Chapter 5

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 5

The next morning, Severus and Hermione retraced their steps to Chancellor Flitwick's office. The Chancellor was seated at his desk and looked up in annoyance as they entered.

'Have you two finished your investigation yet?' came the inevitable question.

'Not as yet,' replied Severus, and without waiting to be asked, sat down with Hermione.

A frown crossed the Chancellor's brow but before he could admonish the pair before him, Hermione cut in with a bored voice, 'I would remind you that Professor Snape and I are former Unspeakable Unspeakables and are considered advocates of law under the Potter government. So if you are about to lecture us on protocol for calling on you before you are ready to face the world, do not bother.'

Unused to being spoken to in such a manner by Hermione, Flitwick swallowed hard, evidently caught off guard by the harshness of her tone. As it transpired, he had, indeed, been about to point out that a mere associate professor and a lowly assistant professor were not allowed to sit in the presence of a University Chancellor without being invited.

'You are a clever wizard, Chancellor,' Severus suddenly began, but in such a manner that Flitwick missed the patronising bite in his voice.

The Chancellor settled for staring at the two investigators before him, not knowing how to interpret their words.

'We need your advice,' continued Hermione with a forced smile.

Flitwick shifted his weight in his chair, bewildered by the pair's abrupt and constant changes of attitude towards him.

'I will be happy to help.'

'Nothing much, Chancellor,' said Severus blandly. 'It's just that you have been able to reason out an explanation to a matter which is beyond both our understanding.'

'As such,' Hermione interjected, 'We would like you to explain it to us.'

'I will do my best.'

'Excellent,' nodded Hermione to Severus. 'Tell me, Professor Flitwick, how these itinerants were able to overpower and hang an ailing, old, frail wizard in his chamber...'

'And leave the room, having secured the window on the inside,' ventured Severus quietly.

'And locking the door behind them, leaving the key in the room?' Hermione went on with a little smile playing on her lips.

Chancellor Flitwick stared at them in astonishment for a while, his puzzled eyes fixed on the pair. Then, when he had collected himself, he began to chuckle, 'You have been misinformed. The key was never found. The undesirables must have taken it with them, as suggested in the Ministry report.'

'We were told that there was only one key to Dumbledore's room, which he kept himself. Is that correct?' queried Severus in the same even, quiet tone.

Flitwick nodded slowly. 'There was no other key. The wards to repel those whom Albus did not recognise were still in place. Our smithy had to pick the lock and un-ward the chamber for us to gain entrance into the room.'

Hermione opened her handbag, reached into it and gently placed the key before him. 'We tried it on Professor Dumbledore's lock, and wonder of wonders – it works. We found the key on the floor behind his desk.'

'How can that be? I don't... that is, I can't... Why?' The Chancellor stumbled over his words.

The two investigators curled their lips sharply into smiles.

'Somehow I didn't think you would be able to offer any explanation,' said Severus coolly.

Flitwick ran a distracted and shaky hand through his hair, choosing to remain silent.

'Where are the writings Professor Dumbledore was working on before he was murdered?' pursued Hermione.

'Destroyed,' Flitwick replied limply in a colourless voice.

'I told you so,' purred Severus to his colleague, who rolled her eyes. 'Tell me, Chancellor, did you destroy them?'

'I own up to that responsibility,' swallowed the diminutive wizard.

'You must have hated what he had been writing to have destroyed them,' Hermione said softly.

'I did not hate Albus. He was just... misguided, shall we say. As he became increasingly misguided, the more difficult he became, and more stubborn too. Ask Harry Potter. Even Ginny Weasley-Potter who worked closely with him, refused to help him rebind a book or cast a mould for a bookplate which carried a classical Latin title because she thought Albus had misinterpreted it.'

Hermione and Severus exchanged a quick, surreptitious glance on hearing that piece of information, but managed to keep straight faces in front of Flitwick.

'So, you felt that Dumbledore was so very "misguided" that you had to destroy his work?' queried Severus, an edge of embittered annoyance creeping into his tone.

'You do not understand,' Flitwick cried out.

'We are all academics in this room,' Hermione said testily. 'What can you say about another academician's writings that will leave us scratching our heads in incomprehension? I already think we do understand it.'

Flitwick sighed. 'I doubt it. You could not. You would not. Albus Dumbledore was like a father to wizarding Britain before the Potter administration took over. He is venerated for that role; and his behind-the-scenes work for the Harry Potter government. He had always protected young Harry and our world has applauded him for doing so. I was protecting Albus. I was protecting his reputation!'

As Severus raised a brow in disbelief, Hermione rolled her eyes with a light shake of her head.

'It is the truth,' insisted Flitwick vehemently, jumping on his seat. 'Those papers on which he was working, I hoped he would never release to the world. He was the great thinker and shaper of our world. He had groomed Harry Potter to defeat Tom Riddle and lead wizarding Britain into a new epoch of peace and development, and yet he grew senile and began to doubt Harry and his policies.'

'In what way was he senile?' enquired Hermione.

'What other reason was there for his doubt of Harry, especially after his defeat of Riddle and rebuilding our world? When I reproved Albus for his doubt, he told me that one must question even the Minister of Magic and the Sainted Few, and their purpose on this mortal plan. According to him, the Minister of Magic should want to serve all of humanity, and as such, the Minister, should be like the Sainted Few before him, approve of the homage of reason and truth, rather than fear born out of ignorance or a desire for more power.

Severus tapped a thoughtful finger on his cheek and Hermione shook her head ruefully.

'Indeed, he was a wise old wizard,' murmured the arithmancer.

'Did you kill him for those doubts?' asked Severus, his free hand clutching to his wand just in case.

Flitwick, much affronted, sprang to his feet, his face ashen. 'What?' he protested. 'Do you accuse me of his murder? It was either suicide or the doing of the undesirables!'

'We do not believe the footpad or itinerant murder theory,' opined the alchemist.

'Neither do we subscribe to the suicide theory,' added Hermione.

The Chancellor of the wizarding division of the University of Cambridge slumped back in his seat with hunched shoulders. Guilt was written on his features as he groaned softly, 'I only tried to protect Albus Dumbledore's reputation. I did not kill him.'

'Ah,' cautioned Severus with a warning smirk, 'but you yourself have demonstrated that you have a suitable motive for his murder.'

'I did not kill him!' protested Flitwick. 'I tell you, I did not!'

Severus would have pressed his perceived advantage and shook Flitwick until he had an answer to his satisfaction, but Hermione would have none of that. She placed a gentle hand on his elbow and addressed Flitwick, 'We will leave you for a moment to reconsider your story. When we return, we want the truth.'

They turned out of his office and made their way slowly to Merton College.

'Are you certain Professor Flitwick would not have fled by the time we return?' queried Hermione slowly. 'Maybe we should have confiscated his wand. What if he attacks us when we go back?'

'I have two reasons why he would not make such foolish attempts,' explained Severus, holding out a wand that was clearly not his. 'One – I have pre-empted your second hypothesis by pinching his wand that he had carelessly left on the desk while you frightened him with your questions. Two – this is just our hiraki, if the Chancellor had indeed committed the deed and we have just confronted him with it, he would be bound to respond in some way, and that way would not be flight. That would be too simple. We have laid out psychological traps for him already, don't you see? By giving time to reflect and the opportunity to flee, we have created the illusion that we trust him to do the right thing. Secondly, by giving him time to himself to reflect upon matters, we have created the illusion that he will confess out of his own will rather than through any coercion.'

'Little does he know that we have already tried to coerce him,' Hermione smiled as they came to the Merton College wizarding chapel.

The pair had just been on the point of passing Dumbledore's door when Severus paused and inclined his head towards it. Without warning grabbed her hand and dragged her into the room as his instinct bade him. If truth were to be told, he did not know what made him enter until he saw the shelves of books. Hermione, when she had recovered from being forcefully drug into the Dumbledore's chamber, noticed her companion's steady and intent gaze at the books. Making her way across the room, she peered along the line of books until her eyes lighted upon the book where they had found the scrap piece of parchment.

'It's here,' she muttered, as her eyes rested in the book she and Severus had unconsciously been looking for. 'I found it.'

She made room for Severus on her left as she began to flip through the pages, seeking the half forgotten passage. Finally, they found the passage and read it through. The passage contained what they expected it would. They exchanged a grim intelligible look of determination before flicking their eyes around the room. She pointed the bed, and he understood. Hermione watched as Severus climbed on it and stood at the edge, reaching his hands up towards the beam above – the same beam where Dumbledore had been hung. It was, for Severus, within easy arm's length. He stepped down again to the floor and frowned, wiping his hands on a handkerchief she offered.

'The chapel then,' she suggested.

Accordingly, they made their way there and stood briefly beside the door as they had done earlier. 'The only logical conclusion,' he commented.

'The most obvious place and we overlooked it,' she reproached herself as her gaze swept around the interior.

Severus, who appeared to be guided some intuition, stalked up to the altar and went down on his hands and knees, but it was not to pray. He bent forward and lifted an edge of the drape across the altar.

A low gasp escaped Hermione as she saw what was hidden therein. Beneath the altar stood a silver goblet and two gold chalices; in one of them, was Dumbledore's gem-encrusted magnifying glass, in the other, was the icon of Saint Lucy, whose halo was done up in gold leaf. Severus reached forward and took them out. Together, the academicians-turned-investigators regarded them for a moment before one heaved a sigh and the other narrowed his eyes.

Gathering the bounty in their arms, they retraced their steps to Chancellor Flitwick's office. He was still seated at his desk. He rose when they returned, and then his eyes fell to the objects they carried. He paled and slumped back into his seat.

'Look what we found,' began Severus silkily.

'Where... Where did you...' Flitwick stammered, trying to summon some residue of sharpness by which he hoped to control the situation.

'No, you listen,' Hermione interrupted harshly, neatly pre-empting anything he could have said. 'We told you that the itinerant undesirables breaking in and killing Professor Dumbledore and then hanging him in a room secured from the inside theory is impossible to accept.'

'Then we discovered a short while ago that you disapproved of the work Dumbledore was doing and after his death destroyed it,' contributed Severus helpfully glowering at the small wizard behind the desk. 'Tell us how these matters add up to a more reasonable explanation?'

Flitwick mopped his brow with a handkerchief. 'It was wrong to blame the undesirables. I realise that. It seemed to be the only excuse I could make. As soon as I realised the gravity of the situation, I distracted Argus Filch and the smithy, and quickly went into the wizarding chapel and removed the first things that were on hand – the chalices. These I placed under the altar where you doubtlessly discovered them. I returned to Albus's room and seized the opportunity to take his silver goblet, and the magnifying glass. Then it was easy to carry through the rest. I could now claim that the chapel and Dumbledore had been robbed.

'Then you destroyed his work,' pointed out Hermione.

'I only collected the papers that Albus had been working on at the time and destroyed them lest they corrupt the minds of those loyal to the Potter administration. Surely, it was better to remember Albus Dumbledore in the vigour of his earlier years when he was not so infirm and senile, when he was in a position to conceptualise plans to defeat Riddle and install Harry as Minister of Magic? Why remember him as he was before he died – a senile, old, embittered wizard filled with self-doubts?'

Severus raised a brow. 'Is that how you saw him?' he asked quietly, his eyes narrowing.

'That is how he became, and this I say even though he had been everything good and kind to me. He showed us what Riddle had done to our world. Indeed, Riddle had instituted a state of war of all against all in our society when he came to power. Under the Voldemort administration, "anything goes" as the saying went. There was no justice, and no true laws. The only means of survival was to steal and rob the Death Eaters and each other. That administration led us into a horrifying scenario of war of all against all just so that we could preserve our lives. If anything, it brought our fear of dying and dying horrifically to the fore. Albus knew this. He has often said to all of us in the Order of the Phoenix that such an administration as Riddle's was irrational. He wanted us to achieve our mutual wants, needs and desires, and showed us how we could meet those desires and so on without losing our lives. He taught us that justice means obeying a covenant, and that the only person capable of making us a covenant of peace while giving society the prosperity and stability it deserves is the Minister of Magic.'

'What if these laws are unjust?' reasoned Hermione, tapping her foot in a bid to keep in check her annoyance with Flitwick's pontificating.

'How can it be unjust?' cried the diminutive wizard. 'Under a regime like Voldemort's, we were all deprived of everything. But under Harry, and his laws, we have all that we could ever want – peace, economic growth, a solid infrastructure, political stability.'

'Under a one-man government,' reminded Severus darkly.

'But don't you see? This covenant that we entered into with the Minister, that is, Harry, is a very beautiful thing. It respects our need to preserve ourselves. Indeed, Harry's policies have all justly demonstrated that in order to have the peace, stability and prosperity that we now enjoy we have to obey his laws,' Flitwick rambled on, wringing his hands.

'Instead of justice being equated with living a good and noble life, justice in the Potter administration has come to mean obeying the law – his law,' Hermione patiently elucidated. 'In this government, the contract between our society not to meddle in politics and the Minister will deliver the peace, stability and economic prosperity you spoke of IS the law. Have you not noticed that this covenant, as you call it, has to be policed to make sure we all stick to it? Have you not noticed that those who so much as oppose it become wandless or if they are powerful enough, retired far from the Ministry and civilisation in general, and watched by so-called "personal assistants"? Harry's government may be an agency making us perform our duties to the state and society. Yet it is all a lie. We are not his equals. Under this administration, we are constantly reminded of that. Look at the itinerant undesirables – just because they are squibs and wizards who have been rendered wandless, it is assumed that they are useless members of our world, unable to contribute to our economic growth and should be left out, high and dry and starved to death. Harry has disarmed us and rendered us metaphorically wandless because his laws demonstrate that he is in a position to exploit us. He exploits our desire to avoid another war on the scale of that which we fought with Voldemort. He made us surrender all our political rights, and since he is the acknowledged hero of the war and the saviour of the wizarding world as we know it, et cetera, et cetera, we give up our political rights to him, allowing him to rule over us. After a few fancy speeches, this does come to pass. What happens? He lays down the law and we all listen. Now, what are the consequences of this? So what happens when we put down our political rights to an arbiter and permit him all the power and all the ability to regulate us? You effectively have the rule of one man. This is what our Ministry of Magic has become.'

'That is just a necessary evil if we are to continue to enjoy all that we have now under the Potter administration,' demurred Flitwick. 'If Abus Dumbledore did not approve of this coming about, he would not have endorsed Harry to become Minister. Albus put into place our present system of governance into place behind the scenes and Harry operated the machinery.'

'In so doing, it teaches wizards and witches to despise, denigrate and destroy all who are deemed "useless", "incomplete", "unable to contribute", "subversive" and "pariahs"? And what do we do? We ban some books about politics and philosophy – even ancient texts on wizarding philosophy! Continuing to endorse such a state will only teach this and future generations to despise our present way of life!" Hermione burst out, slamming her palms on the desk.

The Chancellor stared at her quizzically, then at Severus. To his surprise, both were levelly scowling at him. 'How do know all that?'

Severus cleared his throat. 'You did not destroy all Dumbledore's notes. Towards the end of his life, Dumbledore suddenly began to realise the cultural and socio-political wealth he had been instrumental in destroying. It began to prey on his mind that instead of bringing peace and shaping the future of our world, he was destroying thousands of years of learning and killing the soul of political thought in wizarding Britain.'

'It is only right that texts dangerous to Harry's administration be burnt, and the undesirables expelled from our society. Who knows what havoc these dangerous elements would do to wizarding Britain!' protested Flitwick.

'To a true scholar, especially one skilled in wizarding philosophy and the development of political thought, burning and banning books would be sacrilegious. The same could be said for repressing human spirit, ingenuity, and the need to give voice to our reason,' Severus stated plainly.

'Albus was wrong,' insisted Flitwick firmly.

'The destruction of knowledge and past learning, restricting the growth and development of the human spirit and soul, are great crimes against humanity. No matter in whose name it was done,' replied Hermione impassionedly. 'Professor Dumbledore saw that. He knew he was partially responsible for instituting our current state of affairs into being. He knew he was partially responsible for the crime of burning ancient texts, and encouraging the development of this police state against our culture as magical peoples and the learning of our society.'

Flitwick fell silent for a brief moment and then slowly said, 'I did not kill him. He took his own life. That was why I tried to blame the itinerant undesirables.'

To which statement, the investigators looked up calmly at him and said, 'We know you are not a murderer.'

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.

The state of war of all against war argument used herein is culled from Thomas Hobbes' (1588-1679) Leviathan, which forwards an absolutist theory of governance, especially government by one man. In the Leviathan, he justifies the absolute power of the sovereign. The basic premise is that men are machines who are driven by two things: (1) desire for power, and (2) fear of death. The desire for power leads to the state of nature where the life of man is "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short". Civilisation is, in turn, based on thus fear of death. For men are led by this overwhelming fear to construct a common, the Leviathan recommends an artificial machine for the enforcement of social rules and for the provision of security against sudden death. Why is this so? Because "covenants without the sword are but words and of no strength to secure man at all". The threat of civil war and a possible lapse into the state of nature is ever present unless men, in constructing the Leviathan, follow the logic of the geometer and institute an absolute monarch to keep the peace with a rule of iron.