Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Dolores Umbridge appeared in a deserted field. She looked around, searching for her contact. He hadn't arrived yet. She tapped her foot impatiently. Her hands wrung in front of her nervously. She looked to and fro, but her partner was nowhere to be seen. At long last, a man appeared out of nowhere. She gazed at her partner. He'd chosen a thin, balding man to mimic through Polyjuice. Dolores moved toward him.

"What are we going to do? Snape has been released from the spell!" Umbridge cried.

The Locator Spell that Harry had used to track Umbridge automatically deposited him several hundred yards away from Umbridge's point of arrival so as not to be discovered. He hurried along under his Invisibility Cloak to the small, squat, pink figure that was waiting in a clearing. Suddenly, he saw a tall man Apparate near her. He raised his wand as he closed in on the two conspirators.

"He needs to be taken care of... now!" Dolores tittered nervously.

"Now, now, Umbridge, don't get all excited. This will be simple to remedy. I will just kill him."

"Kill him! He was to suffer, not be killed!"

"I can do both. I'll torture him, and then I'll kill him," Lestrange said in a calm, calculative voice.

Dolores grinned evilly. "It will have to be a very long torture for him to get what he deserves."

"Of course... He will suffer... oh, he will suffer."

"I want to be there. I want to see it!" Dolores cried triumphantly.

Harry had heard enough. He waved his wand in a circle and sent a dispersed Petrificus Totalis Spell at the two criminals. Both Umbridge and Lestrange were enveloped in light. They quickly froze, their precarious positions causing them to drop to the ground.

Harry pulled the Invisibility Cloak off and smirked down at his captives. Their eyes shifted back and forth in fear. Harry bent low over Dolores Umbridge.

"I don't think the Ministry will take kindly to you conspiring with a known Death Eater, Dolores," he said before straightening up again. He went over to Lestrange. "Your days of freedom are over, Lestrange."

He levitated both of them and pushed them close together. Pulling a shrunken Portkey that looked like a rag out of his pocket, he enlarged it. He placed the old, tattered blanket over the two petrified bodies and touched the edge. Before he knew it, they had snapped out of existence and reappeared in Hermione Granger's living room.

Much to Harry's embarrassment, Hermione and Snape were in the throes of some passionate kissing. They didn't even notice the three newcomers, despite their rather loud arrival. Harry cleared his throat.

Hermione pulled away and gave Harry a startled look. Snape glanced up at him indifferently and pulled Hermione back for one last kiss. Harry grimaced. Supportive or not, this relationship would be a bit for him to swallow.

Releasing Hermione, Severus carefully rose so as not to dump her out of his lap and onto the floor. They both straightened themselves out at last, and walked over to Harry and his captives.

"That didn't take long at all," Hermione said, visibly blushing from being caught snogging Severus Snape senseless.

"Not long enough," Severus muttered.

Harry chose to ignore them. He looked at Lestrange. "We'll have to wait for the Polyjuice to wear off before we can confirm that it's Lestrange," he said.

"We can still question him," Severus commented as he stared at the petrified man.

With a flick of his wand, Lestrange was bound in ropes. "Finite Incantatem," Severus chanted, and the Petrificus Totalus Spell was released. The ropes stayed firmly in place, keeping Lestrange from moving much.

Severus hoisted the man up from the floor and threw him into a chair. He pointed his wand at him.

"Are you Rodolphus Lestrange?"

By this time, Harry had done much the same to Dolores Umbridge. She too was bound and sitting in a chair, opposite Lestrange.

"Heavens, he's not Lestrange!" she cried.

Severus' head shot towards her. "You, woman, are one of the most obtuse people I have ever met. You don't even know when you are consorting with a Death Eater!" he sneered.

Umbridge shut her mouth quickly, but gave Severus a withering look. Finally, she was able to speak again. "It can't be him. I would have known."

"You couldn't see past your own desire for revenge! You are a sorry excuse for a witch," Severus snapped. "You sold yourself to the highest bidder. I hope you can live with yourself for your decisions."

Severus turned back to Lestrange. "Why don't you tell her who you are, Roddy?"

The thin, balding man snarled at him. "Why should I give you the pleasure of knowing who I am?"

Severus closed the distance between them, bent low, and glared at Lestrange. "I already know who you are. Do you think I cannot tell your gruff, rumbling voice in an instant? I knew the second you cast the spell upon me who you were. Now, why did you do it?"

Lestrange struggled against his bonds, trying to get at Severus. He was unsuccessful. Instead, he grimaced at Severus.

"It's no more than you deserve, you cowardly traitor!"

Severus straightened and wiped a bit of spittle that had landed on his face from Lestrange's outburst.

"If this were just about revenge, you wouldn't have bothered. It wouldn't have been worth it for you to come out of hiding and risk your own life just to get to me." Severus' wand dug into Lestrange's cheek. "Now tell me why you've done it."

"I'll never tell! You'll have to kill me first!"

Umbridge was whimpering in her chair, unable to believe that she'd been duped by a foul Death Eater. Her usually prideful, snobby face was now filled with shock. She glared at the man she had trusted without a second thought. Her hatred radiated about her.

Severus bent low again, so that his eyes were level with Lestrange's. "We can do this the easy way or the hard way. Which do you choose?"

Lestrange narrowed his eyes at Severus. "I'll take my secret to my grave!"

Pulling back, Severus trained his wand on Lestrange. "Legilimens!" he chanted.

Lestrange's slim face dropped in disbelief, and his skin went ashen as he realized what Severus was doing. Too late, he tried to put up some defense. Severus crashed through his mind until he found what he was looking for. All was revealed to him within a matter of minutes. He pulled out of Lestrange's mind as the Polyjuiced man fell forward, limply.

Severus turned to Hermione and Harry, who had been watching anxiously from the side. His face was grim.

"Lestrange has Albus," he explained.

Hermione gasped as her hand went up to her mouth. Harry looked on with concern.

"Where... how?" he asked Severus.

"It seems that when Dumbledore Portkeyed out of the tomb, his mind was a bit addled. He wandered around near the town where he appeared. Unfortunately for him, it was the town where Lestrange was living. No one knew that he had a small house there. He would go there after a raid to avoid detection. Dumbledore literally stumbled down his street. In his weakened state, Albus was easy to catch."

Severus' mouth thinned as he looked back to Lestrange. Rage filled him at the thought of Dumbledore's fate these past six years.

He continued the tale for Harry and Hermione. "Lestrange developed a variant of the Body-Bind Spell that froze Dumbledore indefinitely. He's been a statue on Lestrange's bed for all of this time. Lestrange knew I was searching for Dumbledore. He set out to make it impossible for me to ever find him."

"Why didn't he just kill you... and Dumbledore for that matter?" Hermione asked as she glared at Lestrange.

"That's where the revenge part comes in. He thought it a fitting end to have the greatest wizard in the world reduced to a stiff, corpse-like being. Better than death, even. Instead of alerting Voldemort to the deception, he decided to use Albus as a bargaining chip. If ever the Dark Lord found Bellatrix or him in disfavor, Lestrange was ready to use Albus' survival and capture as a means to avoid Voldemort's wrath.

"After the Dark Lord's defeat, he wanted to punish me for turning against Voldemort, so he developed the Hollowing Spell. It would have been simpler had he just killed us, but Lestrange doesn't think that way. He wants to inflict the most heinous punishment imaginable. He felt that Dumbledore's awareness, yet inability to move, would be the worst possible punishment he could receive. He felt the same about the Hollowing Spell with me." Severus grimaced. "I believe he was correct on both accounts."

Everyone in the room was silent for a while. All that could be heard was the tittering sobs of Dolores Umbridge. She muttered to herself about the fact that she'd let herself be duped into following the whims of a Death Eater. She worried aloud about what the Ministry would do to her for her folly.

"Do you know where Lestrange is keeping him?" Harry asked.

Severus nodded. "I will Apparate there and bring him back here."

"Do you know how to release him from the spell?"

"I do," Severus said in a clipped tone. Turning to Hermione, he looked at her seriously. "I will be back soon," he told her.

"Do you want us to come with you?" Hermione asked.

"No, I must do this alone."

Hermione's hand came to his arm. "You're sure?" she asked.

Severus gave her a quick nod before Disapparating.