Combat for Freedom

CHAPTER NINE

Combat for Freedom

Wednesday 6 February – Saturday 6 April 1991

Old Basford, Nottingham; Gifford, Glasgow; the Peat Bog, Galway; Ecclesall, Sheffield; Foss, Perthshire.

Could the chain for an instant be riven,

To let Tyranny bind it again!

– Thomas Moore (1779-1852): "Forget Not the Field"

Rated PG for mild violence and less mild threats of worse.

Ariadne gave her autographed copy of Wanderings with Werewolves to the delighted Hestia Jones, but she kept Blodhriki. Sickening though the contents were, they did not spare any details, and before long she had memorised every step of the Protean Blood Magic Counter-Spell.

The werewolves had spent the January full moon in Glasgow with Steadfast and Scholastica Macmillan, who frankly admitted, "If the Ministry were looking for you, it would have found you by now, and if Greyback is looking for you, it's wise that you are hiding out in as many different locations as you can."

The problem was, they were running out of locations. In February Ariadne received an unexpected owl from Ireland.

Dear Madam Lupin,

The cards indicate that you need my help. Perhaps you'd like to bring some friends to my house next week and to borrow my kitchen without having to explain what you're all doing.

If this message means anything to you, feel free to visit. I can arrange open-ended Portkeys with the Dublin office, where they owe me too many favours to ask any questions.

Kind regards,

Cassandra Vablatsky.

Professor Vablatsky asked no questions about the score of strangers who littered her house for the week. When she wasn't shopping in Dublin or writing her latest book, she wanted only to talk about Veleta.

"We're knowing now how to break the spell," said Ariadne. "But we're needing a day when the Macnairs are out – and when Veleta can inform us that they're out. Perhaps next week or perhaps next year." It was no good asking Professor Vablatsky to forecast a lucky date. She had never been able to prophesy anything about Veleta.

"It's interesting that Veleta's daughter is a Locospector," said Professor Vablatsky. "Gifts like prophecy and Locospection have to be inherited from both parents, and there is certainly no history of any such thing among the Macnairs."

"But the Macnairs do regularly produce Squibs," said Ariadne. "Madam Constellis writes that the Squib gene damages the other genes lying near it, making them all recessive." She had to explain this concept, but Professor Vablatsky grasped it with surprising speed. "Mary cannot have inherited Locospection from the Macnairs, but the gene that would normally block Locospection would have been damaged if the Macnairs gave her a Squib gene. Perhaps Mary inherited her talents only from Veleta." She frowned. "Then why is Veleta a Locospector? Her mother was a Muggle-born; it's seeming a very great coincidence that she should have carried the prophetic talent."

"Oh, is that what Veleta told you?" Professor Vablatsky poured out another cup of chamomile tea. "Not quite right. Jane's father was an ordinary Muggle, but her mother was a Squib. I should know – I met the poor girl at all the wizarding parties, and the Rookwoods and Montmorencys used to tease her mercilessly. That means – what? – that Veleta inherited her Locospection from my son Pythios, and that it dominated the damaged Squib genes that she inherited from her mother."

Ariadne shivered violently. That meant that Veleta had only half as many Locospection genes as the Macnairs were assuming and that she had Squib genes on which they were probably not calculating at all. But Ariadne could do the sum. Veleta might give birth to more Locospectors, but there was a higher chance that she would produce Squibs. Ariadne didn't want to contemplate what the Macnairs might do to a Squib bairn.

Emmeline Vance took her grandmother to Capri for the Easter holidays, and they authorised the Lupins enter to their house in Sheffield for that period. Matthew liked the Plumptons' house because there were five Nigel the Knight Bus toys of various sizes and a model railway in which a Hogwarts Express with seventeen carriages ran up and down a map of the British Isles, all of which had once been the property of Emmeline's Grand-Uncle Roderick Plumpton. It bothered Remus that the model train could not distinguish land from water, so it crossed rivers without needing bridges and even travelled from Edinburgh to Dublin without becoming wet. But Ariadne said that toys need not imitate life. Elizabeth liked the house too because there was a Wendy house with a stove range and a mangle and dolls in a cradle. Ariadne spent half the morning showing her how to crank the mangle, which had really been designed for a larger child, so that the dolls' clothes emerged fresh and flat. Elizabeth wanted to wash them in real water and gained excellent domestic training thereby over the holiday.

Remus liked the house because of its large study, which allowed him to plan next term's projects about light and mirrors and the lives of famous Muggles without disrupting the endless flow of werewolves who Flooed in and out of the Plumptons' drawing room. This immaculate room, with its showcase of Quidditch trophies, its Gainsborough originals and its mahogany harpsichord, was completely separate from the semi-basement kitchen, where the array of stove-ranges and the vintage collection of cauldrons allowed Ariadne to keep her family cooking, her Wolfsbane brewing and her home remedies for minor ailments completely separate.

Remus was finally able to keep his promise to Latona Wildclaw to teach her to read. Of course, there was never just one pupil. Most of the former Sylvanians were illiterate, and Matthew, with all the linguistic confidence of his three years, learned to put the letters together faster than any of the mere adults.

"I can write BED! And RED! Look, Daddy, I've writed SED!"

"Is GED a word?" asked Tiwaz Longpelt. "Never mind, I know LED is."

"Fenrir Greyback!" shrieked Latona Wildclaw suddenly. "He's there – outside the front window!"

Tiwaz Longpelt froze half way through placing the letter L in front of ED. Latona sobbed as the door bell rang. Caleb Oldfang, without a moment of conference with the others, walked out into the hall and opened the front door.

"I don't know if your friends are here," they heard Caleb say in a tone that indicated he wasn't going to be particularly cooperative with either the visitor or the Wolfsbane community. "Who are you, and who are your friends?"

Remus arrived a second too late to distinguish whatever Greyback was snarling at Oldfang, and Ariadne emerged from the kitchen door at the same moment.

"If you can't name your friends, I can't tell you whether they're here," snapped Oldfang, who was obviously spoiling for a fight.

His belligerence gave Greyback the time to step into the Plumptons' hall. Remus was face to face with the origin of all his problems.

"Perhaps you're Mr Plumpton," rasped Greyback. "Do you have any werewolves in your house? Better still, do you have Madam Lupin?"

Ariadne stepped forward, white with either terror or fury. "I am Madam Lupin," she said, calmly enough. "You have not been invited into this house."

"Recognise you," said Greyback. "You were the apothecary at St Mungo's, that time the Healers wouldn't give me any medicine. In jail now, aren't they? So just be nice, and give me the Wolfsbane Potion, and then I won't have to report you to the Ministry for illegal brewing."

"It is not for you," said Ariadne steadily. "You are trespassing, and we are going to call the Aurors."

"You haven't become any friendlier, have you? You steal my friends away from me... You give Wolfsbane Potion to all these werewolves... But you won't give anything to me because you don't like the look of me. If I combed my hair, would you give me some? Whatever happened to treating all patients equally, without passing judgment on whether they deserve the medicine?"

Greyback might have logic on his side, but Ariadne had better sense than to argue. "I will not give you any," she said.

"Abigo!" shouted Remus.

Greyback, who had has mouth open to argue with Ariadne again, found himself flying backwards over the doorstep. Remus slammed it closed, trying to ignore Greyback's howls of, "I'll set the Aurors on you! I'll make an anonymous report that you're distributing illegal poisons!"

"Dearest, are you all right?" His wife's hand was clasping his arm.

Remus realised he was rigid. "I'm fine. It's just that we'll have to close up shop today. We can't risk leaving anything for the Aurors to find."

They had nowhere to go except back home to Nottingham. They cleaned up their equipment, then hustled all the werewolves through the Floo. They found out later that they had departed with only five minutes to spare – the Aurors did come to Sheffield.

"When they found no evidence," said Kingsley Shacklebolt, "they concluded it had been a crank call. But, Ariadne, it will only take one more tip-off for the Aurors to investigate you more seriously. They'll soon work out that all the locations are your friends' houses; while Fenrir Greyback doesn't know who your friends are, the Auror Division can work it out from old Hogwarts records."

"I don't know where we can go next month anyway," said Remus. "It's too dangerous to go to the same place twice, and we've already imposed on just about every person whom we trust enough to ask at all."

"Perhaps..." said Ariadne. "Oh, you will not like this idea either... But perhaps I should do something completely different next month. We've said we should try to market the Wolfsbane Potion abroad. If there's really no more we can do in Britain, perhaps the time has come to visit Europe."

"Teachers can't take random leave," he reminded her. "It'll have to wait until the summer holidays."

"But the baby's due then... and we cannot sit around doing nothing for the next three months... Oh, I'm supposing there will never be a very good time to travel."

Remus privately agreed. He had no idea how they would set about contacting foreign werewolf communities, and even if they discovered these communities to be friendly, their Ministries were likely to be hostile. They didn't speak any useful languages, they didn't have enough money to visit more than one country in comfort, and they had their responsibilities to their children.

They also had their explicit promise to Healer Smethwyck, and their implied promise to the British werewolf community.

Three days after Easter, Sarah Webster stepped through their Floo, and breezily announced that she could solve all their problems.

"You obviously can't brew the Wolfsbane Potion next month, Ariadne; it's far too dangerous. Never mind, why don't you take a holiday to France instead? I have a modelling assignment in Paris next week, so I can take you without any trouble."

To Sarah, as usual, it was all very simple. The company always paid for her to take a companion on her assignments, and as she was currently between boyfriends, she had no reason not to take Ariadne. If she were there to take care of Ariadne and the children, there would be no need for Remus to go at all, so he could devote himself to his job. Sarah spoke fluent French, so she would be more useful than Remus anyway. And Fenrir Greyback was probably going to set the Aurors on Ariadne's trail again, so it would be helpful if they could manufacture irrefutable proof that Ariadne was innocent this month.

Just as Remus was grasping that Sarah had swept them into accepting her offer, an owl flew down their chimney. The letter was from Macnair Castle.

Dear Mr and Madam Lupin,

The Macnair family has decided to take a weekend trip to Cornwall. They will not be at Foss from Friday evening until Monday afternoon. They are all going, even some of the house-elves, although Toady will be left behind to watch us.

My mother asks if you will be able to come on Saturday to break that spell.

Please do not reply to this owl. I am not Unsearchable, but the Macnairs still watch me in the ordinary way, and they would ask too many questions if an owl arrived for me. I will have to be very careful about catching an owl to deliver this message, but we think the castle owls will obey me, because I have Macnair blood.

Yours sincerely,

Mary Vablatsky.

This was clearly not the kind of week when they would be counting how many dangers they had to face at once. Remus did not need to consult with Ariadne

this time.

"Yes, Miss Vablatsky," he said to the fireplace, "we are coming."

"Promise you'll let me go first," said Remus.

"That's not logical," Ariadne protested. "If you accidentally hit the Macnairs' barrier, you'll die. If I do, I'll only have to spend a week in hospital. If Veleta's not there to guide us, I'm thinking I should go first."

"But I'm much more experienced than you are in recognising landmarks. I'm far more likely than you are to recognise the point where the barrier begins and be able to stop safely."

"I'll stop well back," Ariadne pleaded. "If Veleta's not there, there'll be no point in proceeding anyway."

In the end they agreed that they would Apparate to the far bank of the River Tummel, where they knew the barrier did not reach, and reassess the situation if Veleta was not awaiting them there. Uncertainty about whether she had received their message was only one of the hazards of today's task. For a start, it was technically forbidden to Apparate to a public space, in case there should happen to be Muggles in the vicinity; they had to take a chance that nobody would see them in such an isolated spot. Then there was all the equipment that they had to bring; Remus had shrunk it to a portable size, and packed it into a rucksack (made from Transfiguring his suitcase). That was a large piling-up of spells, especially as they would have to use Side-Along Apparition (Ariadne still didn't have her Apparition licence), and they just hoped nothing would be lost in transition.

And deep within Ariadne's mind was the lurking fear that not all the Macnairs would be in Cornwall. Veleta believed them unsuspicious, but was it all a trap?

They landed on the river-bank early in the afternoon. Ariadne, her head still spinning, ought to have been reassured not to see any surprised Muggles; the only person in sight was the happily beckoning figure of Veleta. But Ariadne was trembling with disquiet; there was so much that could go wrong.

They waved back. Veleta threw herself sideways until she stopped falling, as if to indicate: Here is the barrier. Remus drew his arm around Ariadne, and they Apparated to the other side of the river, rather dangerously close to where Veleta was standing.

"Thank you for coming," said Veleta. "The Macnairs have gone, but we still have to watch for house-elves. What has to be done this afternoon?"

"Veleta, we're knowing how to break the spell," said Ariadne, "but it's complicated. First a counter-spell has to be carved in yew – Remus has done that." She glossed over how long they had spent composing the poem and translating it into Elder Futhark. Remus had borrowed a silver knife from Sturgis Podmore and carved the runes into a yew plank bought from the lumberyard. "The original spell was drenched in blood, so the counter-spell has to be drenched in Purpurata Fire, yet not consumed."

Veleta frowned. Remus began to take items out of the rucksack and restore them to their natural sizes.

"It's all right, Veleta. That's something I learned at Hogwarts: Purpurata Fire will not burn anything that has been covered with Inardesco Potion. Remus knows how to make Purpurata Fire, and I've brewed some Inardesco – look." A ladybird-sized dot had just blown up to a cup-sized bottle, and Ariadne displayed it for her.

Veleta was still looking dubious.

"It has to feel strange... after so long... to be thinking this might work," said Ariadne. "But that is the easy part. After the fire, we have to dismember the blood by pouring it into a Dissipation Potion. But the blood will re-coalesce unless the Potion is scattered on running water within an hour of first being brewed. We'll have to work smartly. However, we have the river, and I've brought my cauldron... Can you bring us the blood?"

"I can't, but Mary can. I did as Mr Lupin suggested and used the Extenuo to shrink the phial. But you'll need to move all your equipment a long, long way back."

"Why?" Ariadne could see that Remus's mind was working very fast, but it was still a mystery to her.

"Your friend Mr Campion gave me the clue. Do you remember his discovery that the castle's barrier of invisibility is spherical, as high as the grounds are wide? I've had four years to think about it, and I suspect the barrier is set at a fixed radius from a certain point inside the castle. I've a nasty suspicion that the point in question is the phial of blood. If I move that, I'll move the barrier, and perhaps kill you."

"What?" Ariadne's heart thudded to a halt. "So you cannot... Are you meaning that Remus and I, being Banned, are forced to remain outside the circumference of the sphere, while the phial is always at its centre? That we will not – by definition – be able to touch the phial?" She began to understand why Veleta had been sceptical.

"Not necessarily," said Remus. "The Blood Spell draws a circle that does three things to Macnairs within its radius: protects them from death, constrains them to the area and makes them invisible to outsiders. But it doesn't have anything to do with the Banning Curse, or with making the castle invisible. I believe that both of those spells were cast separately and quite a long time later."

Ariadne and Veleta spoke in unison. "But they use the same barrier!"

"That was probably a matter of convenience," said Remus. "Why draw a second boundary line when the existing one lies in a perfectly suitable position? Today we're breaking the Blood Spell, but I'm expecting the castle to remain invisible and the Banning Curse to remain intact."

"There's still a danger," insisted Veleta, anticipating Ariadne by a heartbeat. "The Banning Curse might be actually lying on top of the Blood Spell. If it is, then moving the centre-point of the Blood Spell will also move the barrier that marks the Banning Curse."

"A fair point," said Remus. "We shall take care to move our operations outside the limits of the barrier. Since you and your children are not Banned, you'll be able to walk through it as soon as we've broken the Blood Spell."

"But how will you manage to pour the blood into the potion?"

"It isn't so difficult," said Remus calmly. "What are Banishing Charms for? We'll send you the cauldron, and Mary can pour in the potion."

"Mr Lupin, can you really Banish an object to a precise point seventy or eighty yards away?"

"Of course I can. Miss Vablatsky, how sure are you of the dimensions of this castle?"

"Those are readily available to anyone who cares to read the Macnairs' boring books of their own bloodthirsty history. The radius is probably only seventy yards, but I'd like you to move eighty yards from the walls in order to be completely safe. And I... What is the plan, after I've brought out the phial?"

"Once the blood has been dismembered in the Dissipation Potion and thrown into the river, the spell will be broken, and it cannot be re-cast as long as we preserve the counter-spell." Ariadne indicated the carved yew plank. "So you will be able to walk over to us, and Remus will make Portkeys to carry the children away. It's a pity about the weather..." The rain was still drizzling down, and the temperature was little above freezing point.

"But perhaps we should be ready to depart quickly," finished Veleta. "Since Mary is able to move the phial, I have to bring her out here. So I'll bring the boys out too."

Ariadne helped Remus pack their equipment back into the rucksack. She was shaking as he guided her back along the river bank. Once he stopped and threw a Measuring Charm at the castle wall.

"Only sixty yards. Keep walking."

"Remus, what if the Banning Hex had thrown that charm back at you?"

"A measuring spell? Sweetheart, that couldn't have hurt anyone. Spells can be traced to wands but not to wand-wielders; that blind barrier couldn't have made the connection between a stray Charm and the Banned person who cast it."

"I'm hoping you're right."

"If you'd paid more attention to magical theory, you'd know that I am. We'll face enough real dangers this afternoon, so let's not worry about imaginary ones. Here, this distance should be safe." He threw the Measuring Charm again, and this time they were standing at a safe eighty yards from the castle walls.

Remus cast a Declino arch around them, so that their equipment would be sheltered from the rain, then once again patiently restored each piece to its natural size. After they had laid it all out in front of them, there was nothing to do but wait. Ariadne could only imagine Veleta's agonising caution as she dressed up her children one by one, then had Mary carry out the phial, then ushered them quietly through the castle, avoiding spies at every turn. What possible excuse could anybody have for taking bairns for a walk in the freezing rain? If a house-elf spotted them, Veleta wouldn't have a plausible story.

It must have been half an hour before Veleta emerged from under the portcullis. She was carrying one child, and the rest were walking closely beside her. The tallest of the children raised an arm, as if to indicate that she was carrying something, and it was time to begin the brewing.

That was the one part of the process about which Ariadne hadn't worried, yet it was the first time that Remus became nervous. He was trying hard not to look, but his hands were clenching and unclenching around the carved yew plank.

"It's not such a difficult potion," she reassured him, as she sprinkled dried colewort and woody nightshade into the cauldron. "I'd never used gamboge gum before, but nothing went wrong in the trial run at home. Finding a supplier was harder work than actually using it. And it would never have occurred to me to use Plimpy bones in a potion, but Professor Jigger had plenty in stock." She remembered that, although she could only see Veleta at a distance, Veleta was probably Watching her with avid attention, so she added, "It'll be ready when it returns to the boil. There should be a pale green steam."

"Meanwhile, Miss Vablatsky," said Remus, "it's probably better if you restore the phial to its natural size. Tell Mary to place it on the ground, then stand back while I send a Finite Incantatem."

That was a daring attempt; there were altogether too many spells charging around the area. Nor could they see whether the spell had worked, although Veleta waved in a manner that might have been intended as reassuring.

Five minutes later, the pale green steam arose from the cauldron, and Ariadne moved aside for Remus.

"Miss Vablatsky, are you ready? I'm now going to send the cauldron your way. Don't let the children touch it, but try to concentrate on what I'm doing. As soon as I've finished the incantation, Mary needs to pour the blood into the cauldron. Do take care. That Finite Incantatem probably also destroyed the Unbreakable Charm on the phial."

Ariadne had no time to worry about the painful level of magical precision they were requiring from a lass with whose magical powers they were quite unfamiliar. Remus commanded, "Abigo!" and the cauldron flew across the plain for eighty yards, stopping neatly at Veleta's feet. Ariadne couldn't help noticing that the pewter remained dry, while the rain danced around it – Remus had sent the Declino arch with the cauldron.

She handed him the bottle of Inardesco Potion that she had brewed at home last week, and he poured it over the yew plank. Then he Conjured the Purpurata Fire, and it sprang to life with purple flames. Remus began to recite the spell they had composed. Their English original had been:

No more constrained to Macnair Castle

are the descendants of Macnair.

The barrier that restrained them within

is hereby destroyed forever.

Macnair's descendants are free

to depart the castle without permission.

Ariadne hoped they hadn't committed a gross grammatical error that would change the whole meaning of their spell. It was all very well for Professor Babbling to assure them that the intention and emotion behind the spell had more force than the literal meanings of the words. The words had to contribute some of the spell's power, since Donald Macnair had intended his curse to bind his daughter, yet it had failed on a technicality because she no longer bore the Macnair name.

Remus finished reciting, and he did not need to signal. They could see one of the blurry figures by the castle wall heaving some bulky object. Mary was pouring the blood into the Dissipation Potion.

"Stir it seven times widdershins," said Ariadne. "When the green steam turns red, the blood has been Dismembered, so it should be safe to send the cauldron back to us... Remus, is it really safe?"

"Yes, the Blood Spell breaks at the moment when the blood is completely Dismembered. Even if the Banning Curse was originally linked to the Blood Spell, the blood no longer exists, so moving the discomposed blood can't move the Banning barrier. Just be certain, Miss Vablatsky, that the steam really is green – if it's orange or yellow, the blood is not quite discomposed."

Ariadne hoped Remus was right. She held her breath while Veleta appeared to attend to the cauldron. It was a surprisingly short time before Veleta stood up and once again waved at them.

"Accio, cauldron!" said Remus. He was calmly putting on Ariadne's oven gloves.

Ariadne released her breath. The cauldron was skidding back towards them, and no barrier of death was crashing down around their ears. There was nothing but the cauldron, still emitting a gentle red steam, and the Declino arch that was still warding off the icy rain. Veleta was following after the cauldron, slowed down because she had to guide one child by the hand and hold another on her arm, while her head was craned to check that the other two were following.

Remus extinguished the Purpurata Fire, then staggered over to the river bearing the heavy cauldron. Perhaps he should have Charmed it weightless, but yet another spell could have upset the magical balance of a potion that was already delicate. It was better to throw it into the river in its natural state. He was a second from doing so it when Ariadne heard Veleta scream.

"Regelinda!" Veleta and her children skidded stock-still in their tracks. "Ariadne, it's Regelinda! She's here, she's detected intruders, and she's charging around the corner with her wand drawn. She'll kill you!"

Remus hurled the contents of the cauldron into the River Tummel. The Dissipation Potion and the discomposed Macnair blood were swept downstream in the churning waters, carrying the Macnair curse away forever.

"Wait," said Remus. "I'll make the Portkeys – it'll just take me a couple of minutes to set them exactly right – "

"You don't have two minutes!" wailed Veleta. "She's here now!"

She was still speaking when a dazzling figure blazed through the portcullis and out into the open. Ariadne saw that Regelinda was dazzling because she was throwing hexes with savage fury. Random Stunners and Blasters were flying in all directions.

"Veleeeeta!" screeched Regelinda. "What are you doing out in the rain? Toady warned me you were talking to intruders – who are those people?"

Regelinda swept her wand in Ariadne's direction, and red and blue lights danced towards them. Regelinda was too angry to aim carefully, but she looked as if she were on the verge of a more calculated assault.

Remus panicked.

He threw his arm around Ariadne's waist.

Heavy air pressed in from all directions, squeezing her into an unlit inch-wide tunnel, and the dizzy nausea in her throat told her that they had Disapparated.