The Nightmare Man

Chapter Nine

What he created from the gardens.

Harrison smiled as he looked over the place. He would need Muggles for this, but as Lucian had suggested, he could just cover it up. The world now, while standing on the brink of technology, was still a mystery. People vanished without a trace every day.

He just had to make a whole lot of them vanish. Maybe Christian would be of some use, helping Elise and the others gather the amount Harrison needed.

He brushed off the dirt on his robe and sauntered back inside. Elise stopped and stared at him, then down at his clothes.

"Have you been playing in the dirt, master?" she asked.

"Yes," he replied. "Digging in fact. Elise, are you perhaps bored?"

"Yes," she said bluntly. "There's no point in cleaning the manor again, it's already clean, apart from the mud you've just dragged in. What do you desire, master?"

"People. Alive for now."

"How many?"

Harrison thought of the ground he had torn up and prepared, and smiled.

"Thirty should be enough at this state. I'll tell you if I need more."

"Does age matter?"

"No children or small people," he said. "Adult, normal-sized males and females. Take Christian with you."

"What are you making?"

"I'm recreating the gardens," Harrison said.

"I don't like your gardens."

"Elise, that's the point. No one likes my gardens. Don't worry, I won't make you go out and water it later."

She shuddered as she fully well knew what kind of nourishment her master's garden demanded, and fled to find Christian.

-o-

October turned into November when something happened. James and Sirius were walking around the school, patrolling as they called it, and spotted Snape.

"Should we scare him?" Sirius said.

"More importantly than that, shouldn't he be in class? Or at least in his classroom?"

They noticed now that the man was speaking into a two-way mirror. They weren't exactly cheap, and they had never seen him use one before. Both of them crept closer as Snape's attention was on whoever was on the other side of the mirror.

"Friend?" Sirius whispered.

"Not bloody likely."

"Maybe Malfoy then. He could afford a mirror or two."

Their hushed conversation was stopped dead when they heard Severus utter the word:

"Master."

Snape had never called Voldemort that. In fact, the potions master had never, ever called anyone 'master'. They stared some more, but took out their wands when they realized he was sharing the Order's information with some unknown person.

"Snape!"

Snape turned around, looking at them. He closed the mirror without a word and put it away. He tilted his head at them.

"Who was that?" James demanded to know.

"An acquaintance of mine."

"Yeah, is that so? You call all of them 'master', do you?" Sirius sneered.

For a moment, he didn't move. They stared at each other, three childhood enemies. None of them had forgotten those times, the petty revenges. The potions master's eyes narrowed, and then he ran.