To Prepare the Defense

Chapter Eleven

To Prepare the Defense

Tanya was not cooperating. When Snape and Dumbledore had appeared before her cell, she wouldn't even speak to them. There was no evidence that she'd even known they were there. Snape suspected that the Dementors were doing their job only too well, and had reduced her to this depressed-more-than-depressed state, but Dumbledore disagreed. The Dementors themselves showed no signs of having fed on her misery. It seemed they were leaving her pretty much alone. Therefore, her depression came from within herself, not caused by the Dementors.

She was sitting on a built-in cot in the corner, leaning back against the cold, stone wall. She had a tray of food in front of her, but it didn't look as though she'd eaten any of it. Dumbledore left to speak to the Keeper, the goblin who was responsible for the running of the prison, and Snape took that opportunity alone with Tanya to appeal to her sense of survival.

"I can't believe that after all you've been through, all that Malfoy took away from you, all the people who've ever tormented you, that you'd give up now that you need to be strong!

"Tanya, all you need to do is take off Draco's curse; that will prove you have no intention of harming anyone, except possibly Voldemort, and with Dumbledore's influence, you'll be out of here! Free again, to pursue your chosen profession. Free to re-establish your friendships!"

Too late, Snape realized that he probably shouldn't have mentioned friends. Just before she'd been taken from Hogwarts, he'd become aware that her relationship with Potter had taken a nose-dive. He didn't know the details, but Potter wasn't plaguing them with questions and concerns about her welfare. It didn't bode well.

Tanya turned to look at him. Well, at least she knew he was there, Snape thought. He'd been beginning to believe the Dementors had taken her soul, never mind what Dumbledore said.

She stood up slowly and walked over to the bars, nearer to Snape. He looked at her. There was such an expression of hopelessness in her eyes. He longed to take that away, somehow, impossibly. He wished he could find some way to give her back her will to live. Her will to survive. She'd need it to get out of here. Even the headmaster couldn't do it without her.

But all she said was that she'd take the curse off of Draco. She'd do it after lights out, because she couldn't afford to be disturbed. This was the power Dumbledore wanted from her. A power Snape didn't understand. The reason the headmaster had wanted Tanya for the Order. She was going to use that power to return Draco to his normal, insufferable self. But she wouldn't fight to save herself. Snape tried to reach her. It was time to knock down the wall of isolation he'd spent his life building around himself. He looked at her hand, grasping the bar of her cage. He covered her hand with his.

"Tanya, please . . . please don't leave me. You are the only person I've allowed myself to care about since childhood. If you just sit back and allow yourself to be shut away forever in here, I don't know what I'll do." He thought he saw something in her eyes just then, but he was afraid it was only wishful thinking. But then he saw that she was gathering strength to speak.

"Severus," she said quietly, in a whisper he could barely hear. "It took a lot of energy to do what I did to Lucius Malfoy. It will take all I have left to lift the curse from Draco. I have to do this across a great distance. When I come back to my physical self, I might not have enough energy left to draw a breath.

"If I could choose where I would die, it won't be here. I'll try. I can't promise any more than that."

With that, she turned away and lay down on the cot. Dumbledore returned, but Snape urged him out to the corridor. "There's nothing more for us to say to her," he said. "She needs to rest. Tonight, she'll try to lift Draco Malfoy's curse. I suggest we push the Panel to convene in this matter as soon as possible. I believe she does want to get out of here, but she's weakening. I fear for her health."

Dumbledore wisely didn't ask for clarification. It was time to wait.

Back at Hogwarts, Dumbledore asked McGonagall to summon Harry Potter and Hermione Granger to his office. He asked Snape to stay as well, and poured coffee for him. Snape settled into an armchair by the fire to wait.

McGonagall led Harry and Hermione into the room, then left. After serving the youths tea, Dumbledore settled himself behind his desk.

"I've asked you here to see if we can pry some information from you about Miss Relke. We're facing a Panel inquiry that will decide her fate."

Hermione spoke up. "I've heard a rumor that you've been to see her in Azkaban," she said. "How is she?"

"She could be better," he answered. "Azkaban is not a place to put someone who needs to keep her spirits up. Has she ever told you anything about her early life? Any problems she'd had?"

Hermione looked surprised by the question. "No, not really. I picked up some details from Ron and Harry, and maybe a little bit of stuff from Mrs. Weasley, but I don't think it's anything you don't already know."

"And Harry," Dumbledore began, shifting his attention to him, "has she ever confided anything to you?"

Harry thought back to all the time they'd spent together. "I don't really know where to begin," he said. "What information are you looking for?"

"Well, we know that Lucius Malfoy, eight years ago, wiped out her family. We know she's been harboring a grudge, to speak lightly, against him all this time. We know she has powers that would put fear into even Voldemort's heart, but we need details of everything so that we can verify certain things. It's the only chance she'll have of convincing the Wizengamot that she shouldn't be locked up in Azkaban. I think the Ministry, at least, would be willing to put this behind us all, considering that she enabled them to recapture Malfoy. And certainly, he's no longer a threat to our world.

"For example, had she ever mentioned to you that she planned to destroy Malfoy?"

"No. I remember her telling me last summer that . . ." his voice trailed off, not wanting to reveal things she'd told him that the Order might not appreciate.

"Please, Harry, now is not the time to be squeamish about telling tales. It's her life we're talking about."

"Last summer, I was concerned that the Order was still keeping me in the dark about things I should know about. And Tanya also believed I should know everything I could. So she told me that Voldemort was probably searching for me. That much we all knew, or took for granted, anyway.

"But she told me that Malfoy had escaped from Azkaban, and was probably also looking for me, since it was I that caused him to be sentenced. She told me that because she thought the Order either didn't yet know about his escape, or that you all knew and didn't want me to know.

"A while ago, she told me about how her father was trying to force a marriage on her that she didn't want, and was too young for anyway. Her sister helped her run away, and Tanya stayed with friends until she could go to her grandfather in America. It was just before she left Ireland that Mr. Malfoy killed all those people."

Both Snape and Dumbledore leaned forward on hearing this. This could be what they were looking for.

"Is her sister still alive?" Dumbledore had taken a quill and a piece of parchment, poised for his answer.

"No. She died when Mr. Malfoy . . ."

"Oh, yes, I remember now. In the vision Tanya recreated, her sister had been impaled. And both her parents?"

"As far as I know, she only has a brother left. She doesn't keep in touch with him. They didn't get on."

"What about the friends she stayed with, awaiting her trip to America?"

Harry racked his brain to come up with the name. "She told me who they were; they were friends of her sister's. Gerity. They were the Gerity family, and they had lived down the road from the encampment. There was a village down the road there, and there were some neighbors who also might know a little bit about what happened."

"All right, we'll search both Wizard and Muggle news archives for any major event that took place in Ireland eight years ago. Do you remember where the encampment was?"

Snape supplied that one. "It was somewhere in County Claire. That's what she considered home."

Harry lit up. "I remember another one. There was a woman in the village; she'd helped Tanya find the Geritys' house. Her name was Bridie O'Hara. She does keep in touch with her; she said she sent a gift for Christmas and Mother's Day every year. Maybe she's still there!"

Dumbledore added the name to his parchment. "Does anyone know who her grandfather is, or how we contact him? We need to search Tanya's personal belongings; maybe there will be an address book or something."

"Her grandfather is dead now," Snape said. "It was he that left her his estate, and that's what she's been living on, supplemented by working wherever she could find a job."

Dumbledore looked at both Harry and Snape. "All this might illustrate that she was under a great deal of stress and perfectly justified to react to Malfoy as she did. But I certainly hope she can lift the curse from Draco. It will help immensely."

There was nothing left to do that night.

Entering the Great Hall the next morning, Snape was relieved to see Malfoy at his usual spot at the Slytherin table, platinum hair slicked back in place, all his features back to normal. But he wished he could contact Tanya right now, to make sure she was all right.

He looked to Dumbledore. Questioned with his eyes, glancing pointedly at Malfoy. Dumbledore nodded in understanding and came over to Snape's place at the table.

"I see she's been successful."

"Yes, Headmaster," Snape said, "but she told me that it would take a lot out of her to do so. I'd like to know she made it back all right."

"Made it back? I don't follow."

"She told me that she had to do this 'across a great distance'. I think she was talking about some special magical talent she has, and she might not have enough energy afterward to draw another breath. I want to know that she's okay."

"I would have been contacted immediately, otherwise," Dumbledore assured him. "Remember, she's only there in temporary custody. They'd have sent an owl by now if there were anything wrong."

"And what about the information we gave to the Ministry? They're checking it out?"

"Yes, they've sent a few inquisitors out in the Muggle world to search for the Geritys and Mrs. O'Hara. We should hear from them by the end of the day."

Snape nodded and stood up to leave. He knew that he was too nervous to sit still long enough for breakfast, and his sixth years were due in Potions in twenty minutes. He'd set them to work on some trivial potion, more of a review than anything else. He'd be useless to actually teach today. Time was alternately dragging and speeding up. He'd be a nervous wreck by the time the Wizengamot actually met.

But even Dumbledore did not have enough influence to push the convening of the Panel before they were ready.

It took an eternity to find the Geritys, and even longer to convince them that answering their questions would only help the lost little girl they remembered. Mrs. O'Hara proved to be more garrulous, thankfully, and she was able to provide information as to the grandfather's estate in Manhattan.

The American Muggle system of records (or non-system, as the case may be) added to their frustrations. Records of real estate transactions had to be searched, and the Ministry had to take the time to learn which documents would need to be forged in order to persuade the Administrative Muggles into parting with any tangible leads.

It was true that the grandfather had left the world when Tanya was just thirteen years old. After that, only the most meager paper trail allowed the investigators to follow Tanya's path back to Ireland, and to the cottage on the Taggery Farm, where Severus had first met her.

Although the Taggery Farm was owned by one Sean Taggery, the cottage that abutted it belonged to Tanya. Mr. Taggery had not been willing to help verify any information about Tanya, as he believed that if she were in prison somewhere, the cottage would fall to his possession; a goal he pursued at every chance. Mrs. O'Hara provided testimony that Tanya had been harassed almost all the while she was in residency there; the friendly woman had made it a habit to check on Tanya almost daily during the time she lived there. When Tanya was away, it was Mrs. O'Hara that made her weekly visits to the cottage, using the 'special' key to gain entrance. Mrs. O'Hara kept the place clean, dust-free, and stocked up on groceries and firewood for Tanya when she knew her young friend was due to return.

The Ministry dutifully turned over all the information it collected to the Wizengamot Panel, but it was more than a year before they felt ready to convene.