The Moon Has Spoken

Eventually, Severus and Fiddler managed to get out of bed. They went downstairs, holding hands without really thinking about it, and it was only when they took in Ron’s disgruntled gaze that they quickly untwined their fingers.

“Sweet gargoyles, Snape, what on Earth happened to you?” exclaimed Tonks at the sight of him.

Severus’ jaw tensed, but surprisingly enough, he held back his tongue.

“Well, it seems like Fiddler knocked the crap out of him”, George said and the kitchen broke in mirth.

“Ha, ha, ha”, Fiddler said. “So hilarious, George, really. Actually, it was good old Lucius Malfoy whd itd it, and thus Severus was unable to collect the—”

But she couldn’t finish the sentence as they started talking all at once, wondering what was there to be done now that Severus’ façade had been blown up, asking themselves whether Dumbledore knew about it or not, and a myriad of nonsense which soon was lost in a Babel of voices.

“Shush, all of you”, Harry said at last. “Let’s not waste time in nonsense. All we need to discuss right now is what are we going to do to get that damn book”.

Severus found himself agreeing with Potter, and he shrugged at the mere thought. It was preposterous, but he had to admit the drat kid was right.

“I was thinking… Maybe Dung could do it?” Fiddler said dubiously.

“Well, if anyone can steal it, that’s him, sure”, Ron said.

“Thank you, Mr. Weasley”, Severus said with his silky voice.

Ron blushed horribly and tried to stutter an apology, but much to his abysmal surprise, Severus’ lips stretched into an approximation of a smile, as he walked towards the kitchen table to help himself to a cup of tea. They gathered round, eating breakfast in what, for once was an amiable silence, until Hermione’s brows knitted and she said thoughtfully:

“It surprises me, you know? That’s taken him so long to find out your true colors, Professor”.

“Does it really, Miss Granger?” Severus replied, dripping sarcasm.

“Well… I mean, think about it… He should have realized you weren’t with him any whe when you tried to stop Quirrell, since, as you surely recall, Voldemort was currently residing in the back of Quirrell’s head”.

Ron raised his eyes to fix them on Hermione.

“You’re right… I never thought of that before… So it surmeanmeans…” but he went quiet.

“And”, Hermione added then, “In our fourth year, when Voldemort returned and gathered his Death Eaters at the graveyard, you didn’t attend, and Harry said he heard Voldemort say you were to be killed… So… how come you managed to fool him so afterwards?”

Severus didn’t answer directly.

“How do you know I was not there?”

“Well… Well…”, Hermione hesitated for the first time. “Harry said… Voldemort— Voldemort said one of the Death Eaters was missing and that he believed he’d left forever… therefore he was to be killed… So we all assumed— Um— That is to say—”

“I was there”, Severus replied smoothly. “Who else do you think reactivated the Portkey back to Hogwarts?”

Harry’s jaw dropped.

“It was you?” he wailed, torn between shock and disbelief.

“Of course. When have you ever heard of a two-way Portkey? It needs to be reactivated in order to travel back”.

“That’s true”, Ron said. “Remember the Quidditch World Cup and how we had to wait for that Ministry bloke to set the Portkey ready instead of just grabbing one and getting the Hell out of there?”

The rest of them nodded.

“But how—How—”, Harry stammered, although Fiddler knew he really wanted to ask why.

“You will never pay attention in Potions, won’t you, Potter? Polyjuice Potion, of course”.

Everybody stared at him, truly amazed at the fact that Severus Snape was actually sharing his secrets with them.

“Whom did you impersonate?”, Lupin asked quietly.

Severus raised an eyebrow at him, and for a minute there it seemed like he wouldn’t answer.

“Mainly, Death Eaters who were low in rank… Easily disposable. The Dark Lord could not keep track of them all, hence, I would use them to disguise myseld bld blend amongst his minions… I was able to impersonate Crouch, Junior, even if it was only for the smallest amount of time… He was useful enough until Fudge couldn’t keep his mouth shut and told Malfoy about him being Kissed… it was a close shot. It was then, I believe, when Malfoy began to suspect me… for real.”

“But… But… Voldemort— Don’t be such a wimp, Ron… Voldemort knows you’re not with him anymore, doesn’t he?” Ginny blurted out suddenly.

Severus caught Fiddler’s eyes fixed on him and looked away, blinking rapidly.

“He knows… he always knows” he murmured.

“So why then did you go up there as yourself?” Ginny insisted, puzzled.

Dressed as one, a wolf will betray a Lamb.
Fiddler’s voice echoed in Severus’ head, and he suddenly wondered who had been the wolf, and who had been the lamb.

“Foolhardy boldness, I guess”, he confessed quietly. “And lack of an appropriate Death Eater to impersonate… Not to mention the impossibility to brew the Polyjuice Potion”.

Fiddler snorted at the subtle sarcasm in his voice. So did Tonks. A moment’s silence followed Severus’ remark and then Lupin said, apparently to himself.

“We owe you a great deal, then”.

But everyone heard.

“Think nothing of it”, Severus said curtly. “I assure you I am not doing it for you”.

Fiddler shook her head, fighting to keep her hands away from Severus’. She sighed. She wasn’t good when it came to accepting compliments, but Severus certainly beat her to it.

“Nevertheless”, Lupin insisted.

Silence now was a bit tense.

“So!” George exclaimed genially. “You want us to contact Dung, then?”

“That would be good”, Fiddler said. “He’s our only hope now”.

“We’re doomed then”, Moody growled, and for once, Severus joined them in their mirth.

“You’d be surprised”, said Fred.

Moody snorted disdainfully.

“Don’t worry, Fidd, we’ll handle it”, George assured her.

“And we’ll also prevent our good Severus here to get the stuffing knocked out of him for the sake of World’s peace”, Fred added to everyone’s mirth. “Although”, he finished, thoughtfully, “I am sure it has its benefits, am I right, Sev?” and he eyed both Severus and Fiddler with glittering eyes.

“Severus”, he bit every letter, but his awful blush gave him away anyway.

“Yes, of course, man. Sorry about that”.

“Yeah… We’ll contact Dung”, George concluded. “We have to, anyway, as we need to discuss—”

“GEORGE!” Fred wailed.

“Discuss what?” Molly asked suspiciously.

“Nothing, Mum… Simply some arrangements that we must see to”.

“Arrangements, George Weasley? What sort of arrangements?”

“Molly”,hur hur intervened, “Molly, they’re of age now. You can’t—”

“They’re dealing with stolen goods!”

“WE’RE NOT!”

“Quiet, for Heaven’s sake!” Hermione said and everyone turned to look at her.

“Uh, sorry, Your Highness!” said Ron, and he was quick enough to duck and dodge the fist that went straight to his nose.

“Don’t be a prat, Ron”, Harry said impatiently. “Can’t you hear it?”

“Hear what?”

“It’s a bird”, Fiddler said, tilting her head to one side and looking remarkably like Triskelion.

“Bird? Where? I don’t—”

“Shhhh!”

“Blimey, I don’t see the need to fuss ‘bout a bloody bird—”

“It’s Fawkes”, Harry said quietly.

Triskelion shot forward, all hair and claws, barking madly at the chimney, inside of which Fawkes had suddenly appeared, carrying a black leather book in its beak. Fiddler bent over to pick up the hysterical dog, and snorted as she looked the book in the phoenix’s beak, and the bruised man beside her.

“Couldn’t he have done that in the first place?” she said a little angril
Se
Severus turned to see her and said.

“He must have his reasons”.

“Yeah, God works in mysterious ways, right? No wonder why He’s running out of adepts…” Fiddler’s tone was dangerous now.

“Fiddler…”

“You could have been killed”, she replied, voice low and trembling. “And he could have gotten it all along!”

“I know the feeling”, Harry mumbled and they laughed nervously.

Fawkes eyed them thoughtfully and walked towards Severus to give him the book. He took it and flicked through the pages until he found a rather battered sheet marked with withered, nasty-smelling leaves. Fawkes nudged him with his left claw and Severus took the letter attached to it. He read it in silence, surrounded by the curious gazes of the others. They were amazed when they heard him laugh.

“He says he owes you an apology, Fiddler”, Severus said at last. “And that Mundungus Fletcher was ‘merely passing by’, when he seized his chance…”

They laughed at that, and Fiddler’s brow returned to its normal appearance.

“That man kills me, really. OK, let me see that, I must let the guys know so they can get started”.

Severus watched her intently as she browsed through the gothic letters of the recipe. Her brow creased once more and her right eyebrow lifted in her very own half-sardonic-half-inquiring gesture. She reached idly for pen and paper and began taking notes with her curly writing. Every once and then she’d nod and smile as if she’d just confirmed something, and, finally, curiosity got the best out of Ron, who asked her to share it with the rest of them. He regretted it, as everyone else did, because Fiddler showered them with a complicate explanation involving weird substances, even stranger action mechanisms, and awful things happening to both cells and neuromuscular junctions, whatever those were. She established an obscure comparison between something called acetylcholine and the Imperius curse, stating that that substance was surely affected during the curse’s course of action; she also mentioned a couple of Muggle medications used in the treatment of some disease called Myasthenia Gravis and she expressed her beliefs that they could be of aid on resisting the Imperius course.
She then moved to Potassium cyanide and paralleled it with Cruciatus curse, once again confusing them by telling them how Cyanide released certain painful substances into the bloodstream, same substances that could be released during Cruciatus, and again she named some more Muggle drugs destined to prevent pain.

“Blimey”, said Ron when Fiddler finally ran out of breath. “I thougnly nly Hermione did that”.

“One of the beauties of life, Ron Weasley”, said Fiddler sardonically, “is that you’ll always find a rational explanation for everything.”

Hermione grinned smugly.

“Thank you!”

Fiddler mirrored her smile, but Ron carried on.

“But there are some gs ygs you can’t explain”, he said, stubbornly. “Magic itself is unfathomable at its best”.

“Because there’s no research done”, replied Fiddler. “Come on, did any of you ever thought of what I just said? No. You just go on believing you must go through cruciatus and Avada Kedavra, without bothering on searching for alternative ways of blocking it. Not everything’s about magic, you know, you can get some help from where you least expect it”.

“She sounds like Albus”, Arthur said gleefully.

“So you’re saying we should blend Medicine and Magic in order to find a counter-curse for the Unforgivabl ask asked Harry.

“That’s what I am saying. And we need Dumbledore’s approval to do it… I am fairly certain what I told you about Cruciatus and Imperius will work. But as for the Killing Curse… I would need to conduct some more research. Does anyone know if someone’s ever performed an autopsy on someone hit by it?”

“They did it…” Arthur Weasley startedfullfully. “On Riddle’s Father and Grandparents”. He went silent for a while and then added: “They didn’t find anything abnormal”.

“But that was fifty years ago”, said Tonks.

“Maybe they didn’t know what to look for”, said Hermione reasonably.

“And that’s the only time they’ve done such thing?”

“Yes… To our knowledge”.

“The point is, Fiddler, you just can’t overlook magic”, insisted Ron. “No matter what, there’s simply no counteract for the Killing Curse. That’s why itUnfoUnforgivable… There’s no way of avoiding death”.

“I grant you that one. But. If we block whatever it is that the curse causes in the body”, Hermione said before Fiddler could talk, “it would be like wearing a bullet-proof vest. I mean, surely, no one can dodge bullets but it makes you feel safer knowing that you’re wearing one of those”.

“Unless they shoot you in the head”, said the twins at unison and even Severus laughed, although he wasn’t quite sure what a bullet-proof vest was.

But Fiddler was glad that at least Hermione had got her point right.

“It’s just like Hermione said”, she spoke. “But to find out what does Avada Kedavra do, I need someone who’s been hit by it, so I can perform the autopsy and— What?” she asked, when she took in the others’ disgruntled looks. She then realised her previous words had been more than a little callous. “Oh, come on, guys, I wasn’t suggesting you’d volunteer for it, I merely said—”

“ ‘S OK, Fiddler, we get it”, said George.

“I think we’ll have to use an animal, if anything”, said Harry, fully meaning to get to work immediately.

“An… an animal?” mumbled Fiddler, holding Triskelion to her chest.

Severus found it amusing that she could speak so calmly about humans being placed under the Unforgivables and yet she shuddered at the perspective of harming an animal for the sake of their investigation. Now that he thought of it, it was a common brand to all psychopathic dictators he’d heard or read about: Lenin, Hitler, Grindewald… maybe even Voldemort.
Dumbledore was right, Fiddler Greene was one scary character.

He caught her bright eyes fixed on him and realised she had seen through his mind like an open book. But she didn’t fret. She merely bowed at him and sent him a thought from her own head:

Red Sun rising,
Drown without inhaling.
Within, the dark holds hard,
Higher than hope my cure lies.

And it was then when he understood Fiddler’s insistence on finding a counter-curse. She recognized the evil in herself, and she was struggling to get rid of it. Just as he’d done…

Once.

“Well, yeah”, Ron was saying just then. “An animal. We don’t have a choice, do we? Now, who here can cast Avada Kedavra?”

Everyone turned to look at Severus, to find that he had his gaze fixed almost unwillingly on Harry.

“Bad idea”, said Fiddler as if reading his thoughts. “It might bounce off again and hit you, and I certainly don’t want that to happen”.

They laughed at it, except for Harry and Severus, who cleared his throat and looked away.

“There are two minor difficulties, though”, he drawled. “For one, I don’t have a wand… And we’ve been forbidden by the Headmaster to perform magic… remember?”

Fiddler’s face fell.

“Oh… Right. Damn. Such a pity. How am I supposed to carry on with my research, then?”

The answer to that question came around two days later.