Chapter 4

Author's note: I own nothing, and just happen to have the habit of borrowing characters and playing around with them.

As to why the world is the way it is in this story, please c/f to author's note in chapter 1.

Description of murder(s) and politics herein may be gory and unpalatable to readers. If blood and gore offends you, and if depictions of any kind of non-western or non-modern-democratic government offends you, this story and the original AU murder mystery on which it are based are not for you. I do not say this to alienate my readers. I am merely giving fair warning.

Politics of Academic Murder

Chapter 4

They left Dumbledore's chamber and went into the Merton College wizarding chapel. It was small and possessed a few icons of the sainted wizarding few. Two candles burnt on the altar, which was strangely empty. A roughly smelted pewter chalice had been positioned in obvious replacement of the stolen ones. The investigators examined the interior of the chapel for a few minutes before deciding that it would tell them nothing. They then left the wizarding chapel and paused for a moment in the central courtyard looking at the buildings and judging their position to the chapel. Again, it merely confirmed that which Filch and Dr Clearwater had revealed, namely – Dumbledore's chamber was closest to the chapel.

Hermione was frustrated and plainly told her companion so when a gaggle of students emerged from the transfiguration lecture hall at Merton College. 'There is something that isn't right at all, but I can't put my finger on it.'

'Then think simply,' he offered sardonically, stuffing his hands in his pockets to render himself more streamlined and thereby minimise any contact with laughing and happy students. 'You may just bang your head on it.'

'That's not funny,' she said, struggling to keep up with his long strides as they persisted in going against the sea of human traffic.

'I am not trying to be facetious,' he answered, but on hearing no reply he darted his eyes quickly to either side of him. He could not help but roll his eyes as he stopped in his tracks. A few seconds was all it took for her to catch up with him, and when she did so, he automatically jutted an elbow out to her.

It was a gesture she had come to appreciate in her acquaintanceship with him, and she accepted the use of his elbow gratefully.

'Why do you always get borne away by crowds? Haven't I told you my arm is at your service?' he muttered lowly so that he was barely audible above the chattering of the students.

'At my service only in a mad crush of people,' riposted Hermione, holding on tightly to her perch at his elbow.

Looking up at the heavens in the hope of finding a suitable reply to her sally and finding none, he looked to the throng of students around them. The wizarding students knew the identity of the two academics by reputation, and most of them either avoided the eyes of the two professors or nodded greetings to them, each according to their characters. The pair stopped when they came to river Cam closest to the Transfiguration department. There was a small woods in the area, and nothing to contradict the idea that a band of thieved could easily have infiltrated the Transfiguration department at Merton and entered the chapel. A short distance away from the woods was a small hill where there was a clearing. It was there that Dr Clearwater had indicated that the alleged undesirable elements of wizarding society congregated. It was in that direction that Hermione and Severus moved towards. Their movement was purely automatic; after all, it was not as though they expected to find any evidence in the remains of the itinerant camp. It was more of an opportunity to walk and think over matters.

They had barely crossed the river when Severus noticed a figure a short distance behind them. He alerted his companion to the fact that they were being followed and she turned her head to the side. She saw a figure moving behind one tree to another in a manner that would have passed for surreptitious were it not so ridiculously executed. Upon exchanging a nod, they increased their speed imperceptibly up the path into the woods and entered it quickly. The path immediately opened on to the clearing where it was obvious that there had been an encampment not too long ago. There were signs of a fire, the grey ashes spread in a circle, and some of the ground had been turned by the shuffling of human feet. The investigators were in the process of sitting on a log when a voice cried out, 'You won't find anything here.'

Severus and Hermione turned and regarded the ginger red hair and greenish-blue eyes of Ginny Weasley.

Though Severus scowled at the unwanted presence of the newcomer (whom he considered an intruder), Hermione inclined her head forward into a nod of acknowledgement and invited the youngest Weasley of her generation to join their party. 'How may we help you Ginny?' Hermione asked, incurably straightforward.

'It's more whether you can help us,' Severus interjected before the interloper could speak. 'You followed us here. That can only mean you wish to talk with us. Please feel free to prove me correct.'

Long used to his acerbic wit, Hermione settled for shooting him a mock poisonous glance before turning her attention to Ginny. 'Is there something you want to tell us?'

'Dumbledore was an excellent wizard, almost as good as Harry,' said Ginny with a twitchy smile.

Hermione and Severus rolled their eyes at this. 'I think you mean Harry's almost as good as Dumbledore,' reminded the arithmancer.

'No,' Ginny insisted, her lips firmly pressed together. 'Harry is the best thing to happen to wizarding Britain.'

'The same was said about Kim Jong Il, look what that did for North Korea,' Severus muttered sotto voce, as he circled the ginger-haired witch in the standard manner approved by greasy bats everywhere prior to the beginning of a long and tedious interrogation.

That seemed to have sufficiently disconcerted Ginny, for she shuffled towards Hermione. 'I was Dumbledore's personal assistant at the Ministry. Harry asked me to continue in that capacity when Dumbledore retired here. I know things about him that most of the wizarding world doesn't.'

'And I thought the Minister was the only one who suffers from delusions of grandeur. I wouldn't have pegged his wife to be a party to such delusions. But seeing how she is a Ministry appointed personal assistant, it is only natural,' whispered Severus snidely in Hermione's ear. As soon as she quelled him with a cold look, he proceeded to direct himself at Ginny. 'Surprise us, Mrs Potter. What do you know about Albus Dumbledore that most of the wizarding world doesn't?'

'That he hungered for truth no matter if the truth was unpalatable to the world,' revealed Ginny. To her surprise, the two academics looked blankly at her.

'Most academics uncover unpalatable truths that the world cannot stomach,' replied Severus blandly. 'If memory serves me correctly, the Minister used to have a penchant for uncovering palatable truths and broadcasting them to the world. He did so in his fifth year at Hogwarts, I believe.'

'And was roundly set down by the public as a lunatic,' continued Hermione in a thoughtful voice. She knew as well as Severus that Ginny's position as a Ministry-appointed personal assistant was little more than a polite way of saying she was a spy for the Minister's Office under the Wizarding Internal Security Act. It had been part of the Minister's policy to allocate to powerful wizards and witches within the various ministry departments "personal assistants" known for their fierce loyalty to anything Potter-related. These powerful wizards and witches were deemed potentially subversive and were thus kept very close to the ministry even after their retirement from that august institution. They would be closely watched by their "personal assistants" who also vetted the bulk of their official paperwork to ensure that all they said and did were in line with the Potter Administration. These "personal assistants" would also follow the notable witches and wizards into the private sector and continue to monitor them lest they let slip some ministry secret or started thinking that their distance from the ministry granted them the latitude to espouse views contrary to the official Potter Administration proclamations.

It was only a stroke of happenstance that Severus Snape did not have such a "personal assistant" hovering around him. The Minister had thought that since his old friend, Dr Granger was also in the University of Cambridge, she would be able to report on the "potentially subversive" former Death Eater's movements to him. If he had expected any information of his former potions master and sometime adversary committing some dastardly deed or concocting a scheme to overthrow his regime, the Minister was sorely disappointed to learn that Hermione always had nothing interesting to report other than the fact that he liked South Indian curry, kept to himself and his books, and engaged in a game of Go every now and then.

Likewise, the object of this lax surveillance, Severus Snape, felt his good fortune in having Hermione as his "watcher" as he deemed her. She had revealed all that Harry had expected her to do on behalf of the administration where the alchemist was concerned. She never bothered to keep tabs on him, and had no need to. She told him she had trusted him. Besides, she had better things to do than to keep a hawk's eye on Severus. It was also a happy coincidence that her views on the Potter administration matched his own. As the alchemist reflected this, he tapped his lips lightly and ventured to press Ginny for more information. 'So Dumbledore believed that truth – however unpalatable – would set the academic world free from its preconceived notions. I cannot see anything egregious in that.'

'What if Dumbledore had gone one step further,' suggested Ginny with a generous toss of her hair in boredom at what she perceived to be Hermione and Severus's obtuseness. 'He believed not just in academic freedom, but in freedom of society. He believed that the truth – whatever the truth was to him, even if it went against everything that was for the good of our world – would set wizarding Britain free.'

'That is hardly a crime, Ginny,' answered Hermione, masking her contempt for her friend's lack of catholic thinking with a forced smile. 'Most academics want to contribute to society, but their ideas are hardly practical, let alone implementable. Most academics are idealists. Dumbledore is – was an idealist.'

Ginny snorted in an unsuccessful attempt to stifle a laugh. Very soon, her rich pealing laughter filled the air. 'You? The brightest witch of our time?' she burst out chortling in amused disbelief. 'Don't you know that truth breeds hatred?'

Severus narrowed his eyes at the redhead, and placed a placating hand on his esteemed colleague's shoulders. He need not have worried. Though Hermione was none too pleased to be object of scornful laughter, she was mistress enough of herself to know that it would be utterly pointless to disabuse a person who already had deeply entrenched preconceived notions of others. Instead, she settled for following Severus's fine example and narrowed her eyes at her schoolmate. 'Was Professor Dumbledore uncovering a truth that would have caused hatred?'

'I think so,' came the ready reply.

The dark alchemist raised a contemptuous brow at the late Dumbledore's personal assistant, and Hermione noted with faint delight that no one did contempt quite as well as Severus Snape. When the faintest of knowing smirks crossed her features, he turned his gaze on her with a scowl. But long years of being his student and years of acquaintanceship with Severus had immunised Hermione to such an expression, which had always succeeded in squelching the student population into a quivering mass of meek obedience. Ginny was feeling the effects of his contemptuous brow and had just gone into the huddling-in-fear stage when Severus enquired, 'Perhaps you should tell us what you know.'

She nodded dumbly. 'I know little but I will impart to you what I know.'

Hermione, who had then settled on a fallen tree trunk, motioned for Ginny to sit next to her. 'I gather that Professor Dumbledore was working on a new tract or treatise for publication?'

'He was. I know this because I acted as his scribe. Sharpening his quills for him or getting him new ones, and mixing his inks made it easier for me to see what he wrote. As his personal assistant, it was my task not only to watch over him but to make sure that his manuscripts were properly handled, dispatched the publishers and so on. Occasionally I helped him rebind his old books in the style favoured in the Middle Ages.'

Severus and Hermione nodded at each other. Many rare and precious books in the Middle Ages were enshrined in metal boxes or were covered with plates of gold or silver, or some precious gem sewn on their leather covers. Dumbledore was known to reset the book covers of old tomes in his collection and was known to be one of the few wizards privy of this ancient special art. From Ginny's conversation, it seemed that Dumbledore had taught the art to Ginny so that she would be able to assist him. Severus flicked an impatient wrist indicating to the redhead that she should continue.

'We sometimes worked closely together and Dumbledore would often say to me that truth was the academic's food but was often bitter to the taste. Most people preferred the savoury lie.'

'Yes, yes,' hissed Severus impatiently as he glared at her. 'We know all that. Just tell us who he was annoying by his truth.'

'To be frank,' Ginny said, staring at her feet as if they were the most fascinating things in the world. 'He was annoying himself. I went into his chamber here in Cambridge once, and I was going to clear his things today, which was when I saw you and decided to tell you the little I know. As I was saying, I went into his chamber when he was alive and once saw him poring over some texts in Latin I think it was. It was all gibberish to me; I can't decipher the scripts and the glyphs.'

Instantly, the ladies were alerted to a cough from the alchemist. Hermione, who knew what that signified, indicated to Severus that he should keep his low opinions of Ginny's intellect to himself with a harrumph and nodded kindly at her friend to continue.

'I think it was in Latin. Unfortunately, I don't have knowledge of it to decipher what it said. But anyway, when I saw him at that time, he suddenly threw the book away from him, looked up from his writing and exclaimed, "Alas! The value of the well is not known until it has evaporated!" Then he saw that I had come in and smiled at me like how he used to smile at Harry and apologised for his temper. But I tell you, Hermione, it was not really temper. In all the years that I served as his personal assistant, I can tell you that Dumbledore had no temper. It looked more to me like sadness more than temper.'

'Sadness at that which he was reading?' ventured Hermione.

'No. Sadness at what he was coming to realise through his great knowledge and having lived so long,' said Ginny with conviction.

Severus, whose eyes had become veiled in thought, momentarily leaned against a tree and asked. 'Do you believe in the official Ministry report of the itinerant wandless wizards being responsible for Dumbledore's death?'

Her bluish-green eyes shimmered with unshed tears as she glanced swiftly at Hermione, then at Severus. 'I do not point fingers of accusation at anyone. As my mother frequently says – the bird has little affection that deserts its own brood,' she proudly declared, her chin quivering.

Severus curled his lips in disdain at her evasion of his question. 'However, it is a given that one bird flies away from every brood. I am not asking you to desert your own brood or betray the Minister. I am asking you to help in tracking down the person responsible for Dumbledore's death.'

'As his personal secretary, you are ideally situated,' added Hermione earnestly.

'I cannot betray that person,' said Ginny in a small voice.

'Then you do know who it was?' asked Severus, leaning forward from his tree.

Ginny licked her lips nervously. 'I suspect but suspecting would cast doubt on the good name of Dumbledore.'

As Hermione's hand collided with her brow in exasperation and Severus frowned slightly at hearing those words, they both riposted in unison, 'I fail to understand that.'

Ginny, who obviously thought herself very clever to elicit the response that she did from the investigators, smiled. 'The explanation of every riddle is contained in itself,' she said, rising. 'Dumbledore was fond of reading the work of a blini.'

'Surely, you mean Pliny,' interjected Hermione helpfully.

'Whatever.' Ginny shrugged. 'It sounds the same to me. Something like "Historicae de Nature", I think.'

'You mean Naturalis Historia?' queried Severus for confirmation, shaking his head at the woeful butchering of the classic work by an ignorant dunderhead.

'Something like that,' nodded Ginny. 'Dumbledore once told me that he echoed Pliny in acknowledging nature's gift to humanity.'

Before either investigator could pose further questions, the ginger-haired witch Disapparated. It seemed to them that she had gone before either of them could have pointed out to Ginny that she could be ordered to explain by law under pain of fine all that she had intimated. Yet, somehow, they did not think it was appropriate (in light of her status as the Minister's wife) nor that they would have been able to discover her suspicions in that way.

They sat side by side on the log for some time, turning matters over in their minds and discussing their points of view. Severus pulled up the piece of parchment from his pocket, reread it again and frowned as he considered it carefully. When he rose abruptly to pace, Hermione saw that his mouth was set in a grim line. 'It seems whoever did Professor Dumbledore in is enjoying the protection of the ministry, otherwise there would not be this kind of a massive cover-up. It may very well be that Ginny suspects someone both powerful and dear to her. That could be why she is unwilling to do anything.'

'The black player may have had the advantage of beginning first but there is always the komi rule that could turn the tide of the game to the benefit of the white player,' muttered Severus obliquely as he traced his lips with his fingers. 'One moku is all we need, unlike the black player.'

'I speak of ministry cover-ups and you speak of Go, is there something you're not telling me?' quizzed Hermione.

Severus spun sharply on his heels and made his way purposefully towards the arithmancer. 'The murderer thinks this is a game, and from the way he, she or it has done it suggests that it is treating the whole issue of the murder, covering it up, and leading us around the nose while we conduct our investigation a game of strategy. Go is the best representation of strategy as our game earlier today must have indicated to you. Think, Hermione, think! The black player who has had the first move believes It has bested us. It allows part of Its territory to die on the board so as to give us false hope that we have managed to uncover part of whatever It is doing.'

'You should know you are speaking of the perpetrator as an object,' she pointed out, flicking a dismissive wrist.

He caught the hand that she had used to pooh-pooh his theory. 'Recall, if you will, our game of Go this afternoon. Doesn't it strike you that we are playing against a player who seeks to recklessly place us in permanent atari?'

'What do you suggest we do then?' she challenged, her eyes flashing when he did not relinquish the grip on her wrist. "We go in any deeper into this investigation and if that whom we suspect is true, it will be out heads on the platter!'

'We play just as the black player has played. We let It think It has outfoxed us. We voluntarily give up territory on the board to control the centre of the board,' he hissed, meeting her glare with a penetrating glower as he inched his face closer.

'Make up your mind, Severus!' she snapped, jabbing at his nose with a finger from her free hand. 'You speak of Go as if it were philosophy. This case can't be a stratagem revolving around philosophy.'

'Go mirrors philosophy, if you haven't already noticed! The mention of Naturalis Historia hints at that. We need to have some idea of why we are playing old joseki. Old joseki is like philosophy. We will prove to the black player that It cannot sustain its game play and win. Look at life,' began Severus. 'It is built by human ambition, innovation and skills. Go is meant to be played innovatively, skilful and with just a hint of ambition. The implications of this on modern existence should disturb you.'

'I am disturbed enough living under this kind of wizarding administration; and presently, I am disturbed with you. Will you let go of my wrist!'

He did so and flopped angrily down on the log next to her. 'We are living in some political scientists would call a soft-authoritarian state. The Ministry has rules, regulations and so on for nearly every aspect of our lives. That entails going into society and compelling the people therein to be like the head of the Ministry and his policymakers. It is tantamount to teaching the young people in our world that all paths leads to a single mode of thought and way of living that will be common to everyone. Such a system cannot sustain itself.'

A gust of wind blew by and Hermione shivered while tilting her head to the side with a speculative look. 'You seem to be saying that Harry wants politics to have the character of a certain kind and of that kind alone without the improvements that it may receive from external sources, namely the citizenry.'

'So you do see!' Severus answered, handing her the gloves he fished out of his pockets. 'The Minister thinks he is doing all he kind for the good of the wizarding population by rendering everything uniform. In so doing, he forgets that the members of society whether wandless wizards, squibs or people like us are our own people – separate and individual. The kind of politics of the current ministry entails large-scale cooperation with the network from the Aurory, the "personal assistant" spies and what have you.'

'That does not sound like a bad thing,' Hermione rejoined, 'if anything, it smells like cooperation. I cannot think of cooperation as a bad a thing.'

Severus pinched his nose and held her curious gaze, 'Too much cooperation is a bad thing. When men cooperate, they become dangerous. When men cooperate their ambitions know no bounds. Human aspiration as the biblical Tower of Babel story evinces is dangerous. It leads to conquests and it cannot hold an empire or a government together. Do we really know for certain that the Minister can resolve all the wizarding world's problems through the auspices of his own reason and his team of trusted doers?'

'All right, I conceded that progress seems to be hand-in-glove with destructiveness, but I don't see how this has any connection to why we should proceed in this as you did with a stone in hiraki."

'The ambition to create is accompanied by the ambition and the capacity to destroy. We have come a long way from our past where we had poor sanitation and all that, but our ability to destroy has also increased. It should chill your soul when the Minister espouses the belief that we can create whatever we want to if we come together for the sake of preserving his government in his speeches. Can we really help ourselves when we come together, or will we end up destroying ourselves?'

Hermione's eyes lit up. 'You mean to say that if the murderer and the people covering up for him or her continue to place us in permanent atari, they would destroy themselves?'

'Precisely,' Severus intoned lowly. 'Look at the way they put obstacles in our way while granting us leave to investigate – they are sure of themselves. They are moderately successful for they have momentarily confounded us. But that only emboldens them, and as a result, their ambition rises, and they try to push us into a corner. Why do they so? Because their ambition is accompanied not just destructiveness but the desire for recognition. However, they will not expect us to go through with the investigation and check this ambition.'

'Do you mean that Dumbledore...' she allowed her voice to trail off.

'Why else was he murdered?' He cracked a knowing smirk.

'Then it means...'

His lips curled faintly. 'But, of course.'

'That is shocking.'

'Such things often are.'

She looked up at the sky and sighed. 'Will you have us do what you did on the board? Place a hiraki on the lower centre of the board and shock them till they are petrified?'

'Thereby buying us time for both a kosumi and a tsuke where we will be directly next to the murderer's next move, blocking Its atari. But we will only be in position briefly so much so that It would not even know we had been near. Once there, in position, we strike,' announced he with some aplomb. 'For now, it looks like the murderer has gotten the better of us. It will rest easy tonight, expecting us to declare on the morrow our resolution to solve the case. But come tomorrow, we will be in direct confrontation with our nameless, shapeless black player.'

Footnotes:

Everything here on wizarding politics is entirely made up. It may be disturbing but I just write what I know.

Readers may object to the 'Secret Department of Unspeakable Unspeakables'. I call it thus, as I explained in the first story, Christmas Presents Undisguised, because the agents there are more unspeakable than normal unspeakables. They are so unspeakable that they are secret.

Naturalis Historia is written by Pliny the elder.

Komi rule – In Go, black makes the first move, so black has the advantage. Since black has the advantage, white has 5 ½ moku to start with. This means if white has 50 moku on the board, black needs 56 moku to win.

Moku – the point scoring in Go.

Tsuke – Where you place your stone next to your opponent's stone. But the stone that you have placed can only be in contact with the opponent stone at the time it is played for it to be a tsuke.

Hiraki – A move where you place a stone deep into unclaimed territory from an area that you can control. In so doing, you claim the unclaimed territory as your own.

Atari – When you only need one more move to capture a stone, it is known as atari.

Joseki is a set pattern of moves that brings benefit to both sides. Like chess openings, although it benefits both players, it can benefit one player over another if play is extended.

Kosumi – A standard Go response to the keima attack in the Edo period. It is rarely used now due to the komi rule. For komi rule, see above. But in skilled users of today, the kosumi is a very effective strategy.

For usage of "Inquiry" vs "Enquiry", please refer to footnote in previous chapter.