The Shadow Man sat in a room not entirely unlike the one New was being subjected to.
The main differences lay in the conspicuous lack of any furnishings- even New's uncomfortable metal table with its two interrogation chairs were absent. In response to this obvious denial of human rights, the man himself was sat cross legged, pressed right into the corner. His hands were folded neatly in his lap and his eyes were closed, though his pupils fluttered wildly behind the shuttered lids, the only true tell that of the his consciousness.
The door creaked open with a reluctance that told of the instigator's nerves.
Sirius Black swallowed as he beheld the dimly lit room, and the even less illuminated figure in the corner. What struck him first was the off-white onesie the Shadow Man wore, a far cry from the eloquent tailored suits of the man who held the lives of hundreds of people on his conscience like an accessory.
A slow smile stretched the man's face, like a knife wound widening. But he said nothing and did not open his eyes even as Remus Lupin silently slipped inside behind his friend.
"Howard Potter." Sirius said thickly.
At that, the Shadow Man's eyes flickered open, "Pardon?"
"That's your name. It's outside the door." Sirius' shock apparently prevented him from computing anything more than simple sentence structure, "Potter?"
"A bastard uncle of your friend." The Shadow Man clarified dismissively, "Though it has precious little to do with anything else. I never met my half brother's child before he arrested me, so familial affections were not precisely my principal concern in the big reunion."
His clear blue eyes glittered with a light that was not altogether unfamiliar to Sirius, though hit an innate sense of wrongness when coupled with the malice drawn in lines around them. Any sense of James Potter was warped into something dark and mildly irritating.
Remus took the initiative, standing straighter as he said, "What have you done to Alex?"
"No doubt doomed her to a young an unfortunate death." Howard Potter didn't move his eyes from Sirius' face, "I think the better question is what have I done for everyone else?"
"What?" Sirius asked blankly.
The Shadow Man drew his leg up for him to rest an elbow on, "My nephew's mudblood girlfriend, Miss Fawley's similarly born associate- you'll have to remind me of their names. They may not have been alive in a year. Or two. It doesn't matter really, does it? The point is I prevented their deaths."
Remus raised a sceptical eyebrow, "So we're meant to believe you're a good guy now because you roofied a teenage girl, resulting in the murder of seven separate people?"
"Don't fool yourselves." The Shadow Man snorted, "I'm not trying to save the world, or fight the nasty men who hurt people. I am doing this for one purpose only- to stop the Dark Lord."
Sirius narrowed his eyes, "Why?"
"I had a husband." Howard said simply, "Did Miss Fawley tell you, I wonder?"
"You murdered him." Remus exposited flatly.
Howard smiled amicably at that, as if he thought Remus' straightforwardness endearing, "Yes, well, Death Eater views on homosexuality are almost as grim as their views on mudbloods. He was required for cover when I was maintaining a public image, but I retreated into the shadows and he wasn't... necessary anymore."
"None of this explains anything." Sirius responded tersely.
Not that the Shadow Man seemed to care.
"I didn't love him when we got married," Howard said slowly, "But I did, in time. It's strange, but I never got to tell him when I meant it."
Sirius scoffed quietly, "You loved him, but you stabbed him to death in an alley."
"The orders came, and I carried them out." The way Howard said it made it all seem awfully simple, "It was only when it was over that I realised exactly what being a Death Eater had cost me."
Remus spluttered, "Cost you?"
"He knew all my favourite foods, could cook them all, and did with one simple line of text saying I'd had an unpleasant day." Howard's anti-murder campaign really needed some work, Sirius decided.
"Did he put up with the thesaurus you flick through before speaking as well?" Sirius muttered agitatedly.
Howard sniffed in distaste, "You might want to attempt a façade of civility, Mr Black. I did just save England."
"What the hell did you do to Alex?" Sirius repeated slowly and clearly.
Making a frustrated noise, the Shadow Man sat forwards, trying to get them to understand.
"There needs to be a push, a catalyst. The death toll is steady, bearable," He rolled his eyes, "Boring. She will upset the balance and set the plans in motion. There are calls for action. More people will be placed on the Death Eater case, Professor Dumbledore will sit up and take notice, and go and visit a Seer, who will give him a prophecy that someone outside the door will hear and pass on. And it will all lead to the fall of the Dark Lord."
"And you know all this how?" Sirius asked doubtfully.
Howard made direct eye contact with him, "A letter delivered to my house directly from one Maria Fawley."
"Alex's Grandmother?" Remus' eyebrows pulled together in confusion, "She died a twenty years ago. You would have been- what? Eight?"
At this, the Shadow Man exhibited a hollow laugh, "As I'm sure you are very aware by this point, Mrs Fawley planned ahead meticulously."
"And why would she tell you all of this?" Sirius had felt rather protective of the late Mrs Fawley for a while now- she was a sign that his tenuous link to Alex went beyond his own interest. It had felt like he had someone in his corner.
Now, though, he wasn't so sure.
"Because she knew what we- the contents of this room- know." Howard leaned against his wall once more, almost spent, "There are branching pathways to the future and precious little of them involve a dead Dark Lord. She believed that we could accomplish that."
"At the cost of Alex." Sirius finished in a deadly quiet voice.
Howard Potter shrugged, "All's fair in love and war."
Sirius stared at him for a long moment, "Fuck off."
"And that's about as close to a long eloquent response as he'll get." Remus sighed, taking Sirius by the shoulders and steering him back through the propped open door. Releasing his friend, Remus turned a final time to nudge his makeshift door wedge out of the way, "You, sir, are an arsehole, and we will be back with Zonko's own brand itching powder at a later date."
And then the door swung shut once more, dousing the cell in dark. Tipping his head back against the cool concreate, the Shadow Man smiled for the third time that day, the first real smile in four years.
Because whatever else happened to him, even if he rotted in this cell for the rest of his life, he had done it. He had drowned his husband's blood in something darker, and he could finally rest.
Sighing, the Shadow Man's eyes fell closed again.
It felt good to sleep without dreams.
{===}
Across the compound, Not Alex was glaring at the teenage boy sat across from her. Alex's rather foggy recollection of the face labelled him as Frank Longbottom, a Hogwarts Alumni a few years older than New's body. His round face was set with a serious expression that it didn't seem entirely comfortable housing, dark hair flopped forwards into his eyes in a way that one hundred percent minus-ed the professional kind of look and added a whole lot of goofy.
Since she'd been able to identify Longbottom with virtually no problem, New estimated that his importance in what was Alex's life was limited.
"Alex Fawley." He addressed her formally.
New let her head fall back in disappointment. She'd been rooting for Frank, "Not my name."
"What is it the other's are calling you, then?" He asked, a friendly aura extending into the question that no one else had addressed her with, "New?"
"I'm not a Pokémon." She glared.
"That Pokémon's actually called-" Frank broke off after a single glance at her expression, "Never mind."
Frank shifted for a moment before reaching for the small black file that he had brought in with him and beginning to sift through it.
New sat back, "You interest me, Longbottom. My head says that she didn't know you all that well. I'd be surprised if you even remembered her name before today. So why are you here?"
Longbottom didn't look up, sifting through papers still, though a small blush coloured his face, "The Order assigned this to me."
"Oh, I see." New smiled, leaning her elbows on the table, "You're an intern."
If possible, Longbottom went an even deeper shade of red, "Well, no one really gets paid here, it's... I work in the aurors office and-"
"But you're the coffee guy, right?" New grinned, "You get the jobs no one else wants to do, pick up lunch for the team, run messages?"
Frank's definitive non-answer spoke volumes. He coughed and picked up a piece of paper, using his other hand to support a quill on top of it, "There's a few questions I need you to answer. Um, where's your wand? We didn't confiscate it."
New sighed through her nose, "It was boring. I put it in a blender."
"A blender?" Frank stalled his movement.
"The smoothie was excellent." New smiled, slit mouthed.
"Right... Right." Frank made a note of something on the parchment, "What happened to get you to this, er, state?"
New thought about this for a moment, and then said, the answer rolling off her mouth like it was made to be there, "Sirius Black."
"Could you elaborate?" Frank asked desperately.
New smirked, "I could."
"Will you?"
"That depends on how nice you are."
Frank chewed on his lip for a second, looked down at the parchment in front of them, probably interpreting the two lines there as complete and utter bullshit, and sighed, "This is pointless, isn't it?"
"And he's smart too." New praised, "Keep this attitude going, coffee boy, and you'll be playing with the big kids in no time."
The boy didn't respond immediately, instead reaching back for the folder and pulling out a stack of photos, "I'm going to show you some pictures of people you- Alex, I mean- knew. I just want you to tell me what your- Alex's- relationship to them was."
"Urgh, Alex, Alex, Alex." New groaned, "Don't you people have anything more interesting to talk about? Like me, perhaps?"
A smile flickered across Frank's face, "Just do it for me? Then we can inflate your ego for hours, I promise."
New studied his face for a moment, "This was your idea wasn't it, coffee boy? The pictures, I mean. Your big shot."
Frank nodded slightly.
"Fine. But only if someone gives me the Netflix password." New sat up in preparation.
The first image dropped, and it was easy.
"Lily Evans and Marlene McKinnon. Fawley's friends." She sneered the word as if it were indicative of some sort of brain damage.
Frank didn't say anything, but slid the next one across to her.
New narrowed her eyes. Working around the block in Alex's head was more pressing now that she had an audience. Come on, Fawley. They don't interest me regardless.
"Micah. Brother."
Another picture.
"Remus Lupin. Roommate. Friend."
Another one.
"Logan Mitchell. Bestest buddy."
Another one.
"Mike and Helen Fawley. Parents."
That one was easier than it should have been. New could feel the door in her head becoming looser as Alex watched the smiling expressions of her own parents in shock. It was like she was scrabbling at the handle now. New had no problem pushing it open the rest of the way. There were just so many memories to sort through.
In her temporary distraction, another word choked from her lips, "Deceased."
A muscle in Frank's cheek twitched, but other than that his only response was to drop another picture.
It took almost no effort this time, "Severus Snape. Friend."
And then the last picture fell.
New leaned forward, eyes narrowing at the image of the boy with long dark hair that fell compulsively into his grey eyes as he grinned up at her, a smile that promised mischief.
She remembered everything. The black dog on Hogwarts grounds, Shrek jokes on Logan's roof, Mario Kart on a beaten up old sofa, the spare room at Remus Lupin's house. It was all there, laid out like a forty eight chapter book.
"Sirius Black." She said, and then words caught in her throat.
Frank pressed for further information, "And?"
New looked up at him, eyebrows pulled together in confusion.
"I don't know."
{===}
A/N
Can you feel the pace picking up now?
We're thundering towards the finish line like a herd of Mufasa-Murderers. At the moment, I'm predicting about fifty five chapters, but it could be a few less or more, depends how crap my writing is.
Once I have them all written, I'm gonna start increasing my upload schedule, so nagging is in your best interest.
Mischief Managed,
BecauseBecky