was her Uncle Remus. His tongue was lolling out in a wolfish grin and he walked over to get his ruff scratched and a kiss from his god-daughter placed on the top of his silver-maned head. He licked her face in greeting and love, then walked back over to stand guard next to Harry. She noticed many other Aurors were in the copse as well and looked back at her father for an explanation.

"Your guard, Derek Constantine, came to us last night letting us know how we could rescue you. He specifically switched guard duty tonight so that he would be your escort. Narcissa was stupid enough not to direct the Apparation herself - we were counting on that, actually, as she has never been able to direct a side-along Apparation." He sneered at what he obviously thought of the woman's magical abilities. "We can't stay here long, Alisha. I have a Portkey that will take you and Derek to your Grandmother's office. Stay there until we return." He handed an old handbag to his daughter and, with a quick kiss to her forehead, walked over to where Professor Potter was standing. The guard - no, Derek - came over and placing his hand on the strap, muttered a spell to activate the Portkey, and she was whirling away once again.

The group of Aurors, Snape and the werewolf made their way silently out of the copse, after disillusioning themselves, and went to surround the group of Death Eaters that had gathered in the meadow nearby. Silently, the group set up containment spells around the clearing so that none would get away once the actual raid started. The chant had started, and the twenty participants were all in position. As the moon rose to the peak of its arc, Narcissa Apparated into the centre of the group and, before she could register the fact that her sacrifice for tonight's endeavours was not present, the hidden group had struck.

Her insane screams shattered the night as ropes appeared around her and her wand was Expelliarmus-ed. The howl of a werewolf baying at the full moon drowned out her insane screams.