The Marauders: Year Seven Part Two

An Accomplished Legilimens

The plan was simple, really, and, in a way, Greyback himself had set it up by visiting the month before during the Full Moon so that Regulus didn't reckon there would be much, if any, trouble setting what he had in mind into action. In fact, he thought, it might be the most brilliant thing he'd ever come up with. It had been easy, too, to talk Barty into helping out under the guise of being of great assistance to a secret inquiry for the Dark Lord. Barty's enthusiasm was guaranteed once he was promised to be seen as helpful when it came time for Regulus to recognize those who had assisted him when he next saw Voldemort.

Regulus hung behind in Potions the afternoon before the full moon, the 21st of May. He went slow about packing up his ingredients into his kit and slipping it into his bag, then scrubbed his cauldron for some time with the ball of steel wool in the sink by the store room while Professor Slughorn talked to a student inquiring about an opportunity for extra credit that Slughorn seemed quite uninterested in offering. When at last the Ravenclaw girl had gone off, nearly in tears, Regulus replaced the steel wool into its holder and carried his cauldron back to his desk.

"Oho! Mr. Black!" Slughorn smiled, seeing him. "I didn't even realize you were still here, my boy, thought you left with the others."

"Just cleaning my cauldron, sir," Regulus replied smoothly. He bent down to sling his bookbag strap over his shoulder. "It had a good deal of gunk cooked on and I've been meaning to get at it a while, but today I just had to... It's terrible. I wish there was something... stronger... to clean it with? After all... a clean cauldron makes for more accurate potions!" He smiled warmly, "A very wise potions master taught us that in first year."

"Indeed I did!" agreed Slughorn, chuckling, pleased to hear that his student was taking care of his potions things. Many students went all seven years without properly cleaning their cauldrons, he suspected, and he waddled over to inspect Regulus's freshly scrubbed one. "Hmm," Slughorn tapped his nose with his finger, "You know, I've got just the trick here..." he went to the cupboard of mixed potions behind his desk, samples of this and that which he'd prepared for demonstration purposes, and withdrew a small powder-filled vial. He came back to Regulus, leaving the little cupboard door opened. "This here is the best cleaner I've yet invented and it'll be just the ticket --"

Suddenly Barty Crouch Jr. burst into the room.

"Professor Slughorn," he said quickly, "There's a fight going on in the common room."

"A... a fight?" Slughorn looked displeased, "A fight over what?"

"Dunno, but they're really whomping each other down in there! Bloody noses and the lot... You best come quickly."

"Yes, yes I s'pose I should," Slughorn nodded, then looked at Regulus and the cauldron, the vial still in his palm. "Here you are, Regulus, my boy. You finish up with your cauldron and just be sure to shut the door good and tight when you leave so that it locks properly. Just leave the cleaning powder there and I'll tuck it away when I get back."

"Yes, sir," Regulus said, nodding and taking the vial of cauldron cleaner.

Slughorn hurried out of the room, following after Barty Crouch, already panting breathlessly as they reached the door of the Potions classroom.

Regulus stood, watching the door for several moments, waiting and counting... They should be past the bend in the corridor by now, he supposed, and he hurried forward, flung open the door of the potions room, and in came Severus Snape. "That went well," Regulus said.

Snape didn't answer, but stepped inside. He plucked the vial of cleaner up from the desk where Regulus had left it and looked it over, then put it back down and looked about the empty room. He'd spent much time in the potions classroom over the past seven years, once Slughorn had allowed Severus to learn some additional recipes and techniques that he didn't particularly share in class. It was something to do, something Snape was good at, though not as passionate about as he could be. Lily Evans had given him what little passion for potions he posessed. She'd been his study mate in the subject for several years, and her enthusiasm in helping him had made him an excellent potioneer, thus impressing Slughorn and earning the right to become a handpicked student for the extra credit sessions that he had joined mainly out of hope that Lily, too, had been chosen... He'd thought it could mean more time spent with her, more time to smell her hair and feel her proximity to him, to accidentally slip his hand over hers and feel the soft touch of her perfect, pale skin against his own...

"Oi," Regulus's voice broke into Snape's thoughts. "C'mon."

Severus turned and followed Regulus into the corner of the room, behind the teacher's desk, where Slughorn kept a perpetual fire burning in a hearth. Severus scowled at the fire as Regulus went to the same cupboard that Slughorn kept the potions in and found his little bag of bright green floo powder. "Here it is," he said. He held out the bag.

Snape stared at it a moment, then reached out a hand and took a pinch of the floo powder carefully between his fingers. His eyes swiveled up to meet Regulus's. "Now remember, Greyback is... familiar... with the concept of Legilimency. It will not be his mind I shall be seeking answers from, but from others in the room. What you must do is keep Greyback distracted, keep him talking. You must find a way to have him mention their plans, their stores, their might. When these things are mentioned, I shall try to see into the mind of the others around me, to see their memories of Greyback's plans and motions in preparing these secrets." Severus's voice was impossibly low. "Greyback must not see their eyes go blank when I enter their minds, he must not notice their moment of disassociation." Severus looked almost hungry. "It would take a very accomplished legilimens to fool a wizard so powerful as Greyback, but luckily that is why you have sought out me."

Regulus stared into Snape's black eyes. "You are a very accomplished legilimens," he agreed, nodding. "Even better at occlumency, of course..." Snape's lip twitched unhappily at this caveat to his talent. Regulus ignored the twitch and he pointed at the floo. "After you?"

Severus Snape drew a deep breath and turned dramatically toward the fireplace. "The Silver Blade Inn," he whispered, and threw the powder into the fire, stepping in as the flames rose high and green.

Regulus turned to have one last look around the Potions classroom, then tossed his own pinch of powder into the fire, pocketing the bag. "Silver Blade Inn!" he called, following after Snape with a hop into the fire.

Regulus came spinning out of it and into an absolute ruckus on the other end. There was loud music blaring and shouting voices, bright lights that seemed to blind him instantly after the darkness of Slughorn's classroom. The air hung with a stench somewhere between warm, dirty bodies, alcohol, and blood, which turned Regulus's stomach instantly. Snape stood a couple steps out of the floo, looking sourly around, his arms folded across his chest.

"How charming," he murmured as a tall, skinny man with wild red eyes and extremely unkempt hair tripped past and threw up into an umbrella stand by a side door.

Regulus looked up at a high window, through which he could see the near to full moon hanging in the sky. There were filthy men lounging about all over the room, ratty looking women peppering the room. "If you were the commander of an evil werewolf army, where would you be in all this?" Regulus asked, looking around, and seeing no sign of Greyback.

Severus's voice was flat, "Not here."

Regulus laughed, and they slowly began weaving their way among the ruckus, passing by the scraggly lot. Regulus spotted several raw, dripping steaks on plates being devoured, held up with fingers rather than forks, by ravenous-looking men with sharp, pointed teeth and red eyes. Regulus shuddered as one man met his eyes and grinned hungrily at him, licking his lips as his pointed teeth were bared...

Every last person in the room was a werewolf.

They stepped into the midafternoon air, so far north that even this close to summer it was cool and crisp. Severus looked around, a look of concentration flickered across his face. Then, he pointed to a small tavern down the road. "There," he said. "He's in there."