Everything I Do, I Do It For You

Chapter 49: Dr Lopes and the Wizards

Kingsley, Remus and Mundungus made their way to the entrance of Calan Park. The three wizards felt the magic humming through the place as they entered and, although they could see nothing, they definitely knew that very Dark Magic was flowing through the hospital.

As they walked through the foyer, Remus felt every muscle in his body tighten, his senses on high alert. He could almost taste the Dark Magic as it pulsated around him. He let out a low growl which didn’t go unnoticed by the others.

“Get a grip on yourself,” Kingsley whispered as he pulled Remus close.

“I’m trying too,” Remus half-snarled out before he looked at the wizard bashfully. “I’m sorry,” he quickly amended, averting his eyes from Kingsley’s.

Mundungus held onto a clipboard and looked around the foyer. He made his way over to a chair which held an assortment of magazines. As he reached out an arm to snag one, Kingsley quickly came up behind him and slapped his hand down to his side.

“What did Dumbledore say?” he asked, his voice dangerously low.

“I was only looking,” Mundungus replied.

“Well, you can look, but don’t touch,” Kingsley said. “Need I remind you how important this mission is?” he asked, stepping away from Fletcher and looking over at Remus once more. “Now stay close,” he added.

All three wizards made their way up to the desk in the foyer which held a sign above it reading, “Admissions.” There was a portly-looking Muggle woman sitting behind the desk, busy running her fingers over some sort of board. Remus instantly recognised that she was filing her nails and whispered this fact to Mundungus, who was looking on in fascination.

“Hello, Tanya,” Kingsley said, eyeing her name tag. “We are here from the Health Department, doing our yearly check-up of this hospital and others in the area,” he stated with a smile on his face.

“These are my associates, Mr Lupin and Mr Fletcher,” Kingsley said, signalling to Remus and Mundungus, “and I’m Mr Shacklebolt.”

“Would you mind showing me some I.D?” Tanya stated, looking at all three men.

“Sure,” Kingsley replied as he reached into his pocket for the transfigured badge. Finding it, he presented it to the woman behind the desk as Remus and Mundungus followed suit.

Tanya eyes narrowed as she looked at the badges with scrutiny. If she noticed anything amiss, she made no mention of it as she looked back at Kingsley.

“You can take a seat over there,” here she waved her hand towards some chairs to the right of the admissions desk, “and someone will be with you shortly.” She smiled at the three men.

Making their way over to the seats, they sat down. Remus immediately started fidgeting in his chair.

“Will you sit still?” Kingsley asked in a harsh whisper.

“I can’t help it;” Remus whispered back. “All of the Dark Magic flowing through this place puts me on edge.”

“Well just put a leash on it,” Kingsley mumbled, “before they start to get suspicious.”

Remus nodded his head and tried to compose himself. Fortunately they didn’t have to wait too long as they saw a man approach the desk and speak to the Muggle woman, Tanya, behind it.

As the man approach the trio, they stood in unison.

‘He looks familiar,’ Kingsley thought to himself, trying to place the other man’s face.

The man held out his hand and spoke.

“Hi, Dr. Lopes, at your service,” Andrew said in a friendly tone. “And what can I do for you?” he asked, smiling slightly.

***

Dumbledore was sitting back in his office, staring out the window that overlooked the grounds of Hogwarts.

He had placed a locating charm on Miss Granger when she was asleep in the infirmary. She was his ward, after all, and he didn’t want her to go missing again. After all the trouble his Potions Master had had locating her, he didn’t want the event to replay itself. He was thankful for his intuition.

He hoped too, that the wizards in the dungeons would get along, not just for his sake and theirs, but for the whole of the wizarding community. He realised that Severus held no love for Peter; after all he was one of the Marauders and Voldemort’s left-hand man quite literally. Although Peter was never the one to come out and torment the wizard, he was just as guilty as the rest of them. Some grudges just ran too deep to ever get over.

He prayed to Merlin that everything would work out in the end. That’s all he could wish for.

***

As Severus turned around, he frowned at Peter, who immediately shrank back into his chair as if trying to make himself as small as possible.

“Tolmie,” he snapped, his eyes never leaving Peter’s form.

“Yes,” Tolmie replied, watching his friend.

“Floo back to my suite and retrieve your books, I think it’s time for a little homework,” he sneered, still watching Peter.

Peter turned his gaze towards Tolmie and immediately wished he hadn’t, as he saw a grin spread across the older man’s face. Looking back at Snape, he saw the gleam in his eyes. Snape was looking at him as a predator would look at his prey, and he shuddered in the intensity held within his eyes.

Tolmie stood and walked casually over to the fireplace, taking out his wand. Muttering a quick spell as the temporary flames burst to life, he quickly grabbed a little Floo powder and said, “Potions Master’s suite,” and, as the flames turned green, he stepped into them and disappeared.

Severus took a couple of steps towards Peter and saw him shrink back into the plush chair he was sitting on. Smirking to himself, he stood there glaring at the rat.

Time seemed to stand still for Peter as he held his breath, praying that Tolmie would be back soon.

After what seemed like an eternity to Peter, the flames turned green and Tolmie stepped out carrying a small parcel of what looked to be books. As soon as Tolmie was through the green flames, they disappeared altogether and the fireplace was dormant once more.

Tolmie went and stood in front of the four armchairs and banished one of them with a quick flick of his wand. He then conjured up a small table and placed his package on top of it. Flicking his wand once more, Tolmie removed the reducing spell that he had laid on the heavy tomes.

Holding up one of the ancient Dark Arts volumes, Tolmie looked over at the dark-haired wizard standing a few paces away from him. The wizard was still looking at Peter as if he would like nothing more than to gut him like a fish and be done with it. Tolmie raised both eyebrows and broke the thick tension that was in the room.

“Shall we begin?” he stated, shaking the book in Severus’ direction.

Severus turned his gaze from Peter and nodded his head. Walking over to Tolmie, he took the text from his hand. Taking a seat, he immersed himself in the book as his brow furrowed in concentration.

Tolmie handed Peter a tome and all three wizards got to work in silence.

***

Kingsley extended his hand towards the familiar-looking man and shook it. He couldn’t shake the feeling that he had seen him before.

As Andrew shook Remus’ and Mundungus’ hands, Kingsley started in on his rehearsed speech.

“We are here from the Health Department making sure that everything is up to code,” he started. “Are you in charge here, Dr Lopes?” he asked.

“Why, yes. I run this facility,” Andrew replied.

“Good, good,” was all that Kingsley said, looking around once more.

“Why weren’t we notified of your visit?” Andrew asked, a little perplexed that the Health Department would just spring a surprise visit on them.

“As you are well aware of the department’s funding for this hospital, we at the department thought it best if we just came down here and sprang this inspection on you,” Kingsley replied, looking back into Andrew’s eyes. “Besides, if we gave you notification of our impending visit, then you could have prepared yourselves. This way we get a chance to see how this hospital is run without any outside interference,” Kingsley finished.

“Very well,” Andrew said. “Now if you’ll just follow me and I will give you the grand tour.”

The three wizards followed Dr Lopes down a long corridor. Andrew was explaining rooms as they passed them, the men just nodded their heads politely as Mundungus checked things off on a clipboard that he held in his hands.

Andrew stopped in front of a room. “This is the common room; it is where most of the patients spend their day mingling with the others,” he stated, holding open the door for the three men to enter.

They stepped through the door and looked around. Remus immediately stiffened; the Dark Magic was stronger in this room. He had to clasp his hands in front of him to stop himself from tearing the room apart.

Dr Lopes noticed the man stiffen and went over to him and placed a hand on his shoulder.

“Are you all right?” he asked Remus, with an undertone of concern in his voice.

Remus whirled around to face the man as he slapped his hand from his shoulder. His pupils were dilated and his breathing was forced; both of his fists were clenched beside his body. Remus looked like he was about to lose control.

Kingsley immediately sensed the danger within Remus and stepped up to act as a go-between for the altercation that he knew was immanent.

“He has been feeling a little under the weather,” he countered smoothly, as he stood hard on Remus’ foot. “I think he just needs some air,” he continued, giving Remus a knowing look.

Remus focused all of his energy on calming down. This was not easy to do at the best of times for the werewolf; however, with the impending full moon not two days away, he found it particularly complicated. He concentrated on centring himself once more, slowing down his breathing and composing himself.

“I think you may be right,” Remus replied to Kingsley even as he smiled at the doctor. “If you would just excuse me,” he added, as he made his way to the door trying with all of his might to rein in the dreadful feelings he had about the hospital and this room in particular.

The three men watched him leave the room. Dr Lopes turned around to face Kingsley, a look of open concern upon his features.

“I hope he will be okay,” Andrew said.

“Oh, I’m sure he will be,” Kingsley replied. “There has been a nasty bug going around the office this week,” he added as an afterthought.

Dr Lopes gave Kingsley a sympathetic look.

“So what else would you like to see?” Andrew asked as his head cocked to one side and he gave Kingsley a look that he hadn’t seen in almost twenty five years.

It was then that Kingsley realised where he had seen this man before. Dr Andrew Lopes had been a classmate of his at Hogwarts, one whom he had thought, up until this point, to be dead.

Andrew was in Hufflepuff and one of the top in Kingsley’s year. Except his name wasn’t Andrew Lopes, it was Andrew Poles, and Kingsley would bet on his life that he was standing before the same man.

The tall, burly black Auror shook his head slightly from side to side as he blinked rapidly. Regaining his composure, he found his voice and spoke out in nothing more than a shaky whisper.

“Andrew… Andrew Poles?”

***

A/N: Ha! I bet you didn’t see that one coming. Well, to be quite honest with you, neither did I.

Sorry about no Hermione and Cornelius in this chapter; however, I promise you they will be in the next chapter.

Please review and let me know if you want good Dr. Andrew Poles' life to be explained or whether you would like me to just leave it there.

I am leaving for Bali this Saturday and have not been well, I have the flu, so I don’t know whether I will be able to get you out another chapter or not. Never fear however, as I will have my next chapter up in approx. three weeks.

Thank you to my beta, LariLee, for keeping up with my story. She is as much in the dark as you, my fellow readers, are.

Thanks, Jen, for the suggestion; you know who you are.

Disclaimer: I am not J.K. and therefore do not own the characters or make any money from my little foray. I am having a hell of a time playing though.