A Tangled Web (Post-DH)

Chapter 13: Unexpected Visitors

Severus stood over a cauldron in the cramped, dingy kitchen of his home. It hung over a brazier he had set up on the ancient, scarred linoleum floor. Its pattern could only faintly be discerned under decades of grime and scorch marks that suggested this was not the first time the floor had been so abused. A few rays of sunlight peeked in around the ancient, yellowed and cracked shade that had kept away the gaze of curious neighbors, and still served now to keep the chance wandering Muggle from seeing something he ought not to see. A candlestick completed the illumination. From the dish into which he had carefully measured the required quantity of powdered newt skin, Severus took a pinch and tossed it into the bubbling cauldron of Veritaserum antidote in preparation. He stirred the potion counterclockwise with his wand until the powder dissolved, and then he gave one clockwise stir. As he reached for another pinch of the powder, he heard a loud knock on his door. Grabbing the powder, he tossed it into the cauldron and again began to stir. The knocking was repeated, even more loudly.

"Wormtail!" Severus exclaimed loudly. "The door!"

"But-" Severus heard through the door to the sitting room.

"Now," Severus demanded. Irritated at the necessity of interrupting his work, he removed his wand from the potion and caused the door to fly open. Wormtail looked as though he might object again, but thought better of it as Severus glared at him, and walked over to open the door a crack.

"Come in, come in!" he said to Severus's unknown guest. Two cloaked figures stepped through the door. "Good morning-"

"Wormtail, why don't you take my guests' cloaks," Severus called through the kitchen door. Giving the cauldron a final stir, he turned the fire down to leave the potion at a low simmer and went to greet the new arrivals.

"Good morning, Snape," said the taller of his two guests. The second, a man Severus did not recognize, had refused to relinquish his cloak to Wormtail. He was leaning, huddled, against a bookshelf next to the door.

"Yaxley! An unexpected pleasure," Severus replied. "What is it that brings you here?"

And how, he wondered privately, had Yaxley found the place? This must be the first fruit of his Vow with Narcissa.

"It's Gibbon, here," Yaxley replied, indicating his companion. "Got into a spot of trouble last night with an Auror patrol. Whatever they hit him with is pretty odd; the Aurors'll have a description of the injury passed to St. Mungo's. I hoped it might wear off overnight."

He shrugged his shoulders.

"I can take a look, at any rate," Severus offered. "You, Gibbon - do you know what it was they hit you with?" he asked, turning to the stranger. The short, stocky man shook his head in denial.

"Can he speak?" Severus asked Yaxley.

"Yes," Yaxley replied. "Just keeps complaining of pain, is all. And, well, you'll see."

"Let me see it, then," Severus said, grasping his Gibbon's upper arm and steering him towards his armchair. "Here, sit down in the chair, the light is better here."

His visitor sat down as ordered, and allowed Severus to remove his hooded cloak. The left side of his face, neck, and his left hand were a bright, angry red, and tentacle-like growths sprouted in irregular clumps.

With his wand, Severus cut open the left sleeve of the man's robe and exposed his left arm and shoulder. The curses, for the effect he was seeing was not that of any single curse he had ever encountered, had hit his left shoulder, he could see now, and affected an area around this spot.

"Furnunculus, and something else," Severus opined. "The first, I'll fix easily." Placing his wand on the largest clump of tentacles, he performed a counterjinx, and the tentacles vanished.

His patient cried out in pain.

"My apologies," Severus said smoothly. "You weren't supposed to feel anything."

"Wormtail!" he ordered. "Bring firewhiskey and some glasses."

Wormtail returned, carrying a tray with a bottle and glasses. Snape poured his patient a generous glassful of firewhiskey and handed it to him.

"Here, drink this," Severus said as he pushed the glass into Gibbon's right hand.

'Thank you," Gibbon responded in a weak voice. His hand shook and he slopped some of the amber beverage on himself as he took a sip.

"Drink up, man, while I go back into the other room to hunt up something better for the pain," said Severus.

"Why don't you sit down and join him?" he suggested to Yaxley. "I might be a few minutes."

"I have business for the Dark Lord to attend to," Yaxley said. "You'll be able deal with this?"

Severus nodded his assurance.

"Then I'd like to leave him in your hands," Yaxley said.

"I understand," Snape said with a curl of his lip. "I have an Order meeting tonight, but I'll have Gibbon straightened out well before that."

Yaxley and Gibbon both chuckled appreciatively.

"Wormtail, his cloak," Snape said.

Yaxley allowed Wormtail to place the cloak back on his shoulders, while Gibbon, Severus was pleased to see, was making progress on the firewhiskey.

"Say, Snape, speaking of meetings," Yaxley said, "A group of us are getting together on the evening of the tenth, at Selwyn's. Why don't you come by? I will let him know to expect you."

"We'll see, I might be able to make it," Severus said, hiding his interest in the invitation. A month ago, Yaxley would not have come by, nor would he have made such an invitation.

"Good day, then, Snape," Yaxley said as he headed for the door. "And, thank you."

"Good day," Severus replied. "I'll be back," he said, turning to Gibbon. "You can leave now," he added to Wormtail, "I shall not require further assistance."

Wormtail shot him an angry look but retreated up the stairs as Severus headed back into the kitchen. In a storage cupboard over the counter, he found a small vial of a pain-killing potion. Ascertaining first that he was out of Gibbon's line of sight, he added a drop of Veritaserum from another vial to it, and returned to the sitting room. Gibbon's glass was now empty, Severus noted with satisfaction.

"Here's a pain-killing potion," he said. "Tastes vile, though...ah, yes, the firewhiskey would hide the taste quite nicely."

Severus poured another generous glass out for his guest, and then added the contents of the vial, swirling the glass to let it all combine.

"There you go, mind you drink it all," Severus said. Gibbon tossed it back, and Severus could see some of the tension in his upper body melting away.

"That feels better," Gibbon commented.

"We'll just wait a little longer for it to finish working before I get rid of the rest of those tentacles," Severus said. He sat down across from his patient and poured himself a glass as well. Raising his glass, he feigned to notice that his guest's glass was empty, and refilled it as well.

'The Dark Lord," he said, and tossed the glass down

"The Dark Lord," Gibbon repeated, and followed suit.

Severus refilled both glasses and sat back. The symptoms of a true dose of Veritaserum would rouse suspicions in retrospect, but the combination of three glasses of firewhiskey, a painkilling potion and one drop, ought to be mistaken for inebriation, if he kept the conversation subtle.

"Too bad no one knew the patrol was coming," Severus said, feigning concern. "It's a pity Lucius is in Azkaban; he always had useful contacts at the Ministry."

"Oh, Yaxley don't do half badly," Gibbon opined with a smile, as he slid down in the chair a bit. "Not quite as much money to spread around, but he's a Ministry man, and that helps."

"I imagine so," Severus agreed. "He must have some good contacts of his own, mustn't he?"

Gibbon shrugged. "I s'ppose so."

Severus cursed inwardly. Gibbon, it seemed, had no idea who these contacts might be. Which was logical, for a foot soldier in Yaxley's operation, he reminded himself, though it made him no happier. This soiree of Selwyn's to which Yaxley had just invited him was probably a better bet for having a conversation with someone who knew. Dosing them with Veritaserum was probably not in the cards, however. Perhaps he could learn something about Gibbon's fellows, at least.

"Bad luck for you, that you were the only one hit," Severus essayed.

"Yes, curse that Greyback!" Gibbon said, his voice loud, but growing a bit slurred. "He was so riled up me an' th' Carrows had to drag him away from the fight. Tha's when I got hit."

His arms now hung limply over the sides of the chair. Greyback and the Carrows. No new names there, Severus noted. But the potions were certainly working...

"How are you feeling now?" Severus inquired.

"Not feelin' a thing," Gibbon replied, a silly grin on his face. "Bit dizzy, though. Tongue feels all furry-like. And I feel like I might just float away-"

"Good. I'll get to work, then," Severus said, cutting into the verbal diarrhea his question had prompted. The Veritaserum had certainly loosened his tongue. Rising, he walked over to Gibbon, and began the process of removing all of the growths.

"Greyback was riled up, you say?" Severus asked. "Then, your mission was not a success?" This would be useful information - if he could learn the target, Dumbledore might be able to deliver a warning before a fresh attack was planned.

The tentacles that had sprouted from Gibbon's left cheek vanished under Severus's ministrations. His patient did not even notice.

"What?" Gibbon said with a scowl, "Oh, no, not at all," he said with a grin, clearly relishing the memory. "Greyback jus' had hisself such a good time that he did not want to leave."

Another blind alley - the raid had been a success. Severus moved on to the next clump of tentacles on Gibbon's neck below his left ear, and Gibbon launched into a fond reminiscence of the night's activities as he worked. Grateful for the excuse his work provided, Severus focused on the task and tried to let the vivid images evoked by Gibbon's rambling pass through his mind. He was abruptly grateful for his work at Hogwarts, and the excuse it had provided for him to stay away from more active duties. He'd not actually seen such things since the first war had ended, but he realized as he listened, that this would soon be changing. With the death of Albus Dumbledore, he would have no further excuses, for in the eyes of the Dark Lord and of the world, he would have no more need to hide.