Chapter Nineteen: Confessions
Sirius sat quietly while Frank entered the room and sat down nervously. Something was obviously troubling the popular Hufflepuff; he was fidgeting in a way Sirius had never seen before.
“What do you need, Frank?” James asked with a friendly smile.
“I…” Frank started and then trailed off. The look in his eyes was pure panic, and Sirius suddenly got the idea that this might actually be important.
Frank closed his eyes as though steeling himself for something deeply unpleasant.
“It was me,” he said finally, his voice filled with despair. “I didn’t want to do it, but they hurt me until I couldn’t help but do what they said.”
It all came out so fast that none of the Potters had any idea what he was talking about.
“What did you do?” Lillian asked, kindness and concern both evident in her voice.
“I killed McFarren and beat up James and Samantha, and told the Death Eaters where to find you at Christmas,” Frank confessed, and as he did so his despair deepened, though the relief at telling others was clearly evident as well.
If the play of emotions across Frank’s hadn’t been so obvious and so sincere, Sirius would never have believed it. As it was, he couldn’t think of anything to say.
James recovered first and asked, “Why haven’t you said anything sooner?” Surprisingly, there wasn’t the slightest bit of anger in James’ voice. Instead, there was a mixture of pity and understanding that had Frank looking up at him in shock. The Hufflepuff’s eyes filled with tears at the acceptance in his friend’s voice, and told them quickly how he had come to be controlled by the Death Eaters. Sirius’ blood was boiling by the time the story was told, but he was also growing suspicious.
“Why are you telling us now?” he asked pointedly, ignoring his siblings’ surprise at his apparent insensitivity. “And why are you telling us and not the Aurors, or Professor Shacklebolt?”
“I did something else…” Frank said, shrinking back from Sirius, and refusing to meet the eyes of either James or Lillian. “Something horrible. I had to do it, they made me, but then I felt so bad about it… and I finally beat it back! I’m finally doing something they told me not to do!”
“What did you do?” Sirius asked, his voice hard.
“I helped them kidnap Muriel and Samantha,” Frank said in anguish. “They’re after your whole family, but I know where they are. I can help you get them back, I swear I will!”
“Why didn’t you tell the Aurors?” James asked, looking his friend straight in the eye, demanding an answer.
“They would just arrest me, and I wouldn’t be able to help get them back. I have to, don’t you see? I have to prove that I can fight them! If… If you want to go to the Aurors, I’ll understand… but you’ve fought the Death Eaters before, and I thought… I thought you’d let me go with you.”
James searched his friend’s face, and apparently found what he was looking for. “Where are they, and how do we get there?”
Sirius felt his heart drop; the story and the emotions all sounded true and real, and he could see that both of his siblings believed Frank completely, and would go along with everything. For some reason, his long-time distrust of the boy remained even after his confession, and Sirius was in no mood to dismiss it. Still, with his aunt, uncle, and mother gone from the castle, there didn’t seem to be any other options. As Lillian and James discussed what they were going to do to get Muriel and Samantha back, however, Sirius decided there was no way he was going anywhere without backup.
Sirius surreptitiously vanished the Marauder’s Map, sending it up to the quadruplets, and then used Leglimency to contact them.
“I need you!” he told them, straining to maintain a connection because of the distance. “Find me on the map and follow me in your Animagus forms.”
Once he got a positive response from them, he turned back to the conversation at hand to find everyone staring at him.
“What?” he asked, pretending he hadn’t been listening.
“I just asked if there was anything you needed or if we could leave now,” James said, sounding a touch exasperated.
“I’m ready,” Sirius answered seriously before turning to Frank. “And nothing had better happen to Muriel and Samantha before we get there.”
Frank paled, but nodded. All of them took up their wands and left the room, determined to rescue the two girls before anything else happened.
***
Lee ran swiftly through the forest, easily keeping up with the Potters and Frank despite their larger stride. He and his brothers had easily avoided detection, though Sirius knew very well that they were there. They were heading deep into the Dark Forest, surprisingly not far from where Sirius and the Weasleys had ventured the last time they had been searching for the murderer.
“How much farther?” James asked as he peered through the thick foliage ahead. The Weasley weasels couldn’t see very far ahead themselves, this far into the forest.
Frank’s answer surprised them all. “I think this is far enough,” he said calmy before firing a stunning spell straight at Sirius. At the same time, three more Death Eaters jumped out of the undergrowth and stunned James and Lillian. The two older Potters fell unconscious without a word, and Sirius would have followed them had he not witnessed the attack before unconsciousness could claim him. The vileness of the betrayal jarred him to his bones, igniting a fury that helped him refuse to succumb to Frank’s spell.
Sirius’ eyes were literally blazing when he turned and faced Frank. He barely noticed the flame rising from his arms as he knocked Frank back a half-dozen paces with a well aimed blow before turning back to face the other Death Eaters. Unfortunately, the three who had jumped out first had been joined by many more, and they were still coming.
Shouting wordlessly, Sirius hurled himself into their midst, intending to get close enough that they wouldn’t be as effective with their wands while he could beat them with his fists; wizards were notoriously poor at fighting without magic. Just before he reached them, four of the Death Eaters fell to the first volley of curses from the Weasleys, who had transformed back into themselves and were springing an ambush of their own. That was the last of the Weasleys that Sirius saw for the next several moments as he became surrounded by swirling black cloaks and skull-shaped masks. For a few seconds he enjoyed smashing those masks into the faces behind them, before feeling a sharp blow to his back that momentarily slowed his reflexes and weakened his muscles. He turned, meaning to end the threat, when he saw that Frank was back in the fight and showing every bit as much talent as he had when he was a cloaked shadow the night he had attacked Samantha, despite his obviously broken nose from being hit by Sirius. Brian had intercepted him after he had cast the Stunner that had bounced off of Sirius’ back, but Brian was barely managing to hold his own. The other Weasleys were also completely occupied fighting Death Eaters, as their numbers had grown to what appeared to be almost two dozen. Sirius glanced down at his unconscious brother and sister in anguish, knowing what he had to do.
Calling out an order of retreat in his mind, Sirius picked up one of the Death Eaters in front of him and hurled the writhing body into the most tightly packed mass of wizards he could see. The move bought him only a few seconds, but he and the Weasleys moved with a coordination that could only come with their unique mental connection facilitated by Sirius. They all ran in the same direction, sprinting into the forest in a direction opposite from where the Death Eaters had attacked. Frank and the masked wizards were behind them in an instant, but the quadruplets all managed to get a hand on Sirius and then they were gone.
***
“Ah, the last of our guests are here,” the dark wizard said with satisfaction as Frank led the Death Eaters carrying James and Lillian into the ring. Harry noticed quickly that the Death Eaters were looking very much the worse for wear, and despite his panic he couldn’t help but feel a flash of pride in is children at the amount of damage that had been done. When he recognized Frank, however, all other thoughts flew from his mind. A Longbottom had betrayed them. This will kill Neville, he thought sadly, too disappointed to be angry with the boy.
“Where is the third child?” the Dark Lord asked, and Harry’s head whipped back around to see that Sirius was, in fact, missing. His heart started beating fast with unexpected hope and he caught his wife’s eyes across the circle and shared a small grim smile with her as the evil wizard began shouting insanely at his followers.
“The Weasley quadruplets followed us,” Frank was saying quickly, cringing away from the dark specter looming over him. “They managed to help Sirius get away; there was nothing I could do, I swear!”
“You!” the dark wizard shouted, pointing at another masked Death Eater that had helped bring in Harry. “This is your tool, you deal with it!”
The Death Eater was quick to tear off his mask and run up to the cowering student. “You’ll pay for this,” the familiar voice shouted before putting the boy under the Cruciatus Curse. The screams were almost lost to Harry as he stared in shock at the man before him and the details of his own capture came back to him clearly.
“Stan?” he asked in shock and then anger as the curse continued even longer. “Stan, what are you doing?!”
The angry Death Eater finally released the boy from his curse, leaving Frank in a crumpled, twitching heap as he turned a hateful and triumphant glare on Harry.
“Yes, that’s right, it’s me!” Stan Shunpike shouted, though his voice was much different from its usual uncultured and uneducated accent and vocabulary. “It was so wonderful to have such a great advocate, let me tell you. If the great Harry Potter says a man is innocent, then by all means, he must be innocent. I’ve endured your condescension for so long it makes me sick, but it’s worth it to finally have you where you belong; facing your death from a pure-blood’s wand.”
The import of Stan’s words left Harry shaking with guilt and rage. He’d been so adamant over Stan’s innocence, and had personally seen to his release. His refusal to work with the Ministry on the grounds of an innocent man being wrongfully imprisoned came back hauntingly, and Harry found that he couldn’t trust himself to even give a response.
“That’s enough, Mr. Shunpike,” the Dark Lord interrupted before his servant could go on. “Let’s not forget the failure of your little pet.” The shadowed visage turned to observe the trembling boy who was finally starting to gather himself up off the ground. “Leave the sniveling wretch where he is; he’ll receive a more than adequate lesson on my power before the night is through. Take thirty Death Eaters with you; find the Potter brat and his Weasley allies and kill them.”
“NO!” Ginny shouted, straining at her bonds. Fred was similarly struggling and swearing viciously, while everyone else around the circle, including the newly awakened James and Lillian listened in shock. Harry’s eyes were still narrowed in hatred focusing on Stan, who was obviously eager to gather the wizards together and escape from the piercing gaze.
The dark wizard turned to regard his prisoners for a moment before turning back to Stan who was almost ready to leave.
“I shall need proof of your accomplishments,” the voice hissed with taunting pleasure. “Bring me their heads, and leave their bodies on the edge of the school grounds.”
At this pronouncement, Ginny collapsed against her post, sobbing hysterically while Fred went silent, staring into space with a dazed expression. Harry looked at his crying wife hopelessly; he had great faith in his son’s abilities, but he knew the five young students would be no match for a score and a half of determined and evil adult wizards. He could only hope that Sirius would go to Kingsley or the Aurors instead of trying to come to his family’s rescue.
***
When Sirius and the Weasleys had vanished and escaped the Death Eaters previously, they hadn’t actually gone anywhere. Sirius had merely transformed into the phoenix, and had made himself and his cousins invisible before lifting them up into the air where the Death Eaters couldn’t accidentally run into them. As soon as the Death Eaters left to gather up James and Lillian and head off into the forest, the quadruplets had transformed and followed them on the ground while Sirius did the same from the air.
They had all been shocked when they found so many members of their family captive to a madman, and had witnessed Frank’s merciless torture. Sirius suspected that all of Frank’s story had been true, with the exception of being free from the Death Eater’s commands, and he found himself feeling sorry for the boy even after what he had done. Still, his first priority would be to save his family. He heard his father’s former friend and coworker ordered to go out on their dark errand, and decided the first step in rescuing his family would be the elimination of thirty of the gathered Death Eaters. With that many removed from the picture, his family would only be outnumbered three to one when he went to free them. Those were odds that Sirius felt confident his father, mother, aunt, and uncles could handle.
Reaching out with his mind, Sirius called out to his cousins and the group set out after the men charged with their deaths.
They followed them for a long while as the men slowly made their way back towards the school, and Sirius was desperately thinking about a way to incapacitate the lot of them at once without having to engage in a full-blown fight that he and the Weasleys would be sorely pressed to survive, much less win. As the Death Eaters entered one particularly large field, a plan started formulating in Sirius’ mind that would have brought a broad grin to his face had he been possessed of a mouth instead of a beak. A quick set of instructions to the Weasleys had them sharing his mirth and all was ready.
As the Death Eaters reached them center of the field, several things happened all at once. The four Weasley quadruplets each transformed back into themselves, one standing in each direction surrounding the large group of Death Eaters. Before the evil wizards even had a chance to register surprise, the quadruplets had created a magical shield that created a shimmering dome over the shocked crowd. At that same moment, Sirius appeared in the middle of the group in a flash of fire and cast a furiously large fire spell that filled the dome to the brim with bright hot flames. The flames consumed the oxygen in the dome in an instant and was of so brief a duration that the only damage the Death Eaters sustained was the loss of their hair and eyebrows along with unnaturally red faces and smoldering robes. This only fueled their ire as they began casting retaliatory spells at Sirius, but Sirius wisely didn’t stay to fight; rather he transported himself to the outside of the dome and added his own magical strength to that of his cousins maintaining the dome. The Death Eaters tried desperately to escape their magical prison, but they were weakening quickly, and some had already collapsed as they futilely tried to breath in the oxygen-depleted air. In the course of a single minute, all of the back-cloaked men had collapsed, and Sirius and the Weasleys released the dome and began disarming and binding the entire group. They finished just as some of the Death Eaters began to come around.
Sirius incinerated the stack of thirty-one wands they had captured before turning to one of the Death Eaters in particular.
“Stan Shunpike,” he said murderously as the man groggily looked up at him. The Death Eater’s confusion receded rapidly, replaced by fear.
“They made me do it, Sirius,” the man said quickly, trying to cover his involvement since he had no idea that Sirius had seen everything before. “Set me free and I’ll help you rescue your family!”
“I don’t see any reason why I shouldn’t take your head back to your master, before I ram it down his throat,” Sirius said through gritted teeth.
Stan realized that Sirius wasn’t going to buy into his innocence, and his manner changed instantly to cold, condescending malice.
“You’ll never defeat the Dark Lord,” he stated heatedly. “He’ll kill your family and then he’ll turn his attentions on you. Without your daddy watching over you, you’ll be dead within a few minutes. Then the entire Wizarding world will belong to my master.”
Stan finished with a proudly defiant sneer that clearly told Sirius that he could kill Stan and it would still be hopeless. Sirius didn’t buy it.
“Tell me, Stan,” he began, idly toying with his wand, “what will your great master do when he finds that you betrayed him and facilitated the escape of his prisoners?”
“What are you talking about? I would never betray my master!” Stan said heatedly.
“Not consciously, I’m sure,” Sirius agreed, before casting a spell of animation over one of the Death Eaters who was still asleep. The man’s body climbed to his feet and began to dance comically around the clearing. “Still, once you are unconscious there’s no telling what you might do. I imagine your master isn’t one to wait for an explanation,” Sirius finished coldly. He let realization and fear fill Stan’s expression as the high-kicking Death Eater pranced around them, and then stunned the man who had betrayed his family.
“That was well done,” Chris said cheerfully, as the animated Death Eater collapsed again. “I’ve never seen anyone pirouette quite so gracefully; if he didn’t have to spend the rest of his life in Azkaban, I’d say he has a future in ballet.”
“Maybe they’ll put on a show for the other inmates,” Lee said thoughtfully.
“Indeed,” Brian said, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. “With the right choreography, the Dancing Death Eaters could create quite a sensation. I’m sure they’d be booked at prisons around the world.”
Sirius couldn’t help but laugh, though he sobered quickly. “Let’s make sure we’ve got all of these Death Eaters well and truly unconscious. We’ve got family to save.”
A/N: Well, here it is. This chapter really is twice as long as the last one, but I'm sure it still won't be quite enough to satisfy everyone. (I do that on purpose) I hope everyone is still enjoying the story, and look forward to the next chapter coming even faster. (My wife is getting impatient with me) =)