She whispered

by Lucas Chesterton

  ‘This is Molly Weasley’, Remus explained to Elena. ‘She used to be the rock of the Order of the Phoenix ���’

  ‘Get off it, Remus ���’ the witch murmured and her cheeks approximated the colour of her hair. Beside her, a girl turned around that Elena recognized as Ginny Weasley. ‘Hi Ellie’, she said with a mischievous grin and nodded at a point where she assumed Elena to sit, ‘good to ��� well, not see you.’

  ‘Turn back’, Remus said to her, ‘before someone notices ���’ Beside him, an elderly wizard was giving him dirty looks, then turned to his neighbour on the other side and hissed something.

  Down in the platform, the inquiry took its course.

  ‘So we are to believe, Professor Daysen’, Periwinkle took up his interrogation again, ‘that you killed Albus Dumbledore as the result of a death pact? Not the least bit of pleasure for you in that, eh?’

  Daysen looked up as if stung and opened his mouth, but Nell Nolan shot out of her seat. ‘What is my esteemed colleague trying to suggest?’ she asked. ‘This is a court of magical law, not a parade of wild presumptions.’

  The grey-haired witch in her pulpit gave Periwinkle a stern eye before turning to Daysen. ‘You need not answer that question’, she said matter-of-factly, and Daysen shut his mouth although it was obvious that he would have liked to give Periwinkle a piece of his mind. ‘Mr Periwinkle’, the chairing witch went on, ‘I must implore you to stick to the facts, not get lost in emotional speculation.’

  Periwinkle bowed his head stiffly, but his face was a mask of indignation.

  ‘Who’s the judge?’ whispered Elena.

  ‘Eve Fawley’, said Remus. ‘The Fawley family belong to the Sacred Twenty-Eight, they’re as pureblood as you can get. Beyond reproach, though.’

  Elena had no idea what the ‘Sacred Twenty-Eight’ were, but this was not the time to ask. She watched Periwinkle who had returned to the bench, picking up another pile of papers ��� he appeared obsessed with papers, holding on to them as if to a straw ��� which was handed to him by a white-bearded wizard who’d been taking the notes.

  ‘That’s Aeneas Crowley, by the way’, Remus informed Elena. ‘Did I tell you about him?’ Since he could not see Elena shake her head, he went on. ‘He’s very wealthy and has recently gained a lot of influence in the wizarding world. He’s all set to become a very prominent figure. I’ve spoken to him a few weeks ago, and Jack is very lucky that for now Crowley is only allowed to take the minutes ���’

  ‘Quiet now, man!’ the wizard sitting on Remus’ other side snarled. ‘Who are you talking to, anyway?’

  ‘Who would I be talking to?’ Remus shot back irritably. ‘Don’t you know Hermione Granger of the Golden Trio?’

  Hermione who’d overheard the words leant forward and gave a dazzling smile to the complaining wizard. Beside him, a thick-set man with red-blond hair was looking suspicious. Elena realized that she had met him before. Marlin, if she wasn’t quite mistaken, the one who had referred to Jack Daysen as a ‘murderin’ bastard’ ���

  Lupin shrugged and turned his attention to the events on the platform, and so did Elena. Ansgard Periwinkle was just clearing his throat, preparing for a new attack.

  ‘Professor Daysen’, he started and tried a false smile, ‘my esteemed colleagues have made it clear that they do not wish to wallow too much in the past.’ He shot Nolan a dirty look. ‘However, I cannot quite agree. After all, in past years and decades even, you have never spoken out publicly, neither on your past affiliations, nor on the events leading up to the recent victory. ��� Which, by the way, brings me to a most pressing question: why, after the victory and your mysterious survival’, from the way he spoke the words, they sounded fishy, ‘have you never come forward to talk to the authorities?’

  But Daysen was prepared for this. He turned a stony face on Periwinkle. ‘The Dark Lord had set his snake on me, to bite and kill me. It almost succeeded, for quite a while I was closer to death than to life. So you may understand that when I woke up I was in a state of shock, with no other wish than to leave the scene of my ��� demise. I was badly injured, too. Confused, not quite sure whether I had really woken up or was just ��� hallucinating. I have to admit that helping the authorities was at that point the least thing on my mind.’

  ‘And a few days after that?’ Periwinkle snapped. ‘Surely you came out of your ��� confusion after a while?’

  ‘Yes, but I was still badly injured. It took me days, weeks in fact, to regain my strength.’

  ‘You look well enough now’, Periwinkle observed, tilting his head sarcastically. ‘Are you sure that snake really got you as badly as you claim? Maybe your survival wasn’t all that mysterious?’

  ‘What’s the fucking bastard suggesting?’ Elena exploded in a hiss.

  ‘Sssshhh!’ Hermione, Remus and Harry turned on her all at once and there were a few raised eyebrows from adjacent seats.

  However, in that moment something happened that caught the attention of everyone in the courtroom. Daysen who had so far hardly moved, sitting in his seat like a statue, suddenly reached up angrily and tore at his necktie. Buttons popped, the starched white shirt rustled, and in the next moment, Daysen had bared his neck and tilting his head to one side presented the large bite scar to the bench. There was a roar as spectators inhaled sharply. The scar looked horrible, an angry swollen red, the traces of huge snake fangs clearly visible, and there were spots of blood on the shirt’s collar. The members of the bench gazed at Daysen’s neck with fascinated concentration, and even Periwinkle wrinkled his nose at the sight. After a few seconds, Daysen began to calmly button up his shirt again and redid the necktie rather sloppily. His face was once more a cold mask as he settled back in his seat, again very still. The atmosphere in the courtroom was chilly, as well.

  ‘Clever move’, Hermione whispered, ‘if they don’t believe him now ���’

  ‘Thank you for the dramatic demonstration, Professor.’ Ansgard Periwinkle had regained his composure rather quickly. ‘Can you provide any explanation as to why you survived an attack like this?’

  ‘No.’

  Periwinkle scoffed. ‘That’s hard to believe, if I may say so! A wizard of your status and experience ��� particularly where the dark arts are concerned ��� must certainly have an idea why he survived the bite of a snake carrying the fragmented soul of one of the darkest wizards known in our time?’

  Jack Daysen remained silent for a few moments. ‘I can only guess’, he ventured after a while, and it was with a dejected sigh, ‘that it had something to do with the beheading of the snake with the sword of Gryffindor at some point. My theory is that at the moment that happened, the snake lost its magical powers and at the same time, all its recent actions were annihilated. I may have been as good as dead by then, but since the snake venom lost its effect after the beast was killed, it may have been just enough for me to scrape by.’ He made a noncommittal gesture, emphasizing that it was only a theory.

  ‘Whoa!’ Ron Weasley breathed. ‘What’s Neville going to say when he hears this?!’

  Hermione grinned, then turned slightly in her seat towards Elena. ‘Neville Longbottom and Daysen ��� they didn’t get on very well when we were at school.’

  ‘Not get on very well?’ Ron scoffed and cast a dirty look in the direction where he supposed Elena was sitting. ‘Neville was Daysen’s favourite whipping boy!’

  Elena said nothing. The last thing she needed right now were stories on Daysen, the bully. She’d heard way too many of these already, and at the moment she was still trying hard to digest what she had just seen, Jack Daysen of all people baring his neck to the full Wizengamot assembly and to the observing public. However, Ron was obviously on a rampage. ‘I’m pretty sure the greasy git would never stoop so low to say a ‘Thank you’ or anything like that’, he hissed.

  ‘Be quiet, Ron!’ Hermione stared worried at the other end of their row where the red-blon
d wizard called Marlin had gotten to his feet to squeeze by towards one of the aisles.

  ‘You know, it’s really getting on my nerves like ��� big time’, Ron ranted on, ‘all this romantic drabble about Daysen because he was in love with Harry’s mom! Suddenly, nobody seems to remember what a horrible person he really is anymore.’

  Now that was too much. Elena fixed the red-haired young wizard with an angry stare that he ��� alas ��� was not able to see. ‘Nobody’s giving him a break, either!’ she hissed.

  However, it was easy for Ron to ignore her since he did not see her, and he merely shrugged.

  ‘Get off it, all of you!’ Remus commanded in a nervous whisper. ‘Eusebius Marlin’s up to something ���’

  Elena turned around nervously, her glance sweeping over the rise of rows behind her. She saw the thick-set wizard ��� Eusebius Marlin ��� talking to an orderly and pointing at the row in which they were all seated. The orderly made a suspicious face and followed Marlin down the steps of the aisle.

  ‘Oh, no!’ she moaned.

  The orderly squeezed into their row and stopped in front of Remus Lupin.

  ‘Sorry, sir’, he said in a constricted voice, ‘I have just been alerted to the fact that an unauthorized person might have been brought to this courtroom.’

  ‘Really?’ Lupin raised his eyebrows in a show of humorous innocence. ‘Can you see anyone?’

  ‘No, sir, I can’t’, replied the orderly and sarcasm was dripping from his voice, ‘but that’s exactly the point of an Invisibility Cloak, isn’t it?’ He pointed his finger at the telling space between Remus and Hermione. Under the cloak, Elena felt her face becoming hot.

  ‘Why would anyone take an Invisibility Cloak to a Wizengamot hearing?’ Lupin asked reasonably. Sitting on Ron Weasley’s other side, Harry Potter stared ahead as if oblivious to the exchange.

  ‘Please’, the orderly spoke to the seemingly empty seat, ‘show yourself. Or I will have to take measures.’

  ‘Don’t’, Remus hissed under his breath.

  ‘Leave it. It’s no use.’ With a sigh, Elena got up and let the Invisibility Cloak glide from her shoulders. There were slight noises of surprise from all around. She folded up the cloak leisurely, then threw the bundle towards Harry. ‘Nice idea’, she mouthed to him.

  ‘Ma’am, I have to ask you to leave this courtroom’, the orderly said stiffly. Behind him stood Eusebius Marlin, appraising Elena from head to toe in a knowing manner that was nothing short of intrusive.

  Harry piped up now. ‘She came in with me’, he whispered agitatedly. ‘It was my idea, so won’t you make an exception?’

  ‘The wizarding world cannot forever make exceptions for The Boy Who Lived’, Marlin sneered from behind the orderly’s broad shoulders.

  ‘It’s alright, I’m coming’, Elena said hastily, not wishing to cause any troubles to her acquaintances, and made to squeeze out of the tightly packed row, accompanied by the orderly.

  ‘Quiet, please!’ roared the voice of the Chief Warlock, Eve Fawley. ‘This is an official session of the Wizengamot, and anyone who does not comply with common manners will be removed from this courtroom!’

  Obviously, the process of detecting Elena under her cloak had caused quite a flurry and many pairs of eyes were on them now, surprised and malicious whispers had ensued. Elena followed the orderly with a stiff back. As she left the row, she looked over her shoulder, down onto the platform. Jack, too, had turned in his seat and seemed to peer up to the rows to find out what was going on there. Elena willed him to look up, to notice her, but it was futile as from the place where he was seated the rows of spectators were probably nothing but a squirming darkness.

  Only then did she realize that he was really staring in a completely different direction. In fact, his black eyes were firmly glued to a point somewhere among the lower rows. His face had blanched and there was a look of disbelief on it. What or who was he looking at? Had he recognized someone?

  ‘Ma’am, please.’ The orderly tugged at her sleeve.

  Elena murmured assent and let herself be ushered out of the courtroom. She felt a little like a criminal while this was happening. Witches and wizards stared at her, trying to guess at who she was and why she had crashed the event. Elena caught the eye of a witch about her age, sitting in a seat close to the aisle and giving her a commiserating look as well as a brief smile. Then the winged doors opened and she was gently pushed out onto the corridor again.

  Elena sat down on one of the steps leading upwards from the circular corridor to the Ministry’s higher levels, elbows on her knees and chin in hand, and let out a dejected sigh. The orderly who had accompanied her outside gave her a strict eye, but she ignored it. Witches and wizards were still hanging about, waiting for the end of the hearing or for any news to leak out; however, their number had become considerably fewer in the meantime.

  With her wand, Elena cast a Horavisibilata on the stone floor ��� a neat little spell she had recently learnt from a young Hogwarts student and that showed the time on a bluish-gleaming sun clock. An hour had passed since the beginning of the proceedings. Surely, it wouldn’t take too long now? But she wasn’t at all certain. What Jack had surmised when he had visited her that night at St. Mungo’s had become true: this hearing hadn’t been so much about the Leshnikov affair, but about his ��� Daysen’s ��� past. His affiliation with the Death Eaters. The murder of Albus Dumbledore. ��� For the first time, Elena wondered in earnest whether there would be consequences, whether he would have to face more legal troubles. It was obvious to her that not a small number of people shared Periwinkle’s attitude and saw Jack as not much more than a criminal. And even those who held on to the hero aspect might wish to keep an eye on him who was by now ��� as Remus had put it ��� perhaps the most powerful wizard in the country.

  It wasn’t that she didn’t understand the suspicions out there against him. Had she not known the man personally and merely heard about his deeds, she might have wondered whether such a person could ever truly be reformed. In a way, she even saw how Daysen had earned the distrust of the wizarding community, he, whose true allegiances had never been clear until the last moment and who had bullied students with his foul mood and raging temper for years.

  Sitting on the cold hard steps, she asked herself why she trusted Jack Daysen. Everything she knew about him was light and dark at approximately equal measures. Maybe she should try and find another perspective? ��� But no. The voice coming from within her was very firm. She knew he had a good heart. How else could he have done what he’d done ��� for Harry, whom he didn’t even like, and most of all for Harry’s mother (as always, remembering that gave her a little sting)? How else could he have been as tender with her as he had been that night in the lighthouse, touching her as if she was precious, kissing her ever so lightly, loving her ever so passionately ��� Suddenly she remembered how he had presented that scar during proceedings, had bared his neck for everyone to see ��� it had been quite an uncharacteristic act for someone as touchy about personal matters as Daysen, and was evidence of the pressure he’d been under, not to mention hurt pride ��� and she remembered, again, how she had touched and kissed his scar that night, how her tenderness had made him tremble. She felt her cheeks starting to burn and covered her face in her cool hands.

  ‘Excuse me?’

  Elena looked up. ‘Yes?’

  In front of her stood a young witch of about her age wearing a pointed hat and a winning smile. Elena remembered that she had seen her before, when she’d been led out of the courtroom and the woman had looked at her sympathetically. She had a pretty heart-shaped face, large dark-brown eyes and a mane of lustrous dark-brown hair. ‘You must be Elena.’

  Elena got up from the steps. ‘Have we met?’ she asked, a little confused.

  ‘No’, the girl said with a hasty shake of her head. ‘But I know who you are because I’m a friend of Eddie Hincks.�
�

  She turned a little and pointed out Eddie who was patrolling the corridor in front of his doors and did his best to ignore the two young witches.

  ‘Oh’, said Elena, suddenly reserved.

  The girl waved her hand. ‘Never mind Eddie’, she said. ‘That’s just how I know ���’ She broke off, her smile a little uncertain now. ‘I saw how they threw you out of the courtroom. I’m sorry about that.’

  ‘I wasn’t on the bloody list’, Elena murmured.

  ‘Yeah’, the girl sounded sympathetic. ‘Had some troubles, too, getting my name down on it. My dad did it for me, he has ��� connections.’

  ‘Good for you’, Elena said sarcastically, ‘are you enjoying it so far?’

  The girl examined her carefully. ‘Look’, she said with another quick glance over her shoulder, ‘I think you should really be in there. I heard most of it, anyway.’

  ‘What do you mean?’ Elena was taken aback.

  ‘I’m giving you my seat’, the young witch announced firmly. ‘It’s five rows down from the top, right by the aisle. You can have it.’

  ‘Are you sure?’ Elena’s eyes became wide. ‘But they’d notice!’

  The girl shook her head. Again, she checked the surroundings, but when she saw that no one was watching she slipped out of her coat and pulled the pointed hat off her head. ‘Take this’, she said, offering the coat, ‘and the hat, and my handbag. No one will know the difference.’

  Elena saw what she meant. They both had about the same height ��� not very much of it ��� and build, and also similar hair, even if Elena’s was a bit lighter. They both wore high-heeled shoes to accentuate long shapely legs. A wicked grin spread on Elena’s face as she took off her salt-and-pepper coat and swapped it for the girl’s beige one. ‘What’s your name?’ she asked in a conspiratorial whisper.

  ‘Cassie Cleary’, the girl answered. ‘It’s really Cassandra, but no one calls me that.’ She shot Elena a warning glance as if to say ‘never ever call me that!’