▬
[ CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR ]
Hector De Floof and the Durmstrang Strangler
▬
It was pretty obvious the notes had come in this fashion to stop them from planning their stories together too thoroughly. In hindsight, they should have done this on day one but nobody had been in the mood to relive the events of the night baack then.
"Did you get the note?" Lily rushed over within seconds of leaving Transfiguration, completely pale in the face.
"Yes, I did, mines' with Flitwick," Exie replied.
"Mines with Professor Slughorn, that should be fine, right? I'm one of his favourites - "
"Lucky for you," Sirius's voice came from behind them. The boy was thankfully not in such bad spirits as the other day but was definitely far from even just 'okay' yet, "I've got Professor Cuthbert, famously strict and he hates me with a passion."
"Oh no," Lily put one hand gently on her chest, "What do we do? We can't tell the truth, obviously ... right?"
"Not so loud," Sirius hissed as Remus came to join their cluster, dryly holding his note up.
"Professor Sprout."
For some reason, this amused Sirius, the corner of his lips turning up in a smirk, "Wow, someone's clearly not high on their priorities list."
"Or they just reckon I won't be a massive pain in the arse and need someone strict to babysit me," Remus replied dryly which shut Sirius up. "We have to figure out what to say - "
Peter suddenly rushed up behind them, on the verge of hyperventilating, "Mine's with McGonagall and a ministry official, this is so scary ... what if it's the Minister. Holy Hippogriffs, I can't do this - "
"Relax, you know the least out of all of us and after you little breakdown in front of her, McGonagall will go easy," Sirius pointed out helpfully.
His voice trailed off as everyone noticed James standing in the door. The rest of the class had left by now, hurrying to their next lesson. James seemed in no rush though, quite the opposite in fact as he observed them thoughtfully.
"Wow, If I'd known I could cause such a stir standing completely still I'd have taken this up a long time ago," His tone was completely humourless despite the half smile on his face.
Everyone was a little shocked: this was the first word he'd said to them since the fateful night. Not through lack of trying mind you but when James put his mind to something it usually worked and right now he wanted to avoid all of them more than anything.
If James didn't want to speak, he wouldn't.
"Nobody's going to say anything?" He shrugged, smiling at his note, "Professor Dumbledore and a Ministry official? Wow, really playing in the big leagues, aren't I."
With that, he sauntered off just as Sirius suddenly regained the ability to speak, stammering, "Er ... James."
"What?" He called back, not bothering to turn or even stop.
"Remus got Professor Sprout," Sirius said, his voice shaking a little.
James smirked, "Bit embarrassing."
"What ... what are you gonna say to them?"
This made him pause a little before he shrugged, "I don't know yet, haven't decided yet."
Nobody uttered a word as he continued his jaunty walk once more, vanishing around the corner. Whilst they doubted he'd turn them in even after everything, there was a strange nonchalance that suggested he didn't really care if he got found out or not. That just meant they'd have to cover for him even more, look out for him even if he didn't know.
There was too little time to get perfectly matching stories so they decided to establish a few basics. One, keep James's name out of it where possible - claim he'd got lost in the chaos and they hadn't seen him all night. The basic story would be Peter left first but got found by Marlene and Mary. Exie, Sirius and Remus went back to find Lily after realising she was alone but upon finding her, Exie and Lily had split up, returning to Peter. Sirius and Remus would claim they couldn't find the others and were looking for James. They didn't see who had done it and if they were asked for any other details, would blame their forgetfulness on stress or tiredness.
"But how will we explain why James isn't talking to us ... well, he is now but ... you know," Exie asked.
"I ... I..." Sirius shut his eyes firmly, "I don't know."
"But you always come up with the ideas," Peter's eyes were wide, his lip trembling.
"Not just me, James is always there by my side, I don't do it alone ... I can't..." He looked set to burst into tears when Remus placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Well, good thing you're not," Remus addressed them all, "We'll just use the truth. He found out about Exie and Lily, we can claim you told him the next morning after it all went down. He realised we all knew - "
"Not me," Peter piped up.
" - and is still deciding how to proceed," Remus finished calmly, "But most of all we should try and distract them, confuse them - do anything so we can get away with saying as little as possible! After all, you don't need to lie if you don't say anything at all. This isn't going to be easy, they will be trying to trip us up but I genuinely believe we all have the ability to outwit them. They can't bring us down, not like this."
And with that they parted. Remus's speech had been comforting but freaked her out a bit as she wasn't sure it was true. She wasn't as intelligent like the others, this was so much pressure and she didn't want to be the one who got them all taken down.
The door was open when Exie arrived and one look at the Ministry official who was sporting a moustache she hadn't seen on anyone since Stalin only made her feel worse. Professor Flitwick was nice but this man looked tough and experienced - this really didn't make her feel any better.
"Ah, Exie, there you are," Flitwick closed the door with a flick of his wand, "Take a seat please, right there's fine."
"Thank you," She smiled, looking the Ministry official up and down - he was surveying her quizzically.
"Now, I know that letter was a bit alarming, I saw it myself and suggested they change the wording a bit but the Ministry insisted," He looked a little annoyed but quickly covered it, "Think of this more as a friendly chat with me and - "
"HECTOR DE FLOOF, DEPUTY HEAD OF THE MAGICAL INTERROGATIONS AND RECIPIENT OF A SECOND CLASS ORDER OF MERLIN."
Exie tried to hold back her laughter but it was no use, one tiny snort escaping. She was sure her parents had mentioned him before at some point as they worked closely alongside the ministry. The rest of his words suddenly sunk in, her laughter dying in a flash as it hit that she'd been assigned the bloody DEPUTY HEAD of all magical interrogations.
Judging from his glower, her laughter had caused personal offence so she quickly covered, "Um ... I have a bit of a cold, sorry. Pleasure to meet you, Hector de... Floof - "
"To you, I am Mr De Floof..."
This was no better, as long as she had to say the word 'Floof' the corners of her lips just wouldn't behave themselves, "I'm sorry, Mr ... Mr De Floof."
Quickly, she turned back to Flitwick who was sorting his papers. Clearing his throat before reading, he began, "Miss Exie Attia, the Ministry has reason to believe you may know something about or have been involved in..." Flitwick suddenly stopped, "Mr De Floof, it would help if you took a seat, you're quite a ... large man and you standing is quite intimidating."
"Did it ever occur to you that I was standing by choice?" Hector de Floof said loftily, sweeping his hand in the air, "It is a classic technique I use frequently on many hardened criminals. This is precisely the technique I used to interrogate the Durmstrang Strangler in 1959 - do you know who that was, Professor?"
"The name does ring a bell but - "
"Do you know who that was, Miss Attia?" He didn't wait for her to reply, "He struck five times in a mere few months at Durmstrang school. The victims had two things in common ... one, they were dead! And two ... they were all strangled. It didn't take the Aurors long to find him and bring him to me... his worst challenge yet. My parents were asking so many questions but I know it was me who broke him and I didn't even have to utter a word. All I did was use my stance and careful, prolonged eye contact ... I was in his head and before we knew it, the truth came out."
Although his speech had initially made a lump of fear rise in her throat, as he'd continued it had gone completely.
Some of her parents words about the man came floating back to her now, in particular one comment her Father had made about Hector probably wearing his own arse as a hat given how far up it he was. Her Mother had been a tad more tasteful but some snide comments about how after one lucky break and the marriage to a very prominent pureblood's daughter, the power had got to his head a little.
It was then it sunk in that she'd actually not been given a tough Minister at all: just like Remus she was calm enough to not to need a babysitter as he'd said. This explained the fact she'd been given famously the friendliest teacher in school and a complete buffoon. Hector De Floof was all bark no bite.
At first she was a little offended but suddenly realised the fact they'd underestimated her as just the mellow one could come in handy. This was their mistake because she was still a Marauder even when she was alone and right now they weren't going to get even the tiniest morsel of information out of her.
Stupidly, they'd landed her with someone incredibly arrogant forgetting she'd had experience hanging out with the exceedingly arrogant for years now... no offence to James or Sirius. Remus was right: whilst she might not have been the ideas behind the action, they all had their parts to play and were all capable of protecting their own.
A small smirk crossed her lips as she realised this wasn't just going to be a piece of cake. This was going to be fun.
"It is techniques such as these that I am utilising right now."
"You are?" She laughed, "Sorry, I wasn't looking - do you want to try your prolonged, careful stare again?" Hector's eyes widened for a moment before making them beady, "That's really quite scary, Hector, wow,"
Flitwick swiftly cut in before he could reply, "On the night of the evacuation, your house prefect, Felix Mathison noticed that you were in James Potter's bed rather than you're own. He also noticed that you and Lily Evans were not present at the evacuation until several hours later despite the presence of your friends. Whilst we don't want to point any fingers the Ministry has - "
"Mr De Floof, what other techniques did you use to interrogate?" Exie asked casually.
Hector opened his mouth but Flitwick cut in, "Exie, I know this isn't fun for either of us but Mr De Floor won't let us leave unless - "
"No rush, Professor," Exie shrugged, "I mean, Mr De Floof here will likely get information out of me in a mere few seconds whether I like it or not, probably with only one technique seeing as I'm just ... me, not some criminal. It would be really sad not to see all the techniques, right?" The teacher looked like he was about to argue but she didn't let him, leaning in, "Come on, you said yourself this isn't fun for either of us, I'm just trying to make things a bit more relaxed and tolerable."
Flitwick looked skeptical but Hector De Floof had already readied himself, clearly liking the idea of showing off some skills. The professional Interrogator was so lost in his own inflated head he didn't notice as she grinned, "Come on, Professor, can't let the Ministry official be the only one enjoying himself here."
"I can't of course show you every technique, some require special equipment and others are a little ..." Hector suddenly looked a bit vacant, "... inappropriate for a mere child."
Flitwick and Exie exchanged a wide eyed look as Exie quickly said, "... okay, yeah, good call. Let's keep things nice and friendly, I'm not a serial strangler or anything..."
Honestly, Exie thought James was the chattiest person to exist but Hector had snatched the title with ease. Most of Mr De Floof's techniques weren't even too bad if it weren't for all the unnecessary flourish, she could see how once upon time before everything got to him, he actually could have made mass murderers confess within minutes. Her and Flitwick were practically on the verge of laughter the whole time especially when De Floof out of nowhere grabbed her face, so close she almost wondered it it counted as cheating on Lily.
All this time had also given Exie a good amount of time to think up an excuse that wasn't too bad and even could explain why the others might have given different stories. It would be nice to give Mr De Floof something to leave with after all his entertaining work after all.
"Wow, that was ridiculously impressive," She said at the end, "Not to mention effective..." The two interrogators eyes widened, "I wasn't planning to but ... I guess I have no choice but to come clean. I was only sleeping in James's bed because the stress of hiding it made my narcolepsy bad - I must have crashed as I was hanging out with the boys and I guess James let me stay there. I'm not too sure though... I was asleep and an attack always makes me hazy. But the reason I was late for the evacuation is a bit more ... personal."
"What is it?" Hector seemed triumphant despite not having got the answer yet.
"Professor, Mr De Floor ... Lily and I are together. We've been keeping it secret, good girl Lily going out with a Marauder would be bad for her reputation. That's why I was so stressed to the point where I passed out. The reason we came late to the evacuation was we went back to look for each other and then... decided to make use of the empty school."
Everyone went bright red, even the girl herself but she continued through her own awkwardness.
"I didn't want to say anything and would prefer you not pass this on. Lily is quite embarrassed and would never confess even if her life depended on it. I don't know what she's said but she'd lie up until the end - she's got a reputation to uphold as a good student. But if it comes to admitting it and being the subject of a Ministry investigation, I know where I stand, I've got nothing to lose except for her. Please, don't mention this to anyone else who doesn't need to know ... it would be really embarrassing if you had to reveal you'd sent the Deputy Head to just investigate a horny school girl. If you would like any further details of what we got up to - "
"I think that is quite enough," Flitwick cut in hastily.
"I didn't want to say anything but Mr De Floof got it out of me," Exie blushed shyly.
The man looked a little unsure of how to proceed but liked the compliment, standing up tall, "Of course. It was inevitable really, you really were the subject of so many different interrogation techniques. Thank you for your cooperation, Miss Attia, I'd say we can conclude this."
She and Flitwick both jumped, the Professor just as eager to get out as she was. She got the sense he didn't quite believe her but didn't seem interested in pursuing it really. He was a smart man and knew that if anyone really was in serious danger, she would have said. In fact, she wondered if the entire faculty secretly suspected who was behind this and this whole ministry thing was merely an indulgence.
Seeing as she was free, she made a beeline for Professor Sprout's office, Remus coming out just as she arrived.
Something very peculiar was occurring: he was leaning in the doorway, two small hands clasping one of his. He remained there for a few minutes before finally letting go, looking mortified as he noticed her watching. A small smile on her face, she leant against the corner with her arms folded.
"Having fun there? See how you got out of your interrogation..."
"It's not what it looks like, I'm not Sirius!" Remus replied, hastily ushering her away from the door in the direction of the other offices.
"Then whose hands were you holding?"
"The Ministry official," He admitted, "Turns out she was going through a hard divorce and before she and Sprout knew it, I was hitting them with some words of wisdom that may have changed their life forever ... she was quite grateful - it's not important, we should find the others."
"Seducing two older woman?" She nudged him, "And I thought Sirius was the only Dog around here - "
"I'm not a dog."
"Yeah, because you're a dawg."
"Very funny," Remus replied dryly, "How did yours go?"
"Alright," She admitted, acting calm when really she was quite proud of how she'd handled it. Compared to the plots she'd seen over the years it was nothing but hey, it had done the trick, "I Simply convinced my interrogators to have a bit of fun and then said I'd been sneaking around with Lily but she was so embarrassed she'd rather die than admit it. They didn't want to ask any further questions, doubted they were too comfortable in teenage lesbian talk, you know?"
Remus smirked, "Nice."
"Could say the same about you."
"Oh, don't."
Peter took a little while longer to come out, tears on his face. Thankfully he revealed he'd spent so much time crying, starting the moment he got in there that they hadn't managed to get a peep out of him. McGonagall had shut down most attempts to be even slightly forceful, claiming this whole thing was too traumatic until he was allowed to leave. This was probably a good call; Exie suspected very little of Peter's behaviour was actually acting.
Sirius was the next to emerge. Unlike the others, he was secretive about what had been done in there but assured them things were under control. Seeing the timid scurry of the Ministry official as Sirius strode away, Exie suspected maybe some things were better left unsaid.
The four of them were unsure of where to go next before decided on Lily first, suspecting James's would probably take the longest given he was with the Headmaster. However when they came to Professor Slughorn's office, they found it empty, his desk completely clear of any trace of the Military.
"Maybe she went back to the dorm," Exie wondered, "Perhaps she finished so early, she got bored waiting."
"Yeah, that sounds likely," Sirius agreed, "Let's go check Dumbledore's office for James first and then head there."
"Good plan."
With that they all walked off. Unlike the other offices, Professor Dumbledore's was a little harder to access so they had to wait outside. After half an hour, it became pretty clear that this could be a while... if James was still in there at all.
"It's going to be lunch in a few minutes, I might go and check on Lily before the corridors get busy," She said and the others nodded, "Are you guys going to stay here?"
"Probably," Sirius said, "James won't miss lunch and this might be the best place to talk to him."
This seemed fair and with that she left them to find her girlfriend alone.
She hadn't gone very far when she spotted a couple of Slytherins in her Transfiguration going the other direction. They clearly noticed her too, the five receivers of the letters having become class celebrities for the day. The fame was too much for her to handle - was she meant to smile ? Grace them with a wave? Is that what celebrities did?
However she quickly overheard something in their conversation that sucked all fame thoughts from her head, " ... maybe it wasn't too bad, she looks so much calmer than the other one - "
"What other one?" The two girls jumped, not expecting her to eavesdropped but Exie charged forward, "Who do I seem calmer than?"
"The ... the other girl ... the redhead..."
Panic ebbed through Exie, "Where is she?"
"Not far, in the corridor near the second floor girl's bathrooms!" The girl stammered. Her manners forgotten as she legged it away. Soon she was greeted with the horrible sight of Lily leaning against the wall, her face in her hands. The sound of her sobs echoed through the corridors even before Exie saw her ... but she wasn't alone.
Standing in front of her, hands on her shoulders comfortingly was none other than James, talking softly.
"Lily..." She rushed forwards, "What happened?" This was also a great chance to get James to talk, "Are you both okay?"
"I am," James replied gravely, "Professor Dumbledore knew, I reckon, so was on my side, together we played the Ministry like a fiddle. But... Professor Slughorn isn't quite as sharp..."
Their eyes went back to Lily who was a wreck, her green eyes overflowing with an unstoppable flow of tears, "Oh, Exie ... it was horrible ... the official I got was the head of interrogations and he ... he was so prejudiced. I told him that I'd gone looking for you and we'd got lost but he kept ... kept cutting me off. Then suggested that maybe I'd planned this on my own ... something about me using the distraction to steal test papers as there was no way a muggleborn could keep such high marks up. That the lily ... the lily was my marking as an evil genius. Slughorn tried ... tried to stop him but he was vicious. Said the sooner I confessed the lesser sentence I'd get."
"You didn't say anything, did you?"
Lily shook her head, "Of course not, I ... I stuck to my story and eventually they let me go but it ... it was so horrible."
The memory became too much as she flung herself onto Exie's shoulder. Realising this could worsen the James situation, she quickly looked up to check he was okay but to her surprise, his gaze was on the wall. His lifeless demeanour was now laced with self-hatred judging by the sad, angry look that haunted his eyes.
"This... this is all my fault," It became clear suddenly that the only person he hated right now was himself, "It was too much and now ... now look what's happened. I'm ... I'm sorry - "
"JAMES!" His apology was cut short by a sudden voice in the background.
Fury rose inside her: this was the most progress anyone had made with him in days and now some arsehole decided to get in the way. Rolling her eyes which was very unlike her, she turned to the rude shouter, "Do you mind..."
Her voice trailed off as she realised that the intrusion was the least of her problems.
Standing in the corridor, wand at the ready was a wild eyed Severus.
"Snivellus ... was wondering when you'd show up..." James muttered.
Fearing the worst, Exie rushed forward but something stopped her and it wasn't Lily, still too lost in her tears to intervene. It was the gleam in James's eye, a gleam she hadn't seen since that night.
For the first time in a week, James Potter looked alive.
▬
I've managed to do daily updates so far but uni work is starting to catch up so updates might be a bit slower until I get this done as I haven't got any chapter pre-written. It's due in on the 28th but have started it already so should be done before with any luck but updates might be a bit slower until then. Of course they might not be, we shall see I guess - E x