The Amulet

It was dark within the jail cell. It’s narrow room and tall ceilings were not a challenge for Severus to fly up to. He grasped the unnaturally warm cell bars, the only opening to the outside world and watched the thin wispy clouds in the horizon turn a beautiful spectrum of yellow, orange and red, slowly dispersing itself in the dark coloured sky. Dawn was finally here, and Severus surrendered himself to the uncertainty of his position. As he leaned his head against the prison bars, he could visibly see his breath, and it had nothing to do with him being able to see the open-air. Wizards were more than capable of enchanting the world outside into the walls and ceilings and the vision he was seeing was just a trick of magic, but it was a much needed trick for he felt claustrophic within the tight confines of the rocky cell.

He tried sleeping and although he managed a small nap, he couldn’t convince his body to fall into restorative sleep. He had a feeling the walls weren’t the only thing enchanted. The bed, the floor, the pillow even the sheets had to have been spelled in some way because they were the most uncomfortable thing he had ever had the displeasure of laying on and that was saying something considering his neglectful upbringing. In his opinion, the branch of a tree was more comfortable to sleep on than anything within the ministry cell.

But even through all of his internal complaints, Severus was resigned to this. He knew things would end up this way, what he didn’t expect was who was leading the charge. Barty Crouch. The man was singlehandedly responsible for pushing decrees that immediately and automatically jailed anyone with the Dark Mark, regardless of their offenses. Severus’s own special case was pending investigation. He was expecting an interrogation but it’s been weeks since Dumbledore last informed him of anything new.

A jingling of keys alerted him to an oncoming visitor and Severus noiselessly lowered himself to the stone floors, his lanky black hair floating back down to the sides of face. He never understood why the keys were never silenced, especially in this particular situation where he inhabited the only cell, it wasn’t like they were going to visit anyone else here. He was grateful nonetheless, it wouldn’t do to inform the authorities of his flying abilities.

He heard him before he saw him. It was hard to miss the hollow sound of a wooden peg leg striking the sandstone in a steady cadence of a walk, one near silent footstep alternating with a dull thunk of the prosthetic.

“Get up you lazy bum. Up!” The voice growled, an echo permeating the room.

Mad-Eye Moody. Well, that explained the keys.

Mad-Eye Moody or Auror Moody was a member of the Order of the Phoenix, Albus Dumbledore’s resistance that opposed Voldemort’s rebellion whose end goal was to rein overall. Moody had a paranoid character from his many years of hunting Death Eaters and disbanding groups that have potential to recruit for them. Although, Severus didn’t frequent Order meetings, he did meet with Moody to collect an emergency portkey that activated via his magical signature for a mission on behalf of Dumbledore. Ever since then, Severus has been in Moody’s radar and he’s been seeing him crop up in the most unlikeliest places as if he were following him.

Upon seeing a large electric blue eye glowing through the cell doors, Severus attempted to fight back a sneer. Moody’s newly acquired eye, curtesy of Death Eater Rosier, had given him his new namesake, Mad-Eye, it’s bulbous sphere never once looked in the same direction as his natural eye. It swirled independently to Severus’s joined hands as if determining from sight alone whether he was lethal. Severus let his hands hang at his sides trying to appear non-threatening to avoid any physical confrontations.

“You know the drill.” Moody said gruffly, cycling through the keys on the ring it was attached to until he found the correct one.

Severus rearranged his face to one of disdain. He’s never actually been incarcerated before and he could feel a trickle of irritation at the presumption.

Moody snarled impatiently, opening the cell door with a loud metallic creeak, and promptly folded his arms across his chest, tapping his long, dark wand against his forearm. “Turn around, you. Arms up, legs apart.”

Severus resisted the urge to disobey, his default was to keep his arms close in case of self-defence. He raised his hands in surrender and slowly turned. Moody impatiently pushed him roughly into position, kicking his legs apart causing Severus to stumble forward, out of balance.

“Arrrgh!” The auror dug the tip of his wand threateningly at his neck and Severus stiffened underneath it.

Moody’s aggressiveness, bothered Severus who felt vulnerable without his wand. He didn’t realize how distressed he became until he could visibly see his erratic puffs of breath within the cold dark room. Severus fought to harness his emotions under the sea of his Occlumency, by allowing it to sink further down and be weighted by the darkness when the walls alone could not restrain it. He shuddered in an inhale and let out a long exhale to regulate his breathing while Moody patted him down. As his turbulent emotions subsided, he began to notice how taut his body was. A gentle thrum of expectation igniting his nerves as the palms of his hands warmed. A familiarity that he could only assume came from close encounters with metal. Severus discreetly scratched his palms in an ill attempt to eliminate the feeling but it only inflamed it.

Mad-Eye froze to stare at Severus’s hands with both of his eyes as he walked around to face his front. He traced his wand painfully against Severus’s jawline to his chin.

“Dumbledore’s Spy, eh? You may have him fooled but not me.”

Severus reared his head back slightly in repulsion as Moody’s breath saturated in the smell of alcohol wafted in front of his face. He tried to fight back the fear that crawled from his gut from the scent alone, his childhood memories bubbling on the surface of his Occlumency threatening to seize control of his body. He forced himself to still and meet Moody’s normal brown eye.

“You Death Eaters are all the same.” Moody said in disgust. “Twisted morals, manipulators, the lot of you.”

Severus distracted himself with pinpointing the Auror’s weaknesses, just to gain some semblance of control. He began to envision what it would look like to completely disarm Mad-Eye and incapacitate him. He could see himself, in his mind’s eye, controlling the Auror’s wrist that held his wand and simultaneously shoving him off balance as he swept his peg leg from under him. He could imagine himself, lording the newly captured wand over him momentarily before he stunned him. Granted, it would be extremely difficult to escape unnoticed with the many cubicles containing Aurors surrounding the lift, but he could dream. Severus tuned back into awareness and nearly scoffed at Moody’s mind games. Mad-Eye must have thought insulting people with preconceived notions would lead them to suddenly change their persona.

“-you Slytherins with your pureblood extremism.”

Severus nearly laughed at the absurdity of it all. He absentmindedly scratched the inner fold of his hand catching the magical blue eye’s attention, leading to Moody’s brown orbs to shortly follow. The Auror leaned closer with his wand trained to the palm of Severus’s left hand, the air began to fill with an indiscernible feeling that left Severus’s fine hairs standing on their ends. He felt Moody trace the tip of his wand from his wrist up the radial artery pulling the sleeve up and exposing the dark tattoo underneath. The silence that followed should have been an indicator that something was going to happen but neither men could have understood the warning signs as the static charge began to hum through the room, and the heavy scent of ozone filled the air. Severus experienced a cold flash of dread before a white electrical arc emitted from his hand racing through the air and connecting painfully to Moody’s magical eye.

Mad-Eye yelped and Severus stiffened in response waiting uncertainly for some type of immediate reprimand as he let his arms hang in the air. The auror aimed his wand to where he perceived Severus’s face to be, cursing up a storm as he bent his knees in pain and cupped his magical eye. After a few seconds, he regained a more defensive stance. With a leading leg forward, he cocked his head to the side giving Severus a calculating look.

“There’s something off about you. I just know it.” Moody dropped his hand exposing his whirling blue eye and Severus tried not to stare but it was unusual sight to behold.

The magical eye eventually settled on his left forearm as if transfixed on his dark mark and Severus resisted moving to test his theory. Moody’s inquisitive stare caught his attention, as the auror straightened out his posture and dropped his wand hand. Mad-eye waved his hand forward as if beckoning him to do something but then changed his mind and with a flick of his wand Severus’s wrists smacked noisily against each other as cuffs shimmered into view bracing them.

“Alright, you’re clean.”

Severus nearly huffed in disbelief, as if they would let him stay in the cell for as long as he did fully armed. Moody led him out of the cell and through the stone passageway in-between two lit sconces when he pulled him through the wall straight to the other side where he was surrounded by rows of Aurors in their cubicles, each working individually in their own hurried pace. No one took notice when they made a beeline across the room to a simple pale blue door. Mad-Eye hobbled in, unworried whether Severus was going to escape, and for good reason. Even though he was surrounded by trained magical law enforcement, that alone would not have deterred him from just running and enchanting himself with a spherical protection spell to block most curses, but the huge golden runes that ran along the wall were nearly transparent and as he neared one it glowed orange in warning and he could feel the temperature of his body rising uncomfortably. From his schooling, he knew the runic wards would cook him alive if he activated them, although he did add a mental note of their existence, just in case.

As Severus entered the room he furrowed his brow from the piercingly bright light above, he hung his head and rounded his shoulders until his eyes adjusted after several paces. He attempted discretion when he used his peripherals to survey the room. The expanse of the area was longer than it was wide, a long table was set in the centre with two foldable chairs on each side. Moody impatiently grabbed his triceps and guided him forcibly to the chair furthest from entrance, Severus willingly allowed himself to be led and manhandled into his seat aware of the power difference. The Auror noisily dragged the chair next to Severus down the length of the table until he was at the middle. Mad-Eye made a show of moaning in relief when he sat down and massaging the thigh above his prosthetic with his non-dominant hand as if it gave him pain, but Severus was experienced in seeing what was beyond a person’s self-projection and wondered what the Auror’s game was.

“You see this button here?” Mad-Eye off-balanced his wand in his fingers so it could drop on a large red button on the table, “Curtesy of the time room. It freezes time within the room, everything freezes except those who wear this.” Moody lifted up his hand, showing a silver band engraved with runes on his wrist. “One false move, and you’ll be frozen and vulnerable, with your one-way ticket to Azkaban.”

Severus nearly rolled his eyes. Was Moody really that overconfident to expose such a weakness? If he were a true Death Eater, he would’ve cut off Moody’s hand before he could get to the button and slip the band off for his own. It’s as if the man has never heard of wandless magic. It wasn’t as rare as people thought.

Something must have shown in his facial expression because Moody was giving him a nod of approval. Well, he can’t have that. Severus strengthened his Occlumency shield and relaxed the muscles on his face. The auror frowned.

The door opened again, and in came two gentlemen followed by Albus Dumbledore, in his sky blue robes and flaunting his new colourful gem encrusted wand.

Moody offered his seat to Dumbledore and moved further back to lean on the wall. The two new arrivals sat themselves down. Severus wasn’t familiar with anyone from the Ministry by sight, but if he could hear a name, he’d automatically know who he was dealing with.

Dumbledore spoke first, “It’s best that everyone in the room knows who everyone is. I’ll start first, Albus Dumbledore, as you well know Severus.”

Severus bowed his head in acknowledgement. Clever. There must be someone in this room he should be weary of, if Dumbledore pushed for an introduction.

A tall man with a handlebar moustache growled, “Death Eaters don’t-“

“Alaster Moody, Auror,” Mad-Eye continued speaking over the other Ministry Official.

Severus eyed the other two men in interest. Someone else that Moody doesn’t like. Interesting.

“Pius Thickness, Senior Auror,” the other man sighed out, sounding bored. For someone so small in stature, his voice was unexpectedly deep. He looked like a dwarf with long black hair and beard.

A silence hung, as they waited for the final unknown man to introduce himself. Said man, growled, “Fine. Barty Crouch, and that’s all you need to know!” He glared at the accused man from afar.

“Severus Sna-“

“We know who you are!” Crouch snarled. “Death Eater.”

Severus found the corners of his lips twitch in amusement. The interview just started and Barty Crouch was already red with rage. He wanted to have fun with this but Dumbledore already sent him a sharp look in warning. He supposed it wasn’t smart to antagonize people in position of power.

Crouch stood and pointed at Severus, but face Auror Thickness as if he were a child tattling at an unfairness. “Why is he even wearing normal clothes like he’s a part of civilized society. All Death Eaters must wear prison garbs!”

Yes, how dare he wear clothes. He should walk naked instead.

To his credit, Thickness remained expressionless, and with a wave of his wand Severus was dressed in a striped black and white rags.

Who did this fit? A child? The sleeves were so tattered on one side, it exposed his Dark Mark.

“See! A Death Eater!”

Severus huffed.

“We already knew that Crouch now sit down!” Thickness beard barely moved as he spoke.  “If you can’t calm down we will have to handle this without you. You’re only here through my good graces.”

Severus watched as Crouch deflated.

Thickness regained control of the interview. “So, Dumbledore says you’re a spy for The Order of the Phoenix.”

Severus opened his mouth to speak but Dumbledore beat him to it. “The information he’s provided saved countless of lives.”

“And deaths!”

“Barty.” The way Thickness spoke Crouch’s name held power, the warning was clear. The bearded man cleared his throat and shuffled the documents in front of him, skimming the parchment. “Was he a Death Eater first or a spy.”

Dumbledore leaned back in his chair. “I must admit, there was a time in the beginning where I had absolutely no contact with him, which I assume had more to do with him gaining clout and placing himself in a position where he could spy. He sought me out when he gained access to Voldemort’s inner circle, and he immediately began to share detrimental information.”

Severus eyed the elderly man curiously. Dumbledore’s words were true but vague. He omitted a lot, and painted this pretty picture.

“How certain were you that he didn’t turn into a full Death Eater,” asked Crouch, his knuckles white with effort from leaping across the table.

Dumbledore seemed to choose his words carefully, “Harry is Severus’s son. He has sacrificed much for Lily and Harry’s safety. One could say he became a spy because of them.”

Again true, but…

“Yes, I see we were able to verify the claims here,” Thickness pulled out a sheet. “He’s his son alright.”

“Ask him when he turned into a Death Eater.” Crouch demanded.

“Ask him yourself!” Thicknesse snapped.

“A year and a half after his graduation.”

Severus narrowed his eyes in suspicion. How did Dumbledore know that?

“He had to finish his Potion Mastery or he would not have been sought after by Voldemort.”

Everyone in the room shuddered at the name.

“Are you saying since his school days he had intentions of being a spy?” Crouch asked in disbelief.

Dumbledore stood and walked behind Severus placing his hand on his shoulder and giving it a squeeze. “It wasn’t uncommon to recruit graduating students into the Order. By the time Severus had graduated I already spoken with him in private, a handful of time.”

Severus thought that was an exaggeration. He did speak to the Headmaster in private, countless of time and none of those times were about the Order. It had everything to do with the Marauders. Emotionally it seemed so recent, but physically it was long ago. Time was strange.

Thicknesse followed up with another question, but instead of directing it at him, he questioned Dumbledore.

Was this his interview or the Headmaster’s? Not that he was complaining.

“What was his drive?”

Even the questions were vague. Was Thicknesse part of the Order? Severus couldn’t recall.

Dumbledore summoned his chair and sat next to Crouch, who suddenly sat up straighter. “During their schooling, Lily and Severus were close. The news of the War was present even within Hogwarts walls, and students prepared for a side even then. Lily is muggleborn, there was no way for her to escape the inevitable. Severus knew that.”

At this point, Dumbledore had the undivided attention of the two gentlemen, and Severus could barely hear what was being said now and was starting to lose interest.

Dumbledore seemed to have it all in hand anyway.

Severus’s eyes drifted and landed on Moody who was staring him down. Not him per se, but him arm. Severus looked down at his exposed and faded dark mark, the frayed cloth of his garb dangled over the mark and black tendrils hung to the floor. That had to be a tripping hazard.

Severus pulled the black thread to snap it off only to feel pain, he quickly let go and lifted the frayed portion of his top out of the way. He was mistaken, the black tendrils were coming out of his dark mark, not his clothing. He hesitantly reached for the threads again, gathering them all collectively and rolling it in between his fingertips so it became one thick black string. It became taut under his ministration and he had the strangest desire to pull so he yanked at it. There was a loud crack of thunder, and he was suddenly surrounded by people in all states of undress just as caught off guard as he. He was quick to assess that they were all marked Death Eaters, and the grey eyes of Bellatrix Lestrange narrowed when she saw him.

Movement from both their peripherals caught their eye as Moody raced to the button on the table. All hell broke loose and everyone who had wands were flinging hexes and curses. Panicked, Severus saw his chance now that everyone was distracted and dove for the button, and just as suddenly as it started everything stopped. Severus dropped his head in relief and sighed.

“What a load!” Moody exclaimed excitedly. He faced to speak to Dumbledore, “When you said all the Death Eaters, I didn’t think you meant every one of them.”

But Dumbledore wasn’t paying attention, he was glaring at Severus in warning. Although warning for what he didn’t know. Severus shook his head slightly as if to convey he didn’t understand.

“Why isn’t he frozen?” Barked Crouch from the other side of the room.

Oh, that’s what Dumbledore meant. He didn’t want him to move.

Mad-Eye stepped in front of Severus, and pushed him off the table and back on his feet. “I removed the spell. Didn’t you see? He saved all of our lives.”

Moody didn’t cast any spell on him. Why was he lying? And what did he mean by “all Death Eaters”? He didn’t seem surprised when they came.

“Or he wanted to freeze us all in place,” Crouch accused. “It wasn’t like he knew about the bands.”

Thickness excused himself so he could get to Abraxas Malfoy behind him and conjured magical suppression handcuffs, and proceeded to secure Death Eaters now prisoners to prepare them for Azkaban.

Moody removed Severus’s cuffs and changed his clothes back, “Sorry, this is the best I can do. You still have to stand trial.” The Auror pushed him towards the direction of the door. Level 8.”

“What?” Crouch roared. “You’re just letting him go?”

“He’s going to the courtroom-,” Moody started but Thicknesse blocked Severus’s vision and stood in front of Crouch handing him a handful of manacles.

“Here,” Thicknesse sounded annoyed. “Make yourself useful.”

Crouch paled, “But I’m not an Auror.”

“You should have thought of that before you stepped into Auror business.” He manoeuvred Crouch until he stood in front of one of the Lestrange brothers.

“Level 8, Severus.” Dumbledore called out. “Remember to use the lift.”

Severus gave him a bewildered look.

The lift? Of course he was going to use the lift. He wasn’t going to use the stairs, they were in Level 2!

The ex-Death Eater rubbed his wrist , opening the door as he walked out. It was quiet when he went in the Interrogation room but now that he was out, the hallway was bustling with life. As he took a right to head towards the lift, he noticed the runes along the wall remained inactive. He pondered it as he waited for the lift doors to open. He stepped in with one other Ministry Worker who promptly left at Level 3 but when he reached Level 5, a familiar elderly man with sky blue robes stepped in.

“Dumbledore?” To his own ears Severus sounded baffled. “How did you get here when I left you down there?”

There was an odd look in the older man’s eye and he quickly turned to a female Ministry Worker behind him. “Sorry, lift is full.”

The lady peered over the Headmaster’s shoulder to see but made no comment and stepped back. Albus manually close the cage to prevent entry. He pulled out his gem encrusted wand and rolled it in his hands.

“You saw me, you say?” The lift began to move.

“Er, yes.” This had to be Dumbledore. The wand… “We were in an interrogation room within the Auror Headquarters.”

Dumbledore seemed to be considering his response, “What happened.”

What happened? Was there a polyjuiced Dumbledore on the loose? Why would that Dumbledore help him?

“Moody took me out of my cell, and lead me into this special interrogation room that freezes time, at some point, I noticed threading coming out of my Dark Mark. I tugged it and all the Death Eaters apparated into the room and was immediately apprehended.”

“Are you certain it was all Death Eaters?” Dumbledore asked putting emphasis  on ‘all.’

A memory niggled in Severus’s brain of Mad-Eye Moody. A piece of a puzzle began to click in place.

“Yes, all those that were marked.”

Dumbledore pressed a button to avoid stopping at a floor, deep in thought. “What time did you say Auror Moody came to collect you?”

Severus’s eyes glimmered in amusement. “I didn’t say, but he did collect me shortly after dawn.”

The lift stopped at Level 8, and Dumbledore’s blue eyes were twinkling madly.

“Wish me luck on my trial, Headmaster.” Severus stepped out and walked into the crowd, completely missing the Dumbledore’s “Good luck.”