Everything I Do, I Do It For You

Ch 45: Cornelius’ Duplicity

“Imperio,” Cornelius whispered as he grasped onto Dr. Lopes frame, wand sticking in his side. Instantaneously he felt the man straighten up and took in the glazed look in his eyes.

Now I will get some answers,’ Cornelius thought as he pocketed his wand and brushed himself off.

“Take me to Robert Finn,” Cornelius said in a succinct voice.

Dr. Lopes, helpless against the curse placed upon his person, complied and left the room.

The two men walked down the white corridor, meeting no one on the way, and Cornelius paused as Dr. Lopes stopped in front of a door.

“Open it,” he whispered, the irritation evident in his voice.

Andrew reached down to his belt and unclipped a set of keys. His fingers worked methodically as he reached down for the master key and placed it into the lock, turning it. The sound of the lock clicking signified that the door was now open.

Cornelius reached past the man as he turned the doorknob and the door swung open. He pushed Dr. Lopes into the room and followed him inside.

“Colloportus,” he muttered, as he raised his wand at the door; it sealed with an odd squelching noise.

Turning around, his eyes fell onto the only piece of furniture in the room, a single bed. There, strapped to the bed, was his only true link to the going on in Calan Park, the now ex-Head Orderly, Mr Robert Finn.

Taking a step closer to the bed, he took in the man’s peaceful face as he slept in his drug-induced state.

’Not for long, Mr Finn,’ he thought as an evil grin slowly made its way onto his face.

Lifting his wand towards the bed, he stated, “Ennervate.”

He watched as Mr Finn’s eyes began to flutter open, taking in the sight of the Minister of Magic standing before him. Robert let out a scream, though whether it was at the shock of seeing Cornelius Fudge standing in front of him or whether he was in some kind of psychological pain, Cornelius couldn’t tell, and quite frankly, he couldn’t care less.

“Silencio,” Cornelius barked out quickly, his wand was still raised at the helpless Squib. Mr Finn’s mouth still worked furiously, though no sound was escaping it.

Cornelius didn’t have time for this; hell, he wanted answers and he wanted them yesterday.

“Legilimens,” he muttered as he stared into the Squib’s wide eyes.

Mr Robert Finn’s mind was a mess, memories were scattered here and there, not making much sense at all to Cornelius. He grunted in frustration and delved deeper still into Robert’s psyche, trying to fit together the pieces of his fragmented mind.

’There,’ he assumed, as the imagines of Miss Hermione Granger came into view, but wait… who was that tall, dark-haired man standing behind her? ’Snape,’ he thought as he growled out loud, his brow furrowed into the picture of concentration.

He looked on as Mr Finn entered a room and Miss Granger sat herself down. Snape was standing behind her with his usual sneer upon his face, oh how Fudge loathed the man. It seemed that Miss Granger had indeed recalled everything, but was acting so calm about her whole ordeal. Cornelius figured that she had yet to discover that Mr Finn had indeed laced her medication with the potions given to the orderly by himself.

It was then that Mr Finn dropped the stone and bedlam broke out. The assassin appeared and Snape was duelling with him whilst Miss Granger was pushed down on the floor. It seemed that the assassin had the upper hand and had managed to injure Snape.

A smile came over Cornelius’ face; he was going to enjoy watching Snape’s demise greatly. It was then that Miss Granger stood up and the most magnificent, yet terrifying sight met Cornelius’ eyes.

She opened her mouth and an ear piercing scream came forth. A bolt of red light shot from the scar on her forehead, and both Snape and Fudge’s hired assassin dropped to their knees on the floor, almost instantaneously cradling their heads and squeezing their eyes shut.

Interesting, he mused, as he continued to watch the scene unfold before his eyes.

All of a sudden someone else appeared in the far right hand corner of the room and he stared at the unfamiliar wizard trying to place his face. It didn’t matter right now, but he memorised the elder wizard’s face to scrutinise later.

Cornelius saw the wizard hesitate as he took in the scene before him and then Miss Granger collapse to the floor in a heap. He watched as the wizard strode forward towards Snape and placed a hand on his shoulder. There was an exchange of words and then the wizard handed Miss Granger to Snape. They both then Apparated away, to Hogwarts he assumed, as the older wizard stayed behind.

Cornelius’ eyes never left the scene as it played out and he saw the assassin flaying around on the ground. The older wizard took a step forward, never taking his eyes off the assassin, and Summoned both of his wands.

He observed the wizard pocketing the two wands and then taking a step closer to the assassin. The unknown wizard laid a hand on the other's body and the assassin let out a scream of agony before falling limp. He was most clearly dead.

Cornelius saw the elderly wizard straighten himself up and head towards Mr Robert Finn, wand at the ready. Robert then backed himself up to the door, nowhere to go, as his eyes were darted around looking for a means of escape. Finding none, he started blurting out things about the Minister, things that he swore he would never tell anyone.

It wasn’t as if he could have gotten a wand oath out of the man as he was a Squib and therefore held no wand. Cornelius cursed himself for his lack of insight.

’What an idiot,’ Cornelius thought; he was furious with the Squib for his lack of loyalty and his own thoughts of self preservation.

He heard him telling this wizard everything, how the Minister of Magic had kept wizards and witches in this facility for years, playing with their powers and minds.

“Damn him,” Cornelius cursed out loud; now the Order of the Phoenix would be snooping around his hospital and find the others that he had placed within the facility’s walls and the magic he had positioned to make the patients unfindable to witches and wizards searching for them.

Still watching he saw the older wizard place a hand onto Mr Finn’s shoulder and watched as Robert crumpled to the ground.

’So that explains why he is acting the way he is,’ Cornelius thought. He only had limited time left within these walls and he would analyse it later, when he was safety tucked away in his mansion.

Ending his link into Mr Finn’s mind, he struggled to come to terms with everything he had seen. He didn’t care to know what had happened to the assassin as it didn’t matter much anyway; the hit wizard had failed in his mission to bring Miss Granger to him and therefore would not get paid for his services, not that he could anyway.

’The best in the business indeed,’ he scoffed.

Well he’d better cut his loses while he still could and get the hell out of Calan Park whilst he was still able.

”Finite Incantatem!” He spat the words as if they were a potion he had just drunk with a nasty aftertaste.

He Apparated back to his mansion just as Mr Robert Finn started screaming once more.

***

Hermione awoke the next morning. Peeling her eyes open slowly, she took in the mess in her room and suddenly felt guilty.

Sitting up, she noticed the picture frame on the end of her bed and picked it up. Staring at it, she remembered what transpired between her ex-Potions Master and herself last night. She had cried into his bare chest. Her cheeks rapidly grew hot as she blushed furiously.

’Oh no,’ she thought to herself, ‘how am I going to face him now?’

She sighed quite heavily as she stood from her bed. Hermione noticed that she was no longer wearing shoes and, come to think about it, she couldn’t remember getting into bed at all last night.

Hermione hung her head, ’What am I going to do now?’ she thought as she looked around for her wand to right the room once more.

Finding it on the bedside table, Hermione made quick work of putting everything back in its place.

Looking over to the door, she noticed that it was ajar ever so slightly. Creeping up to it, she peered out through the slit into the sitting room. She immediately saw Professor Snape, Mr Crobobin and the Headmaster sitting down with tea. She licked her lips unintentionally as she felt parched for the first time since she had awoken.

“Ah, Miss Granger, I see that you are up,” Dumbledore interrupted Severus as he craned his neck around in the chair he was currently seated in.

’How does he do that?’ Hermione thought, as she pushed open the door and took a couple of weary steps towards the party.

“Take a seat,” Dumbledore commented as he conjured up a seat next to his own, “and join us for morning tea.”

As Hermione took her proffered seat next to the Headmaster, she looked up to see him smiling at her; he held a look on his face of the caring man that she had once loved as a grandfather. Not that she didn’t still love the Headmaster as you would an elderly relation, however, it was different now, so much time had past and she hardly felt she knew him, let alone the others anymore. Hermione hardly knew herself and that was the hardest thing for her to come to terms with.

“Tea?” Dumbledore asked as he lifted up the teapot.

“Yes, please,” Hermione answered and seemed to anticipate his next question as she added, “two sugars and milk, thank you.”

The Headmaster passed Hermione the cup of tea. She took a tentative sip of the hot brew and looked down into her lap. There was no way she was going to look up and into the dark-haired wizard’s eyes as she could feel his glare on her. It made her rather uncomfortable. Wiggling around in her seat, she was saved from further scrutiny by the Headmaster’s voice.

“I was just letting Severus and Mr Crobobin know that I have called the Order together and that the meeting is in thirty minutes,” Dumbledore directed this towards Hermione, who looked up with feigned interest. “I have set up the Floo from this chamber to go straight to the staff room. My office is a little bit cluttered at the moment, so I thought it best if we moved our meeting to the staff room.” He finished taking a sip of his tea.

Hermione didn’t know what to say so, she kept her mouth closed and sipped on her tea instead.

There was a moment of utter silence; it wasn’t the good kind of silence either, it was instead the awkward kind.

“Very well,” Dumbledore said as he placed his tea cup on the table in front of him and stood up. “I will see you all in twenty six and a half minutes.” He chuckled to himself. “Oh, and please try not to be late. You know how it is when the guests of honour are the last to arrive.” With that being said, he made his way to the fireplace, threw a pinch of Floo powder into the orange flames, stated his destination and left.

Severus was the first to stand as he rolled his eyes and made a non-committal noise in the back of his throat. “Always the one for dramatics,” Severus stated as Tolmie laughed out loud.

Hermione was still staring into her now empty tea cup. She didn’t want to look up as she worked, a thoughtful look onto her face.

“Miss Granger,” Severus said, “I would suggest you get a move on or we will be late. I think that a shower might be in order, don’t you?”

Hermione just nodded her head as she made her way back to her bedroom placing the empty tea cup back onto the tray on the table. Closing the door firmly behind herself, she leant into the door with her back and breathed in a deep breath.

’How am I ever going to look at him again?’ she sighed as she started to make her way over to the cupboard which held her clothes.

Making her way across the sitting room, not once glancing at the two wizards as they sat on the settee, she made quick work of the shower, washing her hair and pulling it up into a plait. Looking into the mirror, she took in the dark lines under her eyes.

Steeling herself against what was to come next, she stepped outside the bathroom door and looked up to see the Potions Master and Mr Crobobin standing before the grate.

“Ready?” Severus asked, only a tinge of irritation in his voice.

Hermione nodded her head and made her way to stand by the wizards.

Severus took a pinch of Floo powder off the mantle and threw it into the flames. “Staff room,” he stated as he nodded his head towards Tolmie. Walking into the green flames, he disappeared from view.

Tolmie held out his hand in a gesture towards the flames as he politely waited for Miss Granger to precede him into the staff room.

Hermione looked at him hesitantly. The older wizard was smiling at her and she could tell by his kind eyes that he meant her no harm, however, she remained rooted to the spot and shook her head.

When Tolmie took a step towards her, Hermione took one backwards. Tolmie didn’t want to frighten the poor girl, so he stopped and said, “Come on, they are all waiting for us.”

Hermione shook her head once more and cast her eyes downwards; she felt the moisture of tears leaving her eyes and cascading down her cheeks to fall on the plush carpet at her feet.

She heard him move away from her and as the flames once again turned from orange to green she looked up and saw that he had indeed left her alone. Hermione expelled the air from her lungs. ’What is wrong with me?’ she thought, mentally berating herself even as she stood there unmoving.

Time seemed to pass by slowly as she just stood there motionless. Staring off into the fireplace with the only sound being the beating of her own heart and her rather erratic breathing. She jumped slightly as she heard a voice.

“What is the matter, Miss Granger?” The deep silky tone was instantly comforting to her ears.

“I don’t think I can do this,” Hermione said, her voice faltering somewhat as she stood there unmoving before the green flames.

Severus held an impatient look on his face.

“You can and you will,” Severus replied, although his tone was kind, she could almost hear the undercurrents of irritation in it. Severus took a graceful step until he was almost within reaching distance of her.

Hermione shook her head and looked up, staring into his black eyes, she whispered, “I can’t; you saw how I reacted to Professor McGonagall in the infirmary and she was my favourite teacher.” She sighed and looked down at her feet once more.

“I will be there with you,” Severus said, softening his voice slightly.

Without even thinking, he reached out his hand, palm turned upwards, as if he was offering her support.

Hermione made a quick lunge for his hand, grabbing it. Without even thinking, she clung to him as if he were her life line and she were drowning. She intertwined her fingers with his and tightened her grip.

Hermione didn’t know why but she didn’t mind it when the Potions Master touched her. Her body didn’t react on the same subconscious level that it did with everyone else. Gods above, was she falling for him?

No she couldn’t be; this was her dreaded ex-professor. He didn’t like anyone and especially not a Gryffindor. He had called her many names in the past from ‘silly little girl’ to ‘know-it-all,’ just to name a few. He was snide, uncouth, spiteful and downright malicious in his remarks to not only her, but to everyone who had the unpleasant fortune of crossing his path and that was on a good day.

Taking a deep breath, she nodded her head and raised her chin firmly into the air. Swiping at the tears with the back of her other hand she rose out of the ashes, transforming from a quivering mass into a lioness, ready for battle.

Together they stepped into the green flames. Two great warriors, ready for anything that anyone could throw their way

***

A/N: So there you have it. So, what do you think?

Next chapter we will see the Order meeting with a few surprises thrown in.

Big hugs go out to my beta, LariLee. Thanks, Hon!

Disclaimer: Alas... the characters are not mine.