"Sewers, young Potter. I believe they were the ancient sewers the castle used, and they should, if I recall correctly, empty out into the Forbidden Forest." He raised a hand to forestall Harry's comment, his lip curling slightly. "Where all manner of beasts could have carried it off, I'm sure you were about to point out." The 'how convenient' was left unstated, but most in the room heard it.
Albus rose to his feet, clapping his hands together and making a show of wiping them clean. "Well, I believe that will clear that up for the time being." Stepping to the right of his desk he opened a cabinet filled with a number of oddly shaped ornaments and a few of what appeared to be Muggle knickknacks. "I must be off, I'm afraid, I have a good deal of paperwork to fill out in clearing our good groundskeeper, Hagrid, of the charges leveled against him, both now and so many years ago."
Snape nodded coldly and Harry and Ginny bowed and curtseyed respectively, the young boy watching Dumbledore's actions with slightly narrowed eyes.
"Farewell then. And Harry, I won't be Apparating, but using a port key, so I'm afraid you won't pick up much on this." He smiled, tipped his hat at the group and laid his hand upon a stone sphere resting somewhat apart from the remainder of the keys, vanishing with a slight whoosh of displaced air.
The two children were half way to the chamber's door when Snape snapped, "One moment, Miss Weasely, Mr. Potter. There is one more issue at hand, a House matter, though it verges upon more." He swept past the pair and started down the stairs at a brisk walk, pausing only briefly to give Harry and Ginny a glare which sent them hurrying after him.
It was nearly ten minutes later that the trio of wizards stepped into the infirmary, Harry by this time quite mystified as to why exactly they were here. As his gaze passed up the rows of beds, his confusion cleared up immediately and his eyes hardened.
Lucius Malfoy. Ginny had confided to him that her family had run into him at Diagon Alley earlier that year. There was no one else who could have fit the picture of the arrogant, powerful man she had painted for him at his behest. A "reformed" Death Eater. But he had a feeling that the man's visit today was at the behest of his son, not due to former associations with Voldemort.
It took no more than a moment to reach Draco's father and little more for the augmented group to reach a bed further down the line, the trip silent save for a brief exchange of greetings between Severus and Lucius.
Upon reaching the bed, the first to break that silence turned out to be Ginny, who gasped at the individual laying in it--none other than Dobby, the house elf of the Malfoy family. His body, that which wasn't covered by the sheets of the bed anyway, seemed to be one big bruise, and a splint bound one arm that was clearly broken in at least two spots. The tiny head was swathed in bandages and one eye was swollen shut, a jagged cut on the cheek beneath covered only with a single bandage.
After the group had taken in the brutal sight, Madame Pomfrey hurried up and pulled the dividing sheet around the battered house elf. "You may use the second examination room to talk if you like," she said as she finished, nodding towards Snape and Lucius. Casting a reproachful stare at Harry and Ginny, she then moved off to intercept several students who were coming into the room, one supported between the other two holding his stomach.
Upon reaching the room, Snape closed the door and then turned towards Harry. "Well, Potter? What do you have to say for yourself?" he snapped, crossing his arms as one foot tapped the ground in an irregular staccato beat.
Harry blinked, then ventured cautiously, "Say for myself, Sir? I don't know why I should have anything to say at all."
Lucius sniffed as he stared out the window, then turned back towards the pair of children standing before him. "Draco said the boy would try and weasel out of taking responsibility for his actions, Severus. He's clearly denying responsibility. Perhaps you should show him the pictures."
Scowling, Snape marched forward to a desk in the room and pulled several snapshots from his robes, spreading them out and then gesturing peremptorily at Harry.
Frowning to himself, Harry made his way to the photos and stared down at them, hardly believing his eyes. Plain as the scar on his forehead, he watched as he and Ginny approached a clearly protesting Dobby menacingly in one photo, the figures acting out the scene as magical pictures were prone to do. Each further snapshot was more incriminating, until they culminated with both he and Ginny giving one final kick to Dobby's ribs before stalking out of the picture.
"Again, what have you to say for yourself?" Snape used one finger to push a photo above the others and then picked it up, tapping it against one palm as he began speaking. "Several students have seen you arguing or yelling at a house elf over the past year, generally only brief glimpses, but they are motive enough, when combined with these..." He placed a hand over the pictures again. "...to establish guilt."
"Professor Snape, this wasn't..!" Harry trailed off at the scowl on Snape's face and glanced down at the photos again, an odd look on Dobby's part towards the camera catching his attention. Was that fear? Pleading? Suddenly an explanation for these photos made themselves perfectly clear, though he wasn't going to be able to dispute them, not without incriminating himself in other ways.
Snapping off a warning glance at Ginny, who closed her mouth on the comment she was about to make, he turned back to the Professor. "...wasn't something I was proud of doing, but was incited by the house elf."
"Incited!" Lucius pushed himself forward, throwing Ginny back into an examination table where she threw a glare at his back. "That is hardly an excuse for the damage that you have caused _my_ household through this, this...act of barbarity. The elf was a valuable piece of property, which you have willfully destroyed." He swept back across the room, glaring out the small window that looked into the recovery area of the infirmary. "I might as well sell the wretched creature before the extent of his injuries are made plain for any buyers to see. The Malfoy family cannot be seen to own a crippled house elf and you have deprived me--"
"--how much, Mr. Malfoy?" Harry interrupted. An idea was forming in the back of his head now, and much of it depended upon how Lucius Malfoy responded.
"How much for what, boy?" Lucius returned, frowning at the look in the child's eye.
"Your problem with my...actions...is that I have defaced and destroyed your property, isn't it?" Harry continued, playing upon Malfoy's words. "So if that's the case, and you could sell your house elf to recover that damage, there must be a number." He looked over to Professor Snape. "I'll take responsibility for my actions as you demanded earlier and pay you a fair price for the house elf."
Lucius' eyes narrowed as he turned back to the boy. "What's your game, young Mr. Potter?"
"No game, Sir. I merely wish to make amends. After all, we should all face the consequences of our actions, shouldn't we?" Harry glanced from Lucius to Ginny and back again, light glancing off his glasses as a chilly smile crossed his lips. "I'm sure Professor Snape could name a fair price."
A step forward from Lucius was intercepted by Snape, who nodded at the influential man and indicated a position a bit further from Harry. "This seems like a fair compromise, Lucius. Would you agree to a sum of five hundred Galleons?"
Lucius looked from Potter, to Snape, and then to Weasely and finally snarled, "Fine. I expect the sum to be in my account at Gringotts by the end of the day, or there _will_ be consequences." He stalked over to the door, opening it a bit harder then necessary and turned to Harry, standing near the door. Leaning down, he whispered, "Watch yourself, boy. Ambitions such as your own have a way of serving their owners a fatal blow."
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See other episodes by James M. Zema
(Posted Fri, 20 Jun 2003 08:37)
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