The legacy of the Diary

Legacy of the diary
By Luciusfan


Chapter 21 – Investigations Begin


The next day dawned bright and sunny, though Severus and Hermione missed most of the early morning beauty – sleeping late into the morning. Fortunately, being a Saturday, nobody missed them at breakfast, and there were no lessons to teach.

The lively sounds of students training for Quidditch woke Severus, his head aching from the late night and the strain of so much legilimency (not to mention other activities) the previous day. Throwing a robe on, he headed out of the bedroom and off towards his private potions store to find a little something to wake him properly and ease his tired head.

When Severus returned to the bedroom, bottle in hand, Hermione was already dressed and was casting a few well chosen spells to tidy up her wild hair. The sleep seemed to have done her good, as had the food last night. She greeted Severus cheerily if a little formally and he sensed a touch of ‘morning after’ nervous tension.

“Good morning! I thought you had gone out! Slytherin are practicing on the pitch, I think… I assumed you must be down there watching!”

“Quidditch! Good God, no! It’s bad enough I have to attend the matches as head of house!”
He took a shot from the potion bottle, screwing his face up as he did so. He really must remember to try and make some of these potions taste better! Hermione thought it best not to ask the reason for the potion, but instead turned her mind to her own potion problem.

“I think I’ll make a start on finding out about that oil today. Spend some time in the lab and in the library, maybe?”

“Good idea – I thought I’d make my own enquiries about Malfoy actually – ask a few ‘contacts’ of mine, find out about the protective spells round Quidditch stadiums, that sort of thing?”

Hermione smiled awkwardly, then crossed to where Severus was standing. She reached up on tiptoes to kiss him but he backed off rapidly.

“Oh, better not Hermione, I haven’t had a chance to wash or anything – I’m feeling really grim actually – I’ll…er…see you later?”

There was a note of finality in his voice as though he were dismissing her, and she simply nodded and left the room, feeling a little crushed and confused. Maybe he was telling the truth –and he just didn’t feel that great. She shook her head, dismissing any alternative thoughts and headed for her room to find the oil bottle so that she could start work.

~~~xx~~~

Several hours later, Hermione was still hunched over a test tube rack, and cauldron – a festering mess oozing from the pot, while multi-colours of foam dried on the outside of each test tube. She picked up each vessel in turn, looking at it and shaking her head. She turned to her cauldron and stirred the gooey mess in despair. Finally she raised her wand and with a flick, and cleaned the test tubes and the cauldron. It was not the first time today she had had to clean away her efforts!

She looked down at the parchment filled with scribbled scientific notes, her head resting on her hands. What did all this mean? She was no closer to knowing anything about the oil – and certainly had not been able to replicate the potion. She picked up the selection of herbs and roots, bottles of potions, essential oils and carrier oils and began to tidy up her work bench. The answer had not been found in the potions lab – maybe she would try the library next.

~~~xx~~~

After a further two hours, the books piled up around Hermione were screening her completely from the rest of the library, but she had found nothing useful. Even dark arts texts from the restricted section had held no clues. There was no reference to any type of charmed oil or love potion in the form of massage oil. Madam Pince peered over the tower of books and frowned at Hermione, who was sat back in her chair, eyes closed, fingertips massaging her temples.

“Is there anything I can do to help?”

Hermione’s eyes flashed open and she sat up in her chair, embarrassed at being found like this.

“Oh… er… thanks, but I don’t think so – I’m just doing some private research.”

“Shall I put these away for you, professor?” Madam Pince gestured at the teetering stacks of heavy books.

“Oh, yes, thank you that would be helpful. Actually – do you mind if I leave you to it, Irma? I’ve got to go somewhere…” she looked up hopefully.

“Of course, dear – I’ve not got much to do anyway – it’s the Gryffindor- Hufflepuff match this afternoon, so all the students are outside watching – it’s a long one today!…” The bustling librarian continued to chatter as she busied herself with the first stack of books and Hermione took the opportunity to escape the library. The light was already beginning to fade and she didn’t fancy the idea of darkness where she was headed.

Once back in her room, she threw on a long black, hooded cloak. Concealing her wand and the oil bottle inside the robe, she took a handful of floo powder and cast it into the fireplace, carefully enunciating “Knockturn alley!”

~~~xx~~~

“For the last time, professor – as I said before – I don’t know anything!” A whining voice snivelled.

“I could force feed you veritaserum you know Mister Borgin! Now, if you won’t tell me what you know, at least tell me – when was the last time Mr Malfoy was in here?”
Severus flicked his wand and the slimy shopkeeper, who was already hovering in mid air, rose even higher, his head almost touching the ceiling.

“Please, just let me down!”
Severus dropped his wand and Borgin dropped to the floor with a thud, a cloud of dust rising from his landing. Severus looked at him and lifted his wand again.

“I…I… think it was sometime last week.” He struggled to his feet, dusting himself down.

“what did he want?”

“He was after some…er…dungeon equipment. I sent him down to Dungford’s Dungeon supplies down at the end of the alley.”

“And was that all he wanted?” Severus’ voice was terrifyingly quiet, Mr Borgin’s eyes flicked to look at Severus’ face, then down to the hand holding his wand and back again nervously before answering.

“No – he wanted information too – he wanted to know who had been selling illegal jinxes in the alley – apparently he’s been speaking to everyone in Knockturn Alley – like you, really…”
He hesitated, hoping that this was enough to satisfy the potions professor.

“Very well, if that is all I am going to get out of you, good day Mr Borgin!”

Severus swept round, his robes billowing out behind him, and marched from the shop and out into the alley. He turned abruptly and crashed straight into a cloaked and hooded figure.

“Out of my way…” the figure looked up and Severus saw the face, hiding in the deep folds of black fabric. “Hermione! What the hell…where are you going?”

“I could ask you the same!”

He pulled her roughly to the side of the alley, into the doorway of a derelict shop. His tone was scathing.
“Come off it! I’m an ex-deatheater for god’s sake – I’m well known down here – besides you knew I was going to be making enquiries about Malfoy today, where do you think I was going to go – Florean Fortescue’s ice-cream parlour!?”

“I…well… I didn’t think really. Did you find out anything?”
“We can’t talk here. Where are you headed?”
“I was just going in to Borgin and Burkes to ask about the oil and bottle – I’ve been to ‘Poisons and Potions’ on the corner by the Shrunken Head shop – but they weren’t very helpful.”

“Well, there’s a surprise!” Snape’s tone was sarcastic.

Darkness was closing in and the meagre oil street lamps did nothing to brighten the atmosphere of Knockturn Alley. Crowds were beginning to gather in numerous dark corners and vendors jostled passers-by for sales.
“Come on, Hermione. Let’s get out of here. Let’s head up to the Leaky Cauldron – we can have something to eat and talk about our day.” He reached to grasp her hand and began to pull her through the crowd.

In a shadowed doorway, another figure emerged and began to push through the crowds – his head was concealed by a black velvet hood, but the cane he used to push the street vendors aside like vermin was distinctive – long, black and sporting a silver serpent’s head at it’s top.

‘So the two professors really had joined forces, and now they were prying in places they didn’t belong.’ Lucius decided to keep a safe distance as he followed the pair through Knockturn Alley, into Diagon Alley and up to the brick wall, behind which was concealed The Leaky Cauldron.

~~~xxx~~~


With steaming bowls of pumpkin soup and hunks of bread in front of them the two professors sat and ate and talked about what they had done that day and both had to admit that they hadn’t got very far. The alcove in The Leaky Cauldron where they sat was lit by a single candle and both faces were shrouded in shadows, as was the face of Lucius Malfoy sitting in a similar alcove on the other side of the tavern. He cradled a brew of some description, occasionally lifting it to his mouth, his head and body swathed in black robes, not a single strand of blonde hair on show.

“So Malfoy has been asking questions then?” Hermione mused after hearing about Severus’ inquiries. “But that doesn’t make sense if it was him that did it…” Her voice trailed off, puzzled.

“He’s probably just trying to throw us off the scent. Speaking of which how is your scent bottle investigation coming on – any thoughts about the oil?”

Hermione frowned and pulled the small bottle from her robes and sat it on the table between them. It glistened as facets of crystal caught the flickering candle flame. Lucius looked up, his eye caught by the twinkling. A smile twitched in the corner of his mouth, he was very proud of that little bottle and yet two potions professors could not make head nor tail of it!

“Nobody in Knockturn Alley knows anything about it. Or at least they’re not telling me if they do. And I’ve done every test I can think of on it and I’m no nearer to finding out its secret.”

“Well, at least there’s none of it left so it can’t do any further harm. Let us just hope it has had no longer lasting effects.” Severus snipped. Hermione on the other hand, Lucius noticed, seemed somewhat sad about that fact. Did she want to know what was in the oil so she could find out what he was up to? Or, did she want to know so she could make more of it? A smirk crept across his face again at the thought of the power such an innocent little bottle had had on Hermione. The smirk straightened quickly and he drew his cloak round himself closer as the two professors got up from their table and left the room walking dangerously close to his table. A waft of Hermione’s perfume caught him off guard as she swept past him, completely unaware of his presence. But it made him acutely aware of her proximity and held the breath as long as he could. As the two companions left the Leaky Cauldron, Lucius let out a long slow breath and started to formulate his next move.

It was time for another governor’s visit to Hogwarts.