Smoke & Mirrors

Disclaimer The characters and sheer genius belong to J K Rowling. Any smut is mine, but I don't make a penny/eurocent/cent from my warped imagination.

Chapter 22 Fate

"It's tonight."

Snape's words rang in Harry's head all the next day. He gave Fred and George a heavily-censored account of his dream at breakfast. The twins were kind (for them) but didn't think it meant anything. "Just a dream, Harry," Fred said, as he and George headed downstairs for another day in their shop. But Harry was convinced that Snape had found a way to contact him in his dreams, that something important... the select gathering? was going to happen that very night.

The day wore on. Harry was trying to decide whether to ignore his friends' advice and make an attempt at getting into Vix's Vices himself. Would he do more harm than good? But if he didn't, and something happened to Severus, he'd never forgive himself. After all, Severus HAD been trying to contact him... hadn't he? Or were they just dreams, fuelled by sexual longing and wish fulfilment, as everyone else thought? Harry was in a quandary.

Later, when he looked back on that time, he was never sure whether he'd have gone to the Knockturn Alley knocking shop anyway, or not. He liked to think that he would have; that his belief in Snape was that strong. But in the event his mind was made up for him.

It was early evening. Harry had just brewed himself a mug of tea and was sitting moodily staring out at the busy scene in the street outside. Suddenly he became aware of a strange burning sensation on his leg. It took him a moment to realise what it was: the fake Galleon which Hermione had given him was not only glowing red-hot in his jeans' pocket; it was also jiggling around erratically. Harry snatched it out of his pocket and promptly dropped it on the table, blowing on his fingers. "Trust Hermione to improve her alarm charm," he thought, half-amused. "Wish she'd warned me, though."

He pulled out his wand and levitated the coin so it was close enough to read. Spelled out in tiny letters around its rim were the words: Help. Bagman.. Harry hastily performed the charm to send out a message: Ludo: where are you?.

Nothing happened. Impatient, Harry was about to send the message again, when the coin, which had cooled, glowed red again. Harry read Ministry inscribed around its edge.

Harry ran into his bedroom and seized his Invisibility Cloak from the top of his trunk. Stuffing it and his wand into his jacket pocket he hurtled downstairs, to be met by Fred and George coming up. They, too, had received Ludo Bagman's message. A moment later the street door resounded to a loud banging, almost drowned out by the sound of ethereal voices singing "While Shepherds watched their flocks by night, all seated on the ground." A repeat performance of the carol echoed faintly from the flat above.

"Ah, that must be Remus Lupin," said George, pointing his wand at the door to admit their friend.

In spite of his worry about Snape, Harry found time to grin at the carol George's enchanted door warning had deemed appropriate for the werewolf. "Are you coming to the Ministry with us?" he asked Remus.

Remus shook his head. "No need for us to go rushing in; Tonks is investigating now."

"Everybody else must have got Bagman's message, too," Harry said, peering over Remus's shoulder into Diagon Alley. Remus turned and quickly scanned the street. "Looks like Hermione's here already," he said.

Hermione came running up, clutching Crookshanks in her arms. "I thought it was best to come here," she said breathlessly. "Has anyone gone to the Ministry to find out what's happening?"

Before Remus could answer, they were hailed by a loud shout and Ron strode up to them. "What's going on?" He demanded. Then, turning to Hermione, "And you owe me a new pair of jeans, that damn coin of yours burnt a hole in my pocket!"

"Shut up, Ron," Harry said impatiently. "Tonks is at the Ministry, trying to find out what's happened to Ludo Bagman. Maybe I should go too – I've got my Invisibility Cloak."

Remus stretched out a restraining hand. "The best thing we can do is wait upstairs in the flat until Tonks reports in. She works for the Ministry of Magic, so she's got a perfect right to be there: she's by far the best one of us to find out what's happened to Ludo."

Harry, itching for some action, still wanted to rush off to the Ministry himself. But he saw the sense of Remus' argument and reluctantly joined the others in the twins' flat. They didn't have long to wait before a brass band rendition of Ding Dong Merrily on High competed with a massed choir singing Oh Come, All Ye Faithful over by the window.

"That bloody door charm of yours is getting on my wick," Fred complained to George. "Can't we go back to the chimes?"

"After Christmas you can do what you like with it," replied George, pulling out his wand and temporarily raising the wards to their flat. A few minutes later Tonks appeared, supporting an unusually pale Ludo Bagman. Harry and Remus helped her to lower him onto the sofa.

"I found him passed out in the Department of Rare Magical Artefacts," said Tonks. "Took a while to bring him round. You sit there Ludo, I'll make a nice cup of tea."

"You don't have anything a bit stronger, do you?" Ludo said feebly.

Fred produced a bottle of brandy from a corner cupboard, poured a generous tot into a glass and handed it to Ludo, who took a deep swig. His normally ruddy colour began to return to his cheeks.

"I guess I wasn't as convincing as I'd thought," he said ruefully. "Obviously the bad guys thought things over and decided not to trust me after all."

"What happened?" Harry demanded.

"I got hit by a stunning charm," Ludo said. "I think they meant me to stay unconscious until tomorrow." He rubbed his forehead and took another swig from his glass. "But I've still got some of the old Beater constitution from my Wimbourne Wasps days," he added proudly. "I was out for about an hour, came round, saw the Pensieve had gone, and sent out the alarm. Then I collapsed again, until Tonks revived me."

"Well done for sending out the message," Harry said. "We all got it."

"But why didn't Kingsley Shacklebolt respond?" wondered Hermione. "He had a coin too, didn't he?"

"Yes, I gave him one; but I don't know where he is," Tonks said, looking worried. "He's been away from his office this past couple of days. I tried to contact him after I found Ludo, but he hasn't been back to me."

"He said something about investigating a tip-off from an informer," Harry said, remembering.

"Maybe the bad guys were just getting him out of the way," George said.

"I hope nothing's happened to him," said Hermione.

"Anyway, we're wasting time," Harry declared. "I'm tired of all this hanging around; I'm off to Vix's to find out what's going on."

"We'll come with you," George said.

"Yeah, I vote we go in mob-handed," added Fred.

"Not Ludo, though," Tonks said. "He's still looking pretty shaky."

"Nonsense, of course I'm coming with you," Ludo declared, getting up from the sofa. He staggered, turning white. "Oh dear," he said, collapsing back down again. "Not as young as I was!" he added, with a feeble laugh.

Eventually it was decided that Ludo Bagman should stay behind, with Hermione to keep him company, and the others would reconnoitre Knockturn Alley. "I can try fine-tuning the Protean Charm on my Galleon, too," she said, pulling the fake coin out of her pocket. "I must try to contact Kingsley Shacklebolt again."

~*~
Harry never forgot the ominous walk through Knockturn Alley that night. Torches leaning in iron brackets over shady doorways spluttered and flared sullenly in the fast-falling sleet. Their fiery reflections laid streaks of colour across the slick wet surfaces of the cobblestones. The few passers-by slunk furtively past, faces averted or hidden under hooded cloaks.

The six of them came to a halt in a shadowy alcove across the street from Vix's Vices. It had been decided that Ron would go in first with Tonks, Metamorphmaged to look like a rent-boy, and create a diversion. The others would then follow, hoping to slip past while the pair distracted the brothel's security guards. Harry wore his Invisibility Cloak; they all had their wands ready.

At first the plan went well. Ron, primed with a draught of Babbling Beverage, gave a convincing display of drunkenness, demanding a "puh-puh-private room for me'n'im", his arm affectionately tight around the Metamorphmaged Tonks' neck. As Remus, Harry and the twins slid past the noisy argument they had provoked, Harry heard the reception boy saying crossly, "You're not supposed to bring your own, you know!" But then one of the security trolls spotted George and lunged at him with a roar.

"I'm over here," shouted Fred, appearing in a doorway.

"No, I'm here," countered George.

The troll looked from one to the other, a perplexed expression on its stupid face. While it was still wondering what was going on, Harry hit it with a stunning charm from the shelter of his Cloak. The noise the troll made crashing to the ground was enough to bring reinforcements running; but a series of hexes from Lupin and some nifty spellwork from the twins kept the opposition at bay while Harry frantically investigated room after room.

It came almost as an anticlimax, when they finally reached the private parlour at the back of the brothel, to be greeted urbanely by Vix himself, who claimed to be expecting them. "And if Mr Potter is present... I presume he is... he can remove his Invisibility Cloak – yes, I know all about that."

Harry slowly shrugged off his cloak and stared at the small man with faded reddish-brown hair; he thought he could still see a resemblance to the sullen young rent-boy of Snape's Pensieve memory. Snape himself stood to one side, his face impassive. A few scantily-clad youths hovered in the background. The other occupants of the room were clustered around a low table containing a Pensieve. Harry recognised Corvid Simonides among them. Half a dozen of the men, presumably the contingent from the Ministry, wore masks; Harry was almost sure one of them was Draco Malfoy. He wondered whether Snape had succeeded with his Memory Melding potion; was Malfoy in for a nasty surprise?

"So nice of you to call, Mr Potter," Vix cooed. "After the Pensieve entertainment, once our friends here have seen what you are capable of, you will be able to provide them with a live display of your talents." He pulled one of the rent-boys to him and casually fingered his arse. "As you see, I have a few spares in case you find yourself unable to satisfy everybody."

He turned to Snape. "I must thank you for arranging for your young friend to join us, although I confess I'm not sure how you managed it, restrained as you are."

For the first time Harry realised that a short chain held Snape tethered by the ankle to a ring set in the wall. His heart leapt. Of course he hadn't REALLY supposed that Snape was in collusion with Vix...

"You won't be needing your wands, gentlemen," Vix said, an edge to his voice. "And as you see, you are easily outnumbered."

George looked as though he wanted to chance it anyway, but Harry grabbed his arm. "Yeah, put 'em away, we don't want anyone getting hurt." He especially didn't want a tethered Severus Snape getting caught in the crossfire.

"Well, well, what have we here?" Vix asked as a security troll roughly pushed Ron and Tonks, still in her rent-boy guise, into the room. He eyed Tonks up and down. "Thinking of applying for a job, dear? I'm sure some of my guests would be delighted to give you an audition."

Harry felt Remus make a convulsive movement beside him, and put a warning hand on his arm.

Snape cleared his throat. Vix turned back to him. "Ah yes, you were going to tell me how you communicated with the soon-to-be-disgraced Harry Potter."

"Quite simple," Snape replied. "Your photographic experiments provided me with the means."

Vix stared at him. "The original of the photograph? I thought you searched him, Corvid?"

"A temporary Invisibility spell," Snape said. "I wouldn't want to be without Harry's likeness next to my heart... until I could enjoy the real thing again."

Vix's face tightened; could he be jealous? Snape continued silkily: "All I had to do was stroke the photograph with my cock and murmur words of love, and he heard me in his dreams... Of course, you have never experienced a connection such as ours..."

Harry held his breath. He'd seen Snape goading people before... he knew what he was trying to do... but why was he doing it?

"Give it to me!" Vix demanded shrilly. "I'll destroy it, like I'll destroy your precious Harry, once he's been shown up for the cock-hungry slut he is!"

As Vix reached out his hand, Harry's eyes met Snape's for a moment, and he realised Snape had never lifted the death curse he'd placed on the photograph, making it fatal for anyone but himself or Harry to touch it.

"No!" Harry shouted.

Then everything seemed to happen in slow motion. Harry moved towards Vix, knowing he was already too late. Snape let his cloak fall open, revealing the pocket in the breast of his robe. The brothel owner's hand reached into it and closed around the photograph. For a moment he looked puzzled, then realisation leapt into his eyes as he staggered, letting it drop. Snape caught him in his arms as he fell and held him close. They exchanged a long look, as understanding, awareness, life itself, slowly faded from Vix's eyes.

After that events were a blur to Harry. He was only dimly aware of Remus' protective arm around his shoulders, the arrival of more people, including Hermione and Kingsley Shacklebolt; a lot of noise and confusion. Then a walk through Knockturn Alley, appearing oddly disjointed, as though he was watching a film with missing frames: a confused impression of lights and darkness.

He didn't fully come to himself until much later that night. He was sitting on a window seat looking out over a snowy landscape, with no recollection of how he'd got there. A goblet stood on the seat beside him.

"Drink some, Harry," came a voice. "It's good for shock."

Harry turned his head abruptly to see Remus Lupin standing behind him, his face concerned and kind. "Remus? Where am I?"

"You're in Walden MacNair's old Scottish mansion, Harry. It was impounded when he was revealed as a Death Eater. Kingsley Shacklebolt has decided to keep the house-elves and rent-boys he rescued from Vix's Vices here for safety while he investigates how far the corruption at the Ministry has spread. He thought it best we came as well, as we're witnesses." Remus smiled. "In fact the twins have taken to the idea with gusto; they're busy getting the place ready for a big Christmas house party."

"Is... everyone... OK?" Harry asked. "There was a fight, wasn't there... I don't remember properly..."

"All your friends are safe," Remus reassured him. "Ron took a bit of spell damage; but luckily one of the rent-boys knocked up his opponent's wand arm in time to stop him being hit by a killing curse."

"And... Snape?"

"Kingsley Shacklebolt has taken him in for questioning. Don't worry, Harry; I'm sure it's just a formality."

TBC >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>