An Intervention
An Intervention
I asked my friends quickly who knew how to cast a Memory Charm. Nearly everyone in the room raised their hands, I raised my own as well. Next I asked who of the group had actually performed one before, only mine and Ismelda's hands remained in the air. Finally I asked everyone who they thought should be responsible for modifying Ben's memory, if it needed to be done.
The group was pretty divided. I got the majority vote but I wasn't completely comfortable with the task, and I explained why. "I know you all have a lot of faith in me not to screw this up, but I might not be the best choice. I've only done it once before, and it was basically just a test. Talbot and I got Professor Flitwick to teach us years ago. To make sure I knew how to do it correctly, I told Talbot, well I told him I fancied him and then made him forget it immediately. The information had no time to take root. So, while I understand the mechanics well enough, if Ismelda has more experience I'd prefer she be the one to do it." I felt a blush warm my face as Talbot gave me a very curious look, but I turned away from him and asked Ismelda to share her experience.
"Um, right. Well I did it only once as well, years ago. I can't get into the specifics, but I had to make someone forget something pretty big. And it worked. And she, er, they, don't seem to remember anything about it." Ismelda explained.
I could tell some people weren't entirely convinced. Either because she'd been so vague or because they didn't trust her not to remove more of Ben's memories than we'd agreed on. I did trust Ismelda to do the right thing, and I still thought she was the one better equipped for the job. So I asked her to elaborate on the circumstances in which she'd successfully performed the charm. I wasn't trying to get more information than was necessary, I just wanted to ease everyone's worries and get us all on the same page so we were ready to move forward.
But Ismelda was still refusing to give anything more on the subject. Not for my own sake, but everyone else's, I let my mind drift out to touch hers. It had happened a few times to me, usually by accident where I'd find out more than I wanted to about someone with my Legilimency. This was probably one of, if not the worst case of that. What I saw in Ismelda's head was a scene so heartbreaking it brought tears to my eyes and made me gasp out loud. I wrenched my mind back so violently from Ismelda's I knew she felt me do it.
What I had seen was a maybe twelve year old Merula. Cowering on the floor of the Slytherin girls baths in the corner next to a tub, with a soaked towel barely covering her. There was blood flowing in the water on the floor, so much blood. Dark purple and blue bruises were blooming on her arms and back and she was sobbing hysterically, begging Ismelda to make her forget what 'he' had done to her.
I felt sick to my stomach. Merula's sobs still echoed in my mind as I looked up to meet Ismelda's eyes. I saw pure fire in them. We both acknowledged silently what I had seen, and I didn't need to tell her I would take it to my grave, she understood. Merula would never be forced to bear that memory again. No one could ever know.
"Ismelda will do it." I told my friends firmly. "She has the experience, I don't. If you don't trust her by now then you shouldn't even be in the Circle of Khanna. I'll perform the Fidelius Charm myself but I've been up for more than twenty-four hours now, I just don't have the strength to do both."
Something in my tone must have changed because everyone simply nodded without another word. They trusted me, probably more than I deserved. But I was grateful we had been able to agree, because not two minutes later a frightfully exhausted looking Barnaby Apparated right into Penny's living room, with a furiously struggling Ben in his grasp.
"Petrificus Totalus!" Penny had had her wand ready for them. Ben's arms and legs snapped together and he fell sideways into Barnaby, who caught him and gently leaned his rigid body against the wall facing all of us. "Now you're going to listen to what we have to say, and when we're done we're going to give you a chance to say your piece too." Barnaby told him.
Merula was the first to volunteer to speak. She stood up formally and cleared her throat. "Er, right. Copper, I didn't used to like you. No sense beating around the bush about it. But that was before I knew you. The kid I became friends with, our co-founder of this group, is someone I actually admire. And someone I thought I could trust. I understand you're going through something personal, and hard, but if you're not that person anymore, then we're kicking you out."
I groaned. Merula had been honest, but tactless. We'd agreed some tough love was necessary but it was supposed to be at least supportive and resolution focused. I knew threatening Ben wasn't the road to success, so I stepped up next.
"Ben, you've been one of my best friends from day one at Hogwarts. I have always trusted you, believed in you and supported you. Even when your actions showed me I shouldn't. I love you like family, but what you did last night was way far past crossing the line. Do you even care that you almost cursed me simply because I was in the way? Have you forgotten what happens when someone gets in the way of a curse? Rowan gave her life to save yours. Alexi was willing to do the same for me last night, and I'd have done the same for him. Do you really hate him more than you care about any of us? I don't want to see you ruin your life and end up in Azkaban, and I won't let you try to ruin someone else's. You're better than that. You're not this person who hurts people, that's not the Ben Copper we love. That's why we're here. We are all here for you, begging you to be reasonable."
I'd watched Ben's eyes carefully as I spoke, they were completely emotionless. I didn't see even a flicker of remorse or understanding. I'd held my wards up so I could keep my focus and say what I needed to say without getting derailed, but I opened my mind up to his when I'd finished. Praying my words had made some kind of impact on him. I felt nothing. His mind was just, blank. He wasn't thinking I was right or wrong, he wasn't thinking anything at all. I stayed tuned into his mind while the rest of our friends took their turns speaking, and after nearly an hour I hadn't felt a single thought from him. It was unnerving.
I asked Barnaby to take the still rigid Ben into the other room for a moment. When he returned I addressed my friends. "Something isn't right with Ben. Either he's become an extremely powerful Occlumens in a very short time or there is something else dodgy going on here. I didn't catch a single thought from him this whole time, I couldn't even sense his mood. I'll admit, I'm worn out, but I could still pull thoughts from every single person in this room if I needed to. Every person, except Ben."
My friends murmured their worries and suspicions but it was Ismelda who said something I hadn't considered. "Do you reckon he's under the Imperius Curse?" That shut up everyone up. "What, again?" Merula couldn't help herself from speaking her mind. Ismelda turned to her and said matter-of-factly, "Well he is susceptible to it isn't he? Whoever cast it on him before had no trouble at all controlling him. I know some people supposedly fight it, but Ben seems to not be able to do that."
I considered that to be fairly likely, based on the complete void that I'd felt in Ben's mind. "I know the Ministry used Legilimens after You Know Who fell from power, to sort out who had really been Imperiused by him and who was just pretending. But if that is what's happened to Ben, he's still under the curse. I don't know how I'm supposed to reach him and pull him out of it." I admitted to the group, rather hopelessly.
It was more worried looks all around until finally Badeea spoke up. "I don't think there's any point in modifying his memories if that's the case. I don't think it would even work if you tried. We need a new plan. If he is cursed, we have to keep him safe until we can break the curse or help him fight his way out of it. And we need to make sure he's under constant supervision from now on. If he's been cursed, the person responsible will be wanting to keep an eye on him to ensure he doesn't start to throw it off. Or be close enough to give him new instructions."
We all agreed that the new plan was to keep Ben in our sight at all times, and keep him spellbound so he wouldn't be a danger to whoever was on duty to watch him. After some organising, Barnaby and I agreed to take Ben back to our house. We had the most space and the most people around to help, so it made sense.
I was extremely nervous about bringing even an immobilised Ben home though. Alexi was recovering and didn't need the stress but Barnaby said as long as we kept Ben secure and wandless no one would be in danger. I hoped very much that he was right.
Merula, Ismelda, myself and Barnaby who brought Ben along with him returned home around 6:30am. I sent Nightspur off to Uncle Cecil explaining about Alexi being injured and notifying him that none of us would be in to work that day. I also added that I had the report from our interview with Lupin nearly complete and would send it along soon, but that Lupin had an airtight alibi for the night of the full moon and we'd eliminated him as a possible suspect. I knew I'd need to fabricate the report and an alibi for Lupin but I'd done as much work as was necessary for the moment.
Next Barnaby and I secured a magically reinforced room for Ben in our basement. We made it as comfortable as possible without leaving anything that could be used as a weapon to hurt someone, or himself.
I woke Diego and Chiara up in the living room and gave them the cliff notes on all that had happened. Also informing them it was their turn to watch Ben, as they were the only ones who had gotten any sleep. We'd agreed to always watch Ben in pairs, in case one person had to leave the room, he would never be alone.
Before they went downstairs Chiara sent a Patronus messenger to St Mungo's, effectively calling in sick for the day. We checked on Alexi once more and were relieved to find Merula and Ismelda had settled into the already made up sofa beds to be closer to Alexi while they got some rest. Finally, Barnaby and I headed up to bed together.