Fic: "Notions of Justice", for a_t_rain
Title: Notions of Justice
Author: bewarethesmirk
Recipient: a_t_rain
Rating: PG-13
Character(s): Severus Snape, Remus Lupin, Nymphadora Tonks, Peter Pettigrew, Luna Lovegood.
Warnings: Some language
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters found therein, but, boy, do I like playing with them.
Words: 5,622
Summary: The Ministry upholds that now that the war is over, all is pure and good in the Wizarding world. Severus Snape and Remus Lupin know better.
Author's notes: I hope you really enjoy this, a_t_rain. I've found out we have something in common, but I'll have to wait until after the exchange to relieve you of the suspense. I hope you find something in this you like! Thanks to A and L for the betaing.
Notions of Justice
This place was notorious in name, but even after the Ministry changes, Remus could hardly fathom Azkaban in the days of old. Even though the Dementors no longer roamed the corridors, it was as if they had never left. Something of their nightmarish form of magic had seeped into the walls and remained years after their departure.
Azkaban sat on the precipice of a rocky cliff overlooking the Red Sea. The large fortress looked like it could be toppled over by a particularly strong wind, plunging it into the dark, rocky depths below. Even outside the entrance of Azkaban, Remus could hear the ominous trickling of water. He wondered off-handedly how many people emerged from prison, only to jump into the rocks and water below.
Remus Apparated directly in front of the large wooden doors. He entered and saw the familiar fork in the passageway - to the left was the visitor’s entrance and to the right, Ministry and Azkaban officials. Remus went straightaway to the left, knowing that the doors were watched by Security charms and any entering witch or wizard only had a select amount of time to choose a door. Safety precautions and all that.
Pushing his way through the door, he approached the desk and the burly wizard sitting behind it. Remus smiled warmly. “How’re you, Nigelius?” The wizard looked up from the magazine he was reading and quickly tried to shuffle it underneath some official looking parchments. He smiled brightly, but his cheeks were oddly pink. “Remus! Good to see you, lad!”
“Same to you.” Remus stopped before the desk, holding out his wand as protocol dictated, doing his best to disguise his smirk as a friendly half-smile.
Nigelius took his own wand from the area of his lap - Remus did not want to know - and a red light emerged from the tip, scanning Remus’ wand until the guard gave a satisfactory nod of his head.
“I don’t envy you, old boy. No, not at all.” The sympathy in the man’s eyes was downright tangible.
Remus shrugged. “He can be,” Remus searched around for an appropriate if loaded word, “difficult at times, but if Tonks and I didn’t come to see him, I really don’t know who would.”
“Whatever you say. I still think he’s a guilty ol’ scumbag, but I guess even the worse of ‘em get lonely.”
Remus nodded, and was surprised at the voice piping up in him to protest on behalf of the man he was about to visit.
“Well, anyway, the password today is” - he scrunched up his nose - “pixie dust.”
***
The man was sitting on his cot when Remus got his first peek through the bars. Somehow immediately detecting the presence of another, Severus looked up, black eyes narrowing, posture going rigid, defensive at a moment’s notice.
“Lupin, I know you are under the presumption that I actually want to see you, so I hope it doesn’t break your heart to learn that you are in fact mistaken.”
Remus actually smiled. “I’m mortally wounded, Severus.”
Severus just glared at him, but the true malice behind that look had vanished. Remus was not sure if it was Azkaban that had finally broken through Severus’ bitter exterior or if forced introspection and boredom was enough to sober even this man.
Remus made himself as comfortable as possible in the lone armchair positioned in front of Severus’ cell.
He had opened his mouth to begin a discussion, attempting to force some form of conversation, when Severus surprised him by stepping closer to the bars. Remus knew immediately that something was not right. Severus never broke from their routine, not in the two and half or so years Remus had been visiting.
Remus stood from his chair and approached the cell, close enough that his torso almost touched the bars.
“Something untoward is going on here.”
Remus raised an eyebrow, waiting, feeling the beginning of uneasiness roiling in his gut like some kind of eerie premonition.
“Your rodent tag-along has lost all sense of his identity, and in nefarious means, I should point out.”
“What do you mean? And how did you find out about this?” The prisoners were confined to their cells. Officials came and did routine cleaning charms on the cells and prisoners, and provided food; a few visitors came around, but excepting that, it was virtually impossible for someone to get away with causing undue harm. And the Dementors weren’t here to cause the pain themselves.
“Apparently there has been a change in Ministry procedure. To, and I quote, ‘prevent the Azkaban detainees from going senile, the detainees shall be escorted in a weekly walk, accompanied by a guard.’”
Remus snorted at Severus’ dry impression. “So, on one of these strolls you saw Peter?”
“On my first walk, we walked by Wormtail’s cell. One of the officials was bringing up food, and when a plate appeared before him by magic, he had suffered some form of a panic attack.” Severus paused. “Since there’s not much else in the way of entertainment around here, I stopped to ascertain the cause of his tantrum. After further questioning by the official, it was announced Wormtail had lost his memory. He doesn’t remember any common names - his old friends, Death Eaters, not even the Dark Lord - or his own name apparently.”
Remus swallowed. “He doesn’t remember anything?”
“Nothing. I searched his mind.”
Remus couldn’t think of something that would have caused this kind of memory loss. “Even after all he’s done…this is an incorrigible thing to do.” He exhaled a breath.
“The vermin is not my greatest concern. I am in fact worried that this is not an isolated event.” Severus’ arms were now crossed in front of his chest, as if barricading himself from unseen danger.
“Why do you suspect it’s not limited to Peter?”
“I was a spy, Lupin. That’s all the explanation you should need.”
“Now is not the time to be arrogant.”
“It’s not arrogance, it’s intuition. This is not accidental. Unless someone had a personal vendetta against Wormtail, then it’s likely others have been targeted, or will be soon. Also interesting is that this little occurrence coincides with the new Ministry sanctioned walks.”
“But, how -- ”
Severus held up a hand, effectively cutting him off. “Enough questions. You will report this to Auror Tonks. Now.”
Remus obeyed.
***
“This is really sad. Even maximum security prisoners should not go without medical help if they need it. I’ll see what I can do without bringing Severus’ name into it…but I don’t think we should jump to conclusions. We really have no evidence to support Severus’ claim that there are more people in danger aside from Pettigrew.”
Remus leaned back further against the desk, inwardly wincing at the horrid shade of green now adorning his girlfriend’s head. She luckily mistook his grimace - which must have been more outward than he had intended - for disagreement with her assertion.
“Remus, he was a spy. He’s going to be suspicious. And he’s been locked up in that goddamn prison for nigh on three years. That can do something to a person.”
Remus nodded, but the wariness still persisted.
Tonks paced around the office for a few minutes, seeming to forget that Remus was there before she spoke again, meeting his gaze with a fiery expression. “If I thought for a second that the Wizengamot would exonerate Severus, I would bring it up. We know of the extenuating circumstances, what Albus asked him to do. They know too, but they are too keen to uphold a deluded sense of justice in order to pacify the top contributors to the Ministry.”
Remus gave a wary look to the door to make sure that it was closed and that a Silencing charm was in place. It wouldn’t do for the Minister of Magic to go strolling down the hall and hear Tonks bad-mouthing the Ministry’s wonderful plan of purifying the Wizarding world of evil.
Remus sighed, knowing there was not much else he could do about the conundrum until his next visit to the prison. He knew that Severus would be watching out for anything amiss. And if Remus had to, he would go speak to the last person on Earth that he wanted to see.
Even if he had forgotten his identity, Remus could never forget it.
***
Remus returned to Azkaban in a week’s time, fighting back the gloom that threatened to overtake his good mood. Kingsley had almost secured him a job at the Ministry doing legal research for Magical Law Enforcement. Kingsley had explained to him that it was a great way to effect change within the Ministry, since policy was the only way to go about implementing opinions contrary to the Ministry’s purification plan. Bias against werewolves was still a problem, but he was a token figure of sorts. Most people knew of his work in spying during the war and the fact that his information had brought down the notorious Fenrir Greyback.
Upon entering the prison he took his ordinary left fork in the corridor, and when he caught sight of the guard desk he paused. A magazine was upside down, with the reader’s blonde hair cascading down from behind the pages, flowing all the way onto the desk. He remembered the image from both his time as Defence instructor and from Order meetings a few years ago, before Voldemort had been vanquished.
He cleared his throat audibly and the magazine was lowered slowly, blue eyes peering out from other the top. “Hello, Professor Lupin,” the dreamy voice floated in the air, at odds with the dismal atmosphere, even as the young woman’s face descended back behind the cover of The Quibbler.
Remus resisted chuckling. “Hello, Luna. Please do call me Remus. I know you’ve been calling me ‘Professor’ for years, but I haven’t been your professor for years, either.”
Luna raised her head from behind the magazine, looking at him once more. She stared at him silently for a few moments, and he was beginning to wonder if he had done something wrong. She went on to nod at him, saying simply, “You may leave your wand on the desk. The password is ‘Japanese Japle.’”
He walked through the stone corridors, passing by other cells; some were rooms latticed with bars, oddly comparable to the typical bars in a Muggle prison. Each bar taunted him, like strike against his life.
He paused outside of one cell in particular and peered in. The man he would forever recognize as his former friend looked simply awful. He was curled on top of the cot, eyes closed tightly. He was breathing quickly, chest rising and falling frantically, leading Remus to believe he was not asleep.
Peter had lost all trace of his identity, so said the St. Mungo’s therapist that Tonks had sent. There seemed there was nothing they could do for Peter, except allow him to rot away in his cell, no better than a wizard with his soul sucked out.
Remus wanted to call out to him, but he wasn’t sure what name he would use. And even if he somehow did attract Peter’s attention, he would be a stranger.
Perhaps things were better this way. At least Peter would no longer remember all of the horrible things he had done.
When Remus reached Severus’ cell, he found the man sitting on his cot, staring at the wall.
Something was even more wrong.
Remus had been standing in front of those bars for several moments, staring blankly at Severus, waiting for some recognition that he was there, even if it was a sneer. Especially if it was a sneer. If it was normal, maybe there would be nothing wrong and Remus could vanquish the stress tightening his neck muscles.
After realizing he wasn’t going to get an answer, he greeted the man calmly, taking care to speak gently so as to not scare him, and then marvelling at the fact that he was trying not to scare Snape.
Severus continued to stare at the wall, and Remus felt momentarily dizzy with sickness at the thought that maybe Severus had forgotten who he was too.
Remus watched his eyes, the tell-tale sign of blinking every three or so seconds. He soon realized, however, that he must be paranoid. Those eyes weren’t the hollow blankness of a man who had lost his mind or soul; it was of a man deep in thought, pondering over some troubling epiphany.
And, then, as if reading his thoughts - which might have been the case - Severus looked up at Remus, meeting his gaze steadily. He rose and walked over closer to the bars. Remus looked up and down the hallways, wishing that there was someway that he could secure them some kind of privacy, but without his wand there was little he could do, save look normal and speak in low tones.
“Peter has lost all recollection of who he is. St. Mungo’s Psychiatric Ward sent over someone and confirmed it.”
Severus nodded, and his eyes flicked, barely noticeably, down the length of the hall just as Remus had just done. Nothing - visible - was there. “I was escorted out with a guard a few days ago - a new guard sent by the Ministry - who spent the entire time asking me inane questions. She seemed not to be trying to satisfy her own insatiable curiosity, but to pry. For whom, I am not sure.”
“What did this new guard look like? I might know her.”
Snape started studying the blank wall behind Remus. Remus waited, and when no more explanation was forthcoming, he rolled his eyes.
“And…was she tall? Short? Thin? Attractive?”
“Lupin, if you want a fuck I would suggest looking somewhere outside of Azkaban.” Severus moved his eyes to lock on Remus. “Or outside of the Ministry, for that matter.”
“Snape. What was the woman’s appearance, unless you happen to know her name? If I thought you did, I might’ve asked that first. I’m going to inquire after her to try to figure out why she was so abnormally curious.”
“Tall, slender, blonde. That’s all I noticed, unfortunately. Next time I shall inquire as to her blood type.” Remus rolled his eyes again, but smiled slightly. “She asked me how long I had been in Azkaban, even though she was holding a file with the information. I’m assuming she could read, but perhaps I should not place that much faith in the intelligence level of Ministry-appointed officials.” Severus began pacing and resumed speaking. “She was asking everything from what I planned to do once I got out of prison - as if I have considered what I’m doing in forty years - to my current stance on Wizarding politics.”
Remus raised an eyebrow. Those questions were highly suspicious indeed, but not all that surprising given all the attempts the Ministry was making to resolve public opinion. Most of magical Britain might be behind the Ministry at the moment, but if they found out about all of the purification legislation in the works, that support would dwindle quickly.
“On your walk, did you find out anything else?”
Severus turned to Remus with the same blank expression he had been wearing. Remus couldn’t read the expression Severus was reading now, partially since Severus was so good at keeping a blank face. It was possible his face wasn’t purposely blank, more than it had become an engrained survival instinct.
“Severus?”
“After the guard stopped asking her infernal questions, she led me up to the third corridor, which houses a lot of the renegade Death Eaters that the Ministry didn’t have enough information to convict them of larger crimes. The guard walked in front of me - idiot - with me walking behind, and I made sure to monitor the cells as I went by. They all look like those Muggle cells, some of them are down the corridor.”
Severus counted off on his long, thin fingers, which were even thinner than Remus remembered, and he was reminded that Azkaban prisoners weren’t fed anything very appetizing. “Crabbe, Goyle, Rockwood - and down the hall, Fletcher - “
“Mundungus Fletcher?” Remus asked. He didn’t even know that Dung was in Azkaban.
Severus nodded. “I did not know he was here. It must have been a quiet capture.” Severus paused. “They were all gone.”
“Gone?” Remus asked, picturing empty cells.
“No, gone. No memories, no self.”
Remus’ jaw dropped. Four people. At once? “How do you know? Maybe they were just tired; it’s possible for anyone to look empty of thought given enough desolation or exhaustion.” No, there was no way this could be happening.
“If you will exercise your brain for once Lupin, you might remember that I am a Legilimens.”
“There was nothing?”
“Nothing. Something has done a clean sweep of their memories. This job resembles nothing of memory modification. They are mere bodies, masking a hollow void.”
Remus stopped, mind whirling. Recalling Severus’ trancelike state of thinking, he said, “You have your own suspicions.”
Severus raised an eyebrow, reeking of arrogance. “Of course. To see if we are capable of thinking along the same lines, whom do you think might be the culprit?”
Remus shook his head. “More importantly, I want to know why.”
“Simple. Someone who doesn’t think that all of the prisoners got theirs. This was their way of assuring that even though the Dementor’s Kiss is no longer being implemented, that the results are still given in a similar pattern. There may be more people here who have been targeted.”
“I wouldn’t be surprised,” Remus said cautiously, “if this wasn’t the work of some group of people in the Ministry, trying to ensure further ‘justice.’”
“It’s a single person job. Someone who wanted this for their own personal vengeance. Someone who had failed before, but knew this was their chance.”
Something was standing out to Remus, sending off alarm bells in his brain, but he couldn’t put his finger on the problem. He had to think about this. Had to talk to Tonks about who in the Ministry would be capable of doing this.
“Do you know the guard at the desk?” Severus prompted suddenly.
Remus frowned, wondering at the purpose of the question. “Yes, of course. Luna Lovegood.”
Severus looked slightly taken aback, then snorted. “Lovegood? Bugger all, are they going to allow kneazles to escort us on walks next? This place has all the efficiency of Longbottom at a cauldron.”
“Why’d you ask about Lovegood?” Remus inquired, wanting to jump to the chase.
“The visitors’ roster. She would have a list of anyone who has come here over the last month or so. We can look at repeat visitors to see who has been around at the time Wormtail was stripped of his memory. I can’t say for sure if the others were done before or after him.”
Remus nodded, understanding. He wasn’t sure how he was going to persuade Luna to let him look at the roster, but he knew if he absolutely had to do so, his wand could provide a bit of memory modification of its own.
***
Surprisingly, when he had gone back to the desk, it had only taken a few minutes to convince Luna to let him see the roster. He supposed she trusted him because he was close to Harry and had been in the Order alongside her at later points in the war. Upon getting his wand, he had conjured a chair to sit beside her and they had gone over the list together, Luna by now having more knowledge of some of the regular visitors.
He found out that she had been working with her father, but had gotten sick of living at home - something he completely understood. She had no real interests, so she had gone to the Ministry to see what she could do in the way of social justice, and she had gotten planted at Azkaban. She said that she had made friends with some of the women on the fourth floor and talked to them about some of the mythical creatures of which she was so knowledgeable.
Remus didn’t think to question her.
When they had gone over the list for several minutes, they had not seen anything noticeably strange. The same people who visited normally were represented on the list, and the only option appeared that it was one of these individuals. Remus wished there was a way to copy the list, but figured there might be a way to sanction the list through Tonks if that would prove necessary. He decided, for the time meaning, that his memory would have to serve as good enough.
He thanked Luna and was pleased that she used his first name when she said goodbye.
***
He had come home and the first thing he did upon seeing Tonks was to tell her about the four prisoners who seemed to have lost their memory. She wanted to go to the Ministry immediately to dispatch a team of Aurors, but Remus refused. He didn’t want to broadcast this discovery to everyone just yet.
And, anyway, he knew that even if the Ministry instigated a formal investigation, it wouldn’t be taken seriously. Oh, sure, the Ministry would pretend, but he knew they regarded the prisoners as substandard humans; who cares what was being done to them, after all?
Tonks had tried to settle them down for a relaxing dinner, under the guise that there was nothing else they could do, but Remus’ mind was not there. Memories - that he thankfully had - kept replaying in his mind. Severus’ haunted expression. Peter back in school, laughing at a joke James made. Even Mundungus coming into 12 Grimmauld Place with some stolen toilet seats to sell to the Weasley twins.
His nerves snapped when Tonks asked him for the fourth time if he was all right.
“Of course I’m not all right! There is something going on at Azkaban, something most likely connected to the Ministry occurring right under our noses, and I know…something, but I can’t put my finger on it.”
Tonks looked slightly taken aback at his tone of voice, but she merely sipped at her wine, seeming to understand his sense of desperation. She put down her glass and came around the table and hugged him from behind, settling her chin on his shoulder and he found himself comforted from the familiar proximity, her smell, and felt himself relax minutely.
She spoke calmly. “We’ll figure it out. If we have to, we’ll bring in a commission to interview the guards in an attempt to find out if they’ve noticed anything strange.”
“The guards.” A moment of thought. “If the guard had escorted Mundungus and the others for their weekly walks, why didn’t they notice something was wrong? Severus has told me that the guards are very adept at asking questions. They should have noticed something.”
A frown settled between Tonks’ purple eyebrows, and then her eyes grew large. “Maybe the culprit didn’t expect anyone would ever notice.”
“Especially if he or she were the only ones to see these people.”
Tonks and Remus shared one look, and Remus grabbed his coat, and Apparated.
***
He was hoping Luna was still at the guard’s desk, and was pleased to see she was there - not reading, but scribbling furiously on a piece of parchment.
She looked up slightly and smiled upon seeing him. “I’m glad you came back. Seeing Professor Snape?”
“No, Luna,” Remus said, “I actually am here to see you.” Luna smiled brightly, and Remus felt guilty for not coming to see her, but for her information.
He sat down next to her for the second time that day, and when she stared at him with an arched eyebrow, he realized that Luna was much more intelligent than he had given her credit for. And, no doubt, the Aurors had already come to investigate earlier, and quite possibly were still lurking about.
Not wanting to waste time he launched into questions about whether or not she had seen anything at odds in Azkaban, and Luna surprised him by answering, “You mean like Peter Pettigrew?”
Remus didn’t want to give away the information Severus had given him, but he figured it wouldn’t hurt to lead her in the right direction if she did know something that could help them. “Something like that.”
Luna thought for a moment, then her eyes gained an appearance of recognition. “A guard that comes here to walk around with some of the prisoners…”
“Yes?”
“She comes here frequently. More so than the other guards. The first day she came here she asked me a lot of questions. She wanted to know about the behaviour of some of the prisoners. I guess she felt sorry for them; maybe she’s just nervous.”
“Luna, do you have a list of the guards and whom escorts which prisoners?”
“Of course,” Luna said, taking a parchment out of the many-drawered desk and handing it to Remus. Looking it over, he looked for the names of the Death Eaters and Mundungus, and noticed that they all were being escorted by the same guard. His eyes zoomed down to look at Peter. The same name emblazoned there.
And he already knew what name he would find before moving on to Severus, again, his suspicions were confirmed. “Janice Upchurch.”
Remus wanted to go talk to Severus right away, but if anyone else was monitoring the visitor logs, he didn’t want to look overly suspicious. He already knew that the fact he had been visiting Severus more than normal would look odd enough on its own.
***
As much as Remus (and later Tonks once he told her about things) wanted to act on the events, they had to wait until the appropriate time to act.
And the time had come.
Remus recalled that Severus had his walk around the prison on Wednesday afternoons around tea.
So, it was on Wednesday that Remus and Tonks both visited Severus at the same time he should be on his walk. Luna allowed them entrance and told them they could wait for Severus in front of his cell. Tonks took her seat in the armchair, and Remus stood, waiting.
At last, Severus was taking huge strides down the hall in front of a tall woman with blonde hair. Remus thought at first Severus was going to stop in the middle of the hallway upon seeing both him and Tonks visiting at once - something they had never done before - but his face quickly transitioned into a scowl.
He merely nodded before stepping into the cell door, which had flung itself open upon his arrival and slammed itself shut, as if he had demanded it to do so through wandless magic.
The woman behind Severus, tall, thin stature and blonde hair, stopped. She smiled in a bitter way, and in a lilting voice, said, “Hello there.”
Tonks took that moment to act. She rose from her chair and casually approached the woman. Tonks extended her hand and introduced herself, the woman’s eyes widened slightly apparently upon name recognition.
“You’re Ms. Upchurch, correct?”
Ms. Upchurch nodded. “I’m a guard stationed here by the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. You would be familiar with them, I presume.” A smile.
Tonks nodded. “Quite so. Actually, some of the Aurors are double-checking on guards, and it seems that that we have not deployed a Janice Upchurch as a guard here.”
The smile fell, and Remus saw Ms. Upchurch’s eyes widen imperceptibly. “There must be some sort of mistake.”
“Perhaps so.” Tonks smirked. “Would you please pass me the vial in your robes?”
Ms. Upchurch’s eyes widened to the size of saucers, this time. She said, simply, “No.”
“You don’t want things to get ugly, do you?” Tonks said casually, but with a clear threat. Remus paid a look to Severus’ cell, who was openly watching the proceedings with an approving glance. It seemed Tonks was serving her old House well.
Ms. Upchurch handed over a vial filled with brown liquid and Tonks retrieved it and pulled out the stopper. She handed the vial to Remus, while pulling out the wand she had not given to Luna at the desk. Remus passed the vial to Severus, who uncorked it, sniffed deeply, and confirmed aloud, “Polyjuice.”
“I don’t know what you’re trying to prove -- ”
“I am Auror Tonks and you are being taken into Ministry custody.” From Tonks’ wand sprung bindings to the guard’s arms. She squeaked. “How long till the Polyjuice wears off?”
“It’s not Polyjuice!”
“And I worship Saint Potter,” Snape said dryly.
“No matter. We’ll find out within the hour.” Tonks secured her grip around the woman’s arms.
“I’m going to take her to the Ministry, Remus. You should probably stay here.” Remus nodded, despite his burning curiosity, he obeyed. There was nothing else to do in the meantime.
And he was growing rather fond of the dour man.
***
“I can’t believe it was her all along,” Remus said, pacing around the outside of Azkaban, where Tonks had meet him early to tell him the news.
“She admitted everything under Veritaserum. Not like she had much of a choice.” Tonks’ lip curled slightly.
“Why did she…?”
“Revenge. She was still angry about not gaining power over Hogwarts all those years ago. High Inquisitor and all that. She thought the prisoners weren’t getting what they deserved, and decided to unleash a potion of her own making upon them.”
“A potion? She makes potions?” Remus found it hard to believe that Dolores Umbrige might be crafty at anything aside from overtaking bureaucracies.
“Apparently so. She designed a potion remarkably similar to the Dementor’s Kiss. Seems she’s quite fond of Dementors.”
Remus shook his head, feeling disgusted, knowing there was no way to salvage the minds of his old friend and the rest of them.
“At least we prevented her from harming anyone else. And she’ll now be in Azkaban herself. It’s guaranteed that the Wizengamot is going to convict her first thing tomorrow.” Tonks was doing her best to reassure him.
“Yes, but I still wish we could have done something sooner.”
***
Remus had been sitting in his armchair, exchanging banter, and he caught himself on a cross between a snort and a chuckle, producing a weird sound from his nose. He actually felt a blush crawling into his cheeks. Since when had he started making such inelegant noises? But he supposed it didn’t matter, even if Severus was looking at him oddly. And then Remus felt like he was the one behind bars, the one being oogled by passer-by.
Remus sobered quickly, realizing that it was time to bring up the topic of conversation that had been weighing on his mind over the last week since Umbridge’s capture. He knew nothing would be done for the other prisoners in Azkaban, but with the Ministry being the recipient of bad publicity, now was the time if any to make a move.
Forty-five years was a long time.
“Spit it out, Lupin,” Severus said.
Remus sighed, cursing the man’s keen sense of observation. He looked at his shoes and muttered, “I think that now would be a good time to appeal your case.”
He was meet with silence. And then, “Is this something Auror Tonks told you to bring up? She feels guilty for not believing me the first time around…”
“No! No one else knows about this. Since working at the Ministry and going through the files, we’re trying to get a lot of policy through now that we wouldn’t have been able to get through two weeks ago. I figured that now there’s some bad blood, it might be our only shot.” Remus paused. “The sooner, the better,” he said, softly, looking at his shoes.
He expected Severus to go on about not wanting pity, to huff and puff, but, surprisingly, the man said nothing at all. Remus raised his eyes and meet Severus’.
“As tempting a notion as it would be - freedom, if that’s what it would actually be - I should be here.” Those words were stated levelly, but there was so much more underlying them.
“Severus, we know Albus -- ”
“What you think you may know bears no difference in my mind. I know that I should be here, and I will remain so.”
Remus felt an odd stinging at his eyes, and horrified, he did his best to quell his emotions and nodded. He felt something welling up in his chest that was so at odds with how he had treated Severus for most of us life. Respect. It was bubbling up and threatening to implode.
Realizing that now was a good time to go, Remus said, “I understand. As best I can.” Severus nodded and Remus began to walk away, to retrieve his wand from the blonde young woman who would be immersed in The Quibbler, to head to his flat to eat dinner with Tonks, and to leave Severus here in this cold, dank prison.
Passing by the bars, he resisted turning around, although he knew Severus was still watching him. He passed the bars - one, two, three - didn’t think about his father, or Severus, or the other prisoners who would never regain their sense of being.
And he wondered as he left, and went through the double doors, why his life felt so wholly inadequate. He should appreciate what he had, for it may not be glorious, but it was peaceful. There was no Voldemort, no great sense of purpose, just a calm lull in his life.
So what was missing?
~fin
Author: bewarethesmirk
Recipient: a_t_rain
Rating: PG-13
Character(s): Severus Snape, Remus Lupin, Nymphadora Tonks, Peter Pettigrew, Luna Lovegood.
Warnings: Some language
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters found therein, but, boy, do I like playing with them.
Words: 5,622
Summary: The Ministry upholds that now that the war is over, all is pure and good in the Wizarding world. Severus Snape and Remus Lupin know better.
Author's notes: I hope you really enjoy this, a_t_rain. I've found out we have something in common, but I'll have to wait until after the exchange to relieve you of the suspense. I hope you find something in this you like! Thanks to A and L for the betaing.
Notions of Justice
This place was notorious in name, but even after the Ministry changes, Remus could hardly fathom Azkaban in the days of old. Even though the Dementors no longer roamed the corridors, it was as if they had never left. Something of their nightmarish form of magic had seeped into the walls and remained years after their departure.
Azkaban sat on the precipice of a rocky cliff overlooking the Red Sea. The large fortress looked like it could be toppled over by a particularly strong wind, plunging it into the dark, rocky depths below. Even outside the entrance of Azkaban, Remus could hear the ominous trickling of water. He wondered off-handedly how many people emerged from prison, only to jump into the rocks and water below.
Remus Apparated directly in front of the large wooden doors. He entered and saw the familiar fork in the passageway - to the left was the visitor’s entrance and to the right, Ministry and Azkaban officials. Remus went straightaway to the left, knowing that the doors were watched by Security charms and any entering witch or wizard only had a select amount of time to choose a door. Safety precautions and all that.
Pushing his way through the door, he approached the desk and the burly wizard sitting behind it. Remus smiled warmly. “How’re you, Nigelius?” The wizard looked up from the magazine he was reading and quickly tried to shuffle it underneath some official looking parchments. He smiled brightly, but his cheeks were oddly pink. “Remus! Good to see you, lad!”
“Same to you.” Remus stopped before the desk, holding out his wand as protocol dictated, doing his best to disguise his smirk as a friendly half-smile.
Nigelius took his own wand from the area of his lap - Remus did not want to know - and a red light emerged from the tip, scanning Remus’ wand until the guard gave a satisfactory nod of his head.
“I don’t envy you, old boy. No, not at all.” The sympathy in the man’s eyes was downright tangible.
Remus shrugged. “He can be,” Remus searched around for an appropriate if loaded word, “difficult at times, but if Tonks and I didn’t come to see him, I really don’t know who would.”
“Whatever you say. I still think he’s a guilty ol’ scumbag, but I guess even the worse of ‘em get lonely.”
Remus nodded, and was surprised at the voice piping up in him to protest on behalf of the man he was about to visit.
“Well, anyway, the password today is” - he scrunched up his nose - “pixie dust.”
***
The man was sitting on his cot when Remus got his first peek through the bars. Somehow immediately detecting the presence of another, Severus looked up, black eyes narrowing, posture going rigid, defensive at a moment’s notice.
“Lupin, I know you are under the presumption that I actually want to see you, so I hope it doesn’t break your heart to learn that you are in fact mistaken.”
Remus actually smiled. “I’m mortally wounded, Severus.”
Severus just glared at him, but the true malice behind that look had vanished. Remus was not sure if it was Azkaban that had finally broken through Severus’ bitter exterior or if forced introspection and boredom was enough to sober even this man.
Remus made himself as comfortable as possible in the lone armchair positioned in front of Severus’ cell.
He had opened his mouth to begin a discussion, attempting to force some form of conversation, when Severus surprised him by stepping closer to the bars. Remus knew immediately that something was not right. Severus never broke from their routine, not in the two and half or so years Remus had been visiting.
Remus stood from his chair and approached the cell, close enough that his torso almost touched the bars.
“Something untoward is going on here.”
Remus raised an eyebrow, waiting, feeling the beginning of uneasiness roiling in his gut like some kind of eerie premonition.
“Your rodent tag-along has lost all sense of his identity, and in nefarious means, I should point out.”
“What do you mean? And how did you find out about this?” The prisoners were confined to their cells. Officials came and did routine cleaning charms on the cells and prisoners, and provided food; a few visitors came around, but excepting that, it was virtually impossible for someone to get away with causing undue harm. And the Dementors weren’t here to cause the pain themselves.
“Apparently there has been a change in Ministry procedure. To, and I quote, ‘prevent the Azkaban detainees from going senile, the detainees shall be escorted in a weekly walk, accompanied by a guard.’”
Remus snorted at Severus’ dry impression. “So, on one of these strolls you saw Peter?”
“On my first walk, we walked by Wormtail’s cell. One of the officials was bringing up food, and when a plate appeared before him by magic, he had suffered some form of a panic attack.” Severus paused. “Since there’s not much else in the way of entertainment around here, I stopped to ascertain the cause of his tantrum. After further questioning by the official, it was announced Wormtail had lost his memory. He doesn’t remember any common names - his old friends, Death Eaters, not even the Dark Lord - or his own name apparently.”
Remus swallowed. “He doesn’t remember anything?”
“Nothing. I searched his mind.”
Remus couldn’t think of something that would have caused this kind of memory loss. “Even after all he’s done…this is an incorrigible thing to do.” He exhaled a breath.
“The vermin is not my greatest concern. I am in fact worried that this is not an isolated event.” Severus’ arms were now crossed in front of his chest, as if barricading himself from unseen danger.
“Why do you suspect it’s not limited to Peter?”
“I was a spy, Lupin. That’s all the explanation you should need.”
“Now is not the time to be arrogant.”
“It’s not arrogance, it’s intuition. This is not accidental. Unless someone had a personal vendetta against Wormtail, then it’s likely others have been targeted, or will be soon. Also interesting is that this little occurrence coincides with the new Ministry sanctioned walks.”
“But, how -- ”
Severus held up a hand, effectively cutting him off. “Enough questions. You will report this to Auror Tonks. Now.”
Remus obeyed.
***
“This is really sad. Even maximum security prisoners should not go without medical help if they need it. I’ll see what I can do without bringing Severus’ name into it…but I don’t think we should jump to conclusions. We really have no evidence to support Severus’ claim that there are more people in danger aside from Pettigrew.”
Remus leaned back further against the desk, inwardly wincing at the horrid shade of green now adorning his girlfriend’s head. She luckily mistook his grimace - which must have been more outward than he had intended - for disagreement with her assertion.
“Remus, he was a spy. He’s going to be suspicious. And he’s been locked up in that goddamn prison for nigh on three years. That can do something to a person.”
Remus nodded, but the wariness still persisted.
Tonks paced around the office for a few minutes, seeming to forget that Remus was there before she spoke again, meeting his gaze with a fiery expression. “If I thought for a second that the Wizengamot would exonerate Severus, I would bring it up. We know of the extenuating circumstances, what Albus asked him to do. They know too, but they are too keen to uphold a deluded sense of justice in order to pacify the top contributors to the Ministry.”
Remus gave a wary look to the door to make sure that it was closed and that a Silencing charm was in place. It wouldn’t do for the Minister of Magic to go strolling down the hall and hear Tonks bad-mouthing the Ministry’s wonderful plan of purifying the Wizarding world of evil.
Remus sighed, knowing there was not much else he could do about the conundrum until his next visit to the prison. He knew that Severus would be watching out for anything amiss. And if Remus had to, he would go speak to the last person on Earth that he wanted to see.
Even if he had forgotten his identity, Remus could never forget it.
***
Remus returned to Azkaban in a week’s time, fighting back the gloom that threatened to overtake his good mood. Kingsley had almost secured him a job at the Ministry doing legal research for Magical Law Enforcement. Kingsley had explained to him that it was a great way to effect change within the Ministry, since policy was the only way to go about implementing opinions contrary to the Ministry’s purification plan. Bias against werewolves was still a problem, but he was a token figure of sorts. Most people knew of his work in spying during the war and the fact that his information had brought down the notorious Fenrir Greyback.
Upon entering the prison he took his ordinary left fork in the corridor, and when he caught sight of the guard desk he paused. A magazine was upside down, with the reader’s blonde hair cascading down from behind the pages, flowing all the way onto the desk. He remembered the image from both his time as Defence instructor and from Order meetings a few years ago, before Voldemort had been vanquished.
He cleared his throat audibly and the magazine was lowered slowly, blue eyes peering out from other the top. “Hello, Professor Lupin,” the dreamy voice floated in the air, at odds with the dismal atmosphere, even as the young woman’s face descended back behind the cover of The Quibbler.
Remus resisted chuckling. “Hello, Luna. Please do call me Remus. I know you’ve been calling me ‘Professor’ for years, but I haven’t been your professor for years, either.”
Luna raised her head from behind the magazine, looking at him once more. She stared at him silently for a few moments, and he was beginning to wonder if he had done something wrong. She went on to nod at him, saying simply, “You may leave your wand on the desk. The password is ‘Japanese Japle.’”
He walked through the stone corridors, passing by other cells; some were rooms latticed with bars, oddly comparable to the typical bars in a Muggle prison. Each bar taunted him, like strike against his life.
He paused outside of one cell in particular and peered in. The man he would forever recognize as his former friend looked simply awful. He was curled on top of the cot, eyes closed tightly. He was breathing quickly, chest rising and falling frantically, leading Remus to believe he was not asleep.
Peter had lost all trace of his identity, so said the St. Mungo’s therapist that Tonks had sent. There seemed there was nothing they could do for Peter, except allow him to rot away in his cell, no better than a wizard with his soul sucked out.
Remus wanted to call out to him, but he wasn’t sure what name he would use. And even if he somehow did attract Peter’s attention, he would be a stranger.
Perhaps things were better this way. At least Peter would no longer remember all of the horrible things he had done.
When Remus reached Severus’ cell, he found the man sitting on his cot, staring at the wall.
Something was even more wrong.
Remus had been standing in front of those bars for several moments, staring blankly at Severus, waiting for some recognition that he was there, even if it was a sneer. Especially if it was a sneer. If it was normal, maybe there would be nothing wrong and Remus could vanquish the stress tightening his neck muscles.
After realizing he wasn’t going to get an answer, he greeted the man calmly, taking care to speak gently so as to not scare him, and then marvelling at the fact that he was trying not to scare Snape.
Severus continued to stare at the wall, and Remus felt momentarily dizzy with sickness at the thought that maybe Severus had forgotten who he was too.
Remus watched his eyes, the tell-tale sign of blinking every three or so seconds. He soon realized, however, that he must be paranoid. Those eyes weren’t the hollow blankness of a man who had lost his mind or soul; it was of a man deep in thought, pondering over some troubling epiphany.
And, then, as if reading his thoughts - which might have been the case - Severus looked up at Remus, meeting his gaze steadily. He rose and walked over closer to the bars. Remus looked up and down the hallways, wishing that there was someway that he could secure them some kind of privacy, but without his wand there was little he could do, save look normal and speak in low tones.
“Peter has lost all recollection of who he is. St. Mungo’s Psychiatric Ward sent over someone and confirmed it.”
Severus nodded, and his eyes flicked, barely noticeably, down the length of the hall just as Remus had just done. Nothing - visible - was there. “I was escorted out with a guard a few days ago - a new guard sent by the Ministry - who spent the entire time asking me inane questions. She seemed not to be trying to satisfy her own insatiable curiosity, but to pry. For whom, I am not sure.”
“What did this new guard look like? I might know her.”
Snape started studying the blank wall behind Remus. Remus waited, and when no more explanation was forthcoming, he rolled his eyes.
“And…was she tall? Short? Thin? Attractive?”
“Lupin, if you want a fuck I would suggest looking somewhere outside of Azkaban.” Severus moved his eyes to lock on Remus. “Or outside of the Ministry, for that matter.”
“Snape. What was the woman’s appearance, unless you happen to know her name? If I thought you did, I might’ve asked that first. I’m going to inquire after her to try to figure out why she was so abnormally curious.”
“Tall, slender, blonde. That’s all I noticed, unfortunately. Next time I shall inquire as to her blood type.” Remus rolled his eyes again, but smiled slightly. “She asked me how long I had been in Azkaban, even though she was holding a file with the information. I’m assuming she could read, but perhaps I should not place that much faith in the intelligence level of Ministry-appointed officials.” Severus began pacing and resumed speaking. “She was asking everything from what I planned to do once I got out of prison - as if I have considered what I’m doing in forty years - to my current stance on Wizarding politics.”
Remus raised an eyebrow. Those questions were highly suspicious indeed, but not all that surprising given all the attempts the Ministry was making to resolve public opinion. Most of magical Britain might be behind the Ministry at the moment, but if they found out about all of the purification legislation in the works, that support would dwindle quickly.
“On your walk, did you find out anything else?”
Severus turned to Remus with the same blank expression he had been wearing. Remus couldn’t read the expression Severus was reading now, partially since Severus was so good at keeping a blank face. It was possible his face wasn’t purposely blank, more than it had become an engrained survival instinct.
“Severus?”
“After the guard stopped asking her infernal questions, she led me up to the third corridor, which houses a lot of the renegade Death Eaters that the Ministry didn’t have enough information to convict them of larger crimes. The guard walked in front of me - idiot - with me walking behind, and I made sure to monitor the cells as I went by. They all look like those Muggle cells, some of them are down the corridor.”
Severus counted off on his long, thin fingers, which were even thinner than Remus remembered, and he was reminded that Azkaban prisoners weren’t fed anything very appetizing. “Crabbe, Goyle, Rockwood - and down the hall, Fletcher - “
“Mundungus Fletcher?” Remus asked. He didn’t even know that Dung was in Azkaban.
Severus nodded. “I did not know he was here. It must have been a quiet capture.” Severus paused. “They were all gone.”
“Gone?” Remus asked, picturing empty cells.
“No, gone. No memories, no self.”
Remus’ jaw dropped. Four people. At once? “How do you know? Maybe they were just tired; it’s possible for anyone to look empty of thought given enough desolation or exhaustion.” No, there was no way this could be happening.
“If you will exercise your brain for once Lupin, you might remember that I am a Legilimens.”
“There was nothing?”
“Nothing. Something has done a clean sweep of their memories. This job resembles nothing of memory modification. They are mere bodies, masking a hollow void.”
Remus stopped, mind whirling. Recalling Severus’ trancelike state of thinking, he said, “You have your own suspicions.”
Severus raised an eyebrow, reeking of arrogance. “Of course. To see if we are capable of thinking along the same lines, whom do you think might be the culprit?”
Remus shook his head. “More importantly, I want to know why.”
“Simple. Someone who doesn’t think that all of the prisoners got theirs. This was their way of assuring that even though the Dementor’s Kiss is no longer being implemented, that the results are still given in a similar pattern. There may be more people here who have been targeted.”
“I wouldn’t be surprised,” Remus said cautiously, “if this wasn’t the work of some group of people in the Ministry, trying to ensure further ‘justice.’”
“It’s a single person job. Someone who wanted this for their own personal vengeance. Someone who had failed before, but knew this was their chance.”
Something was standing out to Remus, sending off alarm bells in his brain, but he couldn’t put his finger on the problem. He had to think about this. Had to talk to Tonks about who in the Ministry would be capable of doing this.
“Do you know the guard at the desk?” Severus prompted suddenly.
Remus frowned, wondering at the purpose of the question. “Yes, of course. Luna Lovegood.”
Severus looked slightly taken aback, then snorted. “Lovegood? Bugger all, are they going to allow kneazles to escort us on walks next? This place has all the efficiency of Longbottom at a cauldron.”
“Why’d you ask about Lovegood?” Remus inquired, wanting to jump to the chase.
“The visitors’ roster. She would have a list of anyone who has come here over the last month or so. We can look at repeat visitors to see who has been around at the time Wormtail was stripped of his memory. I can’t say for sure if the others were done before or after him.”
Remus nodded, understanding. He wasn’t sure how he was going to persuade Luna to let him look at the roster, but he knew if he absolutely had to do so, his wand could provide a bit of memory modification of its own.
***
Surprisingly, when he had gone back to the desk, it had only taken a few minutes to convince Luna to let him see the roster. He supposed she trusted him because he was close to Harry and had been in the Order alongside her at later points in the war. Upon getting his wand, he had conjured a chair to sit beside her and they had gone over the list together, Luna by now having more knowledge of some of the regular visitors.
He found out that she had been working with her father, but had gotten sick of living at home - something he completely understood. She had no real interests, so she had gone to the Ministry to see what she could do in the way of social justice, and she had gotten planted at Azkaban. She said that she had made friends with some of the women on the fourth floor and talked to them about some of the mythical creatures of which she was so knowledgeable.
Remus didn’t think to question her.
When they had gone over the list for several minutes, they had not seen anything noticeably strange. The same people who visited normally were represented on the list, and the only option appeared that it was one of these individuals. Remus wished there was a way to copy the list, but figured there might be a way to sanction the list through Tonks if that would prove necessary. He decided, for the time meaning, that his memory would have to serve as good enough.
He thanked Luna and was pleased that she used his first name when she said goodbye.
***
He had come home and the first thing he did upon seeing Tonks was to tell her about the four prisoners who seemed to have lost their memory. She wanted to go to the Ministry immediately to dispatch a team of Aurors, but Remus refused. He didn’t want to broadcast this discovery to everyone just yet.
And, anyway, he knew that even if the Ministry instigated a formal investigation, it wouldn’t be taken seriously. Oh, sure, the Ministry would pretend, but he knew they regarded the prisoners as substandard humans; who cares what was being done to them, after all?
Tonks had tried to settle them down for a relaxing dinner, under the guise that there was nothing else they could do, but Remus’ mind was not there. Memories - that he thankfully had - kept replaying in his mind. Severus’ haunted expression. Peter back in school, laughing at a joke James made. Even Mundungus coming into 12 Grimmauld Place with some stolen toilet seats to sell to the Weasley twins.
His nerves snapped when Tonks asked him for the fourth time if he was all right.
“Of course I’m not all right! There is something going on at Azkaban, something most likely connected to the Ministry occurring right under our noses, and I know…something, but I can’t put my finger on it.”
Tonks looked slightly taken aback at his tone of voice, but she merely sipped at her wine, seeming to understand his sense of desperation. She put down her glass and came around the table and hugged him from behind, settling her chin on his shoulder and he found himself comforted from the familiar proximity, her smell, and felt himself relax minutely.
She spoke calmly. “We’ll figure it out. If we have to, we’ll bring in a commission to interview the guards in an attempt to find out if they’ve noticed anything strange.”
“The guards.” A moment of thought. “If the guard had escorted Mundungus and the others for their weekly walks, why didn’t they notice something was wrong? Severus has told me that the guards are very adept at asking questions. They should have noticed something.”
A frown settled between Tonks’ purple eyebrows, and then her eyes grew large. “Maybe the culprit didn’t expect anyone would ever notice.”
“Especially if he or she were the only ones to see these people.”
Tonks and Remus shared one look, and Remus grabbed his coat, and Apparated.
***
He was hoping Luna was still at the guard’s desk, and was pleased to see she was there - not reading, but scribbling furiously on a piece of parchment.
She looked up slightly and smiled upon seeing him. “I’m glad you came back. Seeing Professor Snape?”
“No, Luna,” Remus said, “I actually am here to see you.” Luna smiled brightly, and Remus felt guilty for not coming to see her, but for her information.
He sat down next to her for the second time that day, and when she stared at him with an arched eyebrow, he realized that Luna was much more intelligent than he had given her credit for. And, no doubt, the Aurors had already come to investigate earlier, and quite possibly were still lurking about.
Not wanting to waste time he launched into questions about whether or not she had seen anything at odds in Azkaban, and Luna surprised him by answering, “You mean like Peter Pettigrew?”
Remus didn’t want to give away the information Severus had given him, but he figured it wouldn’t hurt to lead her in the right direction if she did know something that could help them. “Something like that.”
Luna thought for a moment, then her eyes gained an appearance of recognition. “A guard that comes here to walk around with some of the prisoners…”
“Yes?”
“She comes here frequently. More so than the other guards. The first day she came here she asked me a lot of questions. She wanted to know about the behaviour of some of the prisoners. I guess she felt sorry for them; maybe she’s just nervous.”
“Luna, do you have a list of the guards and whom escorts which prisoners?”
“Of course,” Luna said, taking a parchment out of the many-drawered desk and handing it to Remus. Looking it over, he looked for the names of the Death Eaters and Mundungus, and noticed that they all were being escorted by the same guard. His eyes zoomed down to look at Peter. The same name emblazoned there.
And he already knew what name he would find before moving on to Severus, again, his suspicions were confirmed. “Janice Upchurch.”
Remus wanted to go talk to Severus right away, but if anyone else was monitoring the visitor logs, he didn’t want to look overly suspicious. He already knew that the fact he had been visiting Severus more than normal would look odd enough on its own.
***
As much as Remus (and later Tonks once he told her about things) wanted to act on the events, they had to wait until the appropriate time to act.
And the time had come.
Remus recalled that Severus had his walk around the prison on Wednesday afternoons around tea.
So, it was on Wednesday that Remus and Tonks both visited Severus at the same time he should be on his walk. Luna allowed them entrance and told them they could wait for Severus in front of his cell. Tonks took her seat in the armchair, and Remus stood, waiting.
At last, Severus was taking huge strides down the hall in front of a tall woman with blonde hair. Remus thought at first Severus was going to stop in the middle of the hallway upon seeing both him and Tonks visiting at once - something they had never done before - but his face quickly transitioned into a scowl.
He merely nodded before stepping into the cell door, which had flung itself open upon his arrival and slammed itself shut, as if he had demanded it to do so through wandless magic.
The woman behind Severus, tall, thin stature and blonde hair, stopped. She smiled in a bitter way, and in a lilting voice, said, “Hello there.”
Tonks took that moment to act. She rose from her chair and casually approached the woman. Tonks extended her hand and introduced herself, the woman’s eyes widened slightly apparently upon name recognition.
“You’re Ms. Upchurch, correct?”
Ms. Upchurch nodded. “I’m a guard stationed here by the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. You would be familiar with them, I presume.” A smile.
Tonks nodded. “Quite so. Actually, some of the Aurors are double-checking on guards, and it seems that that we have not deployed a Janice Upchurch as a guard here.”
The smile fell, and Remus saw Ms. Upchurch’s eyes widen imperceptibly. “There must be some sort of mistake.”
“Perhaps so.” Tonks smirked. “Would you please pass me the vial in your robes?”
Ms. Upchurch’s eyes widened to the size of saucers, this time. She said, simply, “No.”
“You don’t want things to get ugly, do you?” Tonks said casually, but with a clear threat. Remus paid a look to Severus’ cell, who was openly watching the proceedings with an approving glance. It seemed Tonks was serving her old House well.
Ms. Upchurch handed over a vial filled with brown liquid and Tonks retrieved it and pulled out the stopper. She handed the vial to Remus, while pulling out the wand she had not given to Luna at the desk. Remus passed the vial to Severus, who uncorked it, sniffed deeply, and confirmed aloud, “Polyjuice.”
“I don’t know what you’re trying to prove -- ”
“I am Auror Tonks and you are being taken into Ministry custody.” From Tonks’ wand sprung bindings to the guard’s arms. She squeaked. “How long till the Polyjuice wears off?”
“It’s not Polyjuice!”
“And I worship Saint Potter,” Snape said dryly.
“No matter. We’ll find out within the hour.” Tonks secured her grip around the woman’s arms.
“I’m going to take her to the Ministry, Remus. You should probably stay here.” Remus nodded, despite his burning curiosity, he obeyed. There was nothing else to do in the meantime.
And he was growing rather fond of the dour man.
***
“I can’t believe it was her all along,” Remus said, pacing around the outside of Azkaban, where Tonks had meet him early to tell him the news.
“She admitted everything under Veritaserum. Not like she had much of a choice.” Tonks’ lip curled slightly.
“Why did she…?”
“Revenge. She was still angry about not gaining power over Hogwarts all those years ago. High Inquisitor and all that. She thought the prisoners weren’t getting what they deserved, and decided to unleash a potion of her own making upon them.”
“A potion? She makes potions?” Remus found it hard to believe that Dolores Umbrige might be crafty at anything aside from overtaking bureaucracies.
“Apparently so. She designed a potion remarkably similar to the Dementor’s Kiss. Seems she’s quite fond of Dementors.”
Remus shook his head, feeling disgusted, knowing there was no way to salvage the minds of his old friend and the rest of them.
“At least we prevented her from harming anyone else. And she’ll now be in Azkaban herself. It’s guaranteed that the Wizengamot is going to convict her first thing tomorrow.” Tonks was doing her best to reassure him.
“Yes, but I still wish we could have done something sooner.”
***
Remus had been sitting in his armchair, exchanging banter, and he caught himself on a cross between a snort and a chuckle, producing a weird sound from his nose. He actually felt a blush crawling into his cheeks. Since when had he started making such inelegant noises? But he supposed it didn’t matter, even if Severus was looking at him oddly. And then Remus felt like he was the one behind bars, the one being oogled by passer-by.
Remus sobered quickly, realizing that it was time to bring up the topic of conversation that had been weighing on his mind over the last week since Umbridge’s capture. He knew nothing would be done for the other prisoners in Azkaban, but with the Ministry being the recipient of bad publicity, now was the time if any to make a move.
Forty-five years was a long time.
“Spit it out, Lupin,” Severus said.
Remus sighed, cursing the man’s keen sense of observation. He looked at his shoes and muttered, “I think that now would be a good time to appeal your case.”
He was meet with silence. And then, “Is this something Auror Tonks told you to bring up? She feels guilty for not believing me the first time around…”
“No! No one else knows about this. Since working at the Ministry and going through the files, we’re trying to get a lot of policy through now that we wouldn’t have been able to get through two weeks ago. I figured that now there’s some bad blood, it might be our only shot.” Remus paused. “The sooner, the better,” he said, softly, looking at his shoes.
He expected Severus to go on about not wanting pity, to huff and puff, but, surprisingly, the man said nothing at all. Remus raised his eyes and meet Severus’.
“As tempting a notion as it would be - freedom, if that’s what it would actually be - I should be here.” Those words were stated levelly, but there was so much more underlying them.
“Severus, we know Albus -- ”
“What you think you may know bears no difference in my mind. I know that I should be here, and I will remain so.”
Remus felt an odd stinging at his eyes, and horrified, he did his best to quell his emotions and nodded. He felt something welling up in his chest that was so at odds with how he had treated Severus for most of us life. Respect. It was bubbling up and threatening to implode.
Realizing that now was a good time to go, Remus said, “I understand. As best I can.” Severus nodded and Remus began to walk away, to retrieve his wand from the blonde young woman who would be immersed in The Quibbler, to head to his flat to eat dinner with Tonks, and to leave Severus here in this cold, dank prison.
Passing by the bars, he resisted turning around, although he knew Severus was still watching him. He passed the bars - one, two, three - didn’t think about his father, or Severus, or the other prisoners who would never regain their sense of being.
And he wondered as he left, and went through the double doors, why his life felt so wholly inadequate. He should appreciate what he had, for it may not be glorious, but it was peaceful. There was no Voldemort, no great sense of purpose, just a calm lull in his life.
So what was missing?
~fin