Chapter Forty-One: Professor Dewitt’s Offer
Palmyitor wouldn’t have any of it. Lottie and Andrea told her about what they saw, but were immediately dismissed. They persisted through an hour long appointment, trying to convince her to at least ask Snape about the parchment, but she refused to listen.
Her vulnerability from earlier that week vanished completely. Instead, she sat with her arms crossed and lips pursed as Lottie and Andrea repeated all of the incriminating evidence. In the end, she just shook her head.
“Maybe,” Lottie said as they dejectedly left her office, “she’s actually a Death Eater herself. Maybe that’s why she doesn’t care. She wants Snape to attack whatever this is.”
“Oh, Lottie, don’t even say things like that,” Andrea said. “Professor Palmyitor would never do anything like that. She practically built this school. Why would she start sabotaging us now?”
“I guess,” Lottie laughed, “but I wouldn’t put it past her to have some stupidly complicated plan that kills us all.”
They tried to convince Palmyitor of Snape’s corruption eight more times that year. Every time, she sent them from her office with a heightened temper. Every time, Lottie and Andrea thought up a more and more elaborate and absurd story as to why Palmyitor would not listen. Lottie’s personal favorite was that Snape was a vampire, and Palmyitor was a werewolf, and that they were in an everlasting battle”she did not want anybody to finally finish him off but her.
“But that wouldn’t work,” Andrea had said. “The full moon was last night and we saw her at the staff table for dinner.” Andrea’s favorite was that Professor Gabaldon had been engaged to Snape before she died and that Palmyitor was making him work for her to fulfill the promise he never kept.
“You’re such a romantic,” Lottie scolded. “Snape doesn’t have it in him to love another human being. I think he would just drop dead.”
The rest of their classes pushed on. By June, still nobody had succeeded in blocking Snape’s attacks, but Lottie thought she had made extreme progress by suggesting that they just kill him, so that they could pass the next teacher’s class.
The students had started referring to Defense Against the Dark Arts as just Dark Arts, since all Dewitt seemed to do was tell them about all of the fantastic things Dark Magic could accomplish.
After a particularly disturbing Dark Arts class about the most effective way to torture magical ability out of toddlers, Dewitt pulled Lottie aside. “No, Andrea,” he said as the class filed out. “You go. I need to speak privately with Charlotte.”
Andrea gave Lottie a quizzical look, but packed up her bag and shuffled toward the door. “I just wanted to comment,” Dewitt said to Lottie once they were alone, “on your talent.” The door slammed shut. Panicked, Lottie spun around so she was facing the front of the room and not Dewitt’s piercing gaze. “Don’t worry about the door,” Dewitt said. “I just don’t want us to be overheard.”
As she turned around, Lottie pulled her wand out of her pocket and fidgeted with the handle, to avoid his gaze”and to have it close at hand if she needed it.
“Ever since that first class, Charlotte, your first duel with Edgar”ever since that day, I knew you were different”talented.”
“Erm”thanks,” Lottie croaked.
“You have a capability for cruelty far more evolved than any of your classmates. You know what you need to survive. You know and you are willing to execute it.” He smiled.
Lottie just blinked back at him, too bewildered to even speak.
“You are ruthless,” Dewitt said.
Lottie’s throat was dry. Her heart rattled in her chest. “Th-thank you,” she said, still keeping an eye on the door, and her mind buzzing with all of the spells she knew to block Dark Magic.
“There is a perfect place for cruelty in this war,” Dewitt said. “You have always known that. There is a place that benefits immensely from your kind of unfeeling.”
Instinctively, Lottie tightened the grip on her wand.
“You think you can attack me?” Dewitt laughed. “You know nothing. You are a child. I have learned everything”every form of Dark and defensive magic. I am capable of defending myself and even more. You have nothing against me.”
Shaking her head, Lottie slung her bag over her shoulder. “No,” she said. “I”I can’t.”
Dewitt took a step toward her. Lottie took a step back. “You can be more powerful than you ever imagined.”
Lottie didn’t turn around to see him as she pushed through the door. She stopped in the frame. Staring at her shoes, she repeated, “No.”
She slammed the door behind her. A chill ran down her spine, unrelenting. She could feel Dewitt’s presence on the other side of the wall, could hear his words in her ear. She was ruthless, heartless, and, according to Dewitt, a perfect candidate for a Death Eater.
No, she would never become a Death Eater”she couldn’t. Her entire existence was founded against them. That’s why she was here at Alsemore in the first place. She was born to hate Death Eaters.
Lottie stopped in the middle of the corridor, temporarily consumed with an image of herself in black robes and a Death Eater mask. She would have nothing to worry about, nobody to fear. She would be in power. The Dark Lord would praise her skill and reward her accordingly.
Numbly, Lottie leaned against the wall, suddenly unable to support her own weight. Her family, her friends”they were all Muggles. She could never kill them. And Andrea”betraying her would be the worst of all. Andrea was the only person she had. In a dark war where she was pulled away from everything she ever knew, Andrea was her only friend.
No. Lottie took a deep breath and pushed herself completely straight. It was as simple as that”just no.
As she rushed through the corridor and down the winding stairs, the offer hung over her, lingered on her shoulder like a heavy shadow. It would be easy, a tiny voice in her mind repeated”so easy to give it all up. Who cared about Andrea? They were all as good as dead, since Palmyitor still believed Snape to be innocent. Would it be wrong to save her own life?
She blinked. She stood in the common room, surrounded by talking and laughing people, completely unaware. “Hey, what’s wrong with you?” Andrea waved her down from a sofa beside the fireplace.
“What?” Lottie looked at her and frowned. A rush of guilt flooded her, made her stomach boil and bile rise in her throat. How could she have thought to leave? It would be easy to give it all up, but would she ever be able to live with herself?
“You look sick,” Andrea said. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah.” Lottie sat down, wondering if she should tell her. Andrea would want to know that Dewitt had tried to make her join the Death Eaters… But would Lottie be able to hide the fact that she had actually considered his offer? “Listen,” she said, sitting down on the sofa next to Andrea. “We have to try and tell Palmyitor about Dewitt.”
“We’ve tried,” Andrea said. “There’s no point anymore.”
“No, this is serious.” Lottie looked over her shoulder. “Dewitt pulled me aside and”and he asked me if”” Lottie’s throat had gone dry. Her heart shook like a rattle in her chest. “He asked me to join the Death Eaters.”
“What?” Andrea’s mouth hung open. “Just like that? He just”just asked you?”
“He said that there is a place for my kind of”” Lottie stopped. He had said her kind of cruelty. Color rose to her face. “My kind of talent,” she finished.
“Did he really think he would have a chance?” Andrea asked. “Seriously”how stupid is he? Now we know for sure how evil he is. Why did he ever think you would say yes?”
Lottie pretended to smile as Andrea laughed. “Yeah,” she echoed. Her stomach flipped. Dewitt knew”he was smarter than he made himself out to be. He knew that out of all of the Palmyitors, Lottie would be the only one to even consider it.
Is this what had happened with the traitors years ago? Had it been that easy? They hadn’t gone looking for evil, but when it asked, they considered it. At her core, Lottie was no better than them.
“You’re really upset about this, aren’t you?” Andrea asked seriously. “Look, Lottie, don’t take it personally. He asked because he knows you’re good at Occlumency”nothing more. It has nothing to do with you.”
Lottie just nodded. She could never tell her”she could never tell Andrea that it had everything to do with her. It wasn’t her talent, but her cruelty. Even if she had been the worst Occlumens in the world, Dewitt still would have asked her.
“Come on,” Andrea said, standing up. “Let’s go tell Palmyitor. That will make you feel better, even if she doesn’t believe us. At least we’ll get a laugh.”
“Okay.” Lottie stood up too. “Hang on, let me just drop this stuff off first.” She gestured toward her bag and started down the stairs to the dormitory.
The fourth years’ dorm was completely empty. Lottie glanced out the windows as she dumped her duffle bag onto her bed. Dark grey clouds swirled above and the sun was nowhere in sight. As though it had been waiting for her, a droplet of water splashed against the window. The downpour started immediately after that; raindrops fell from the sky and pitter-pattered against the glass window.
Lottie spilled the contents of her bag onto her bedspread. Books and spare parchment tumbled out. The last thing to fall, floating gracefully onto the pile of miscellanea, was the crisp snakeskin that she had found years before. Lottie couldn’t suppress a smile as she was reminded of her long-past second-year adventures. In a moment of slight nostalgia, she rummaged through her trunk for the spare robes she had found hidden in the chamber as well. Their dark purple fabric was accented with delicate golden embroidery. She was just folding them back up when Andrea’s voice came floating down the corridor.
“I was thinking,” Andrea said from the other side of the corridor, “that maybe we shouldn’t mention Snape at all.”
Panic flooded Lottie”she hadn’t told Andrea about what she had found. With a wild glance over her shoulder, she stuffed the snakeskin and the robes into her bag, just as Andrea rounded the corner and poked her head in the door.
“Clearly Snape’s sort of a touchy subject,” she said. “Maybe we should only talk about Dewitt.”
“That makes sense,” Lottie agreed, swinging her bag around her shoulder. Together they headed up the stairs, through the common room and into the main corridor. “Especially,” she went on, “since Palmyitor is definitely smarter than Dewitt. If she uses Legilimency, she might see his memories with Snape too.”
Lottie hadn’t thought of that. Palmyitor could use Legilimency against Dewitt, but couldn’t she use it against her as well? Lottie couldn’t block Snape”she hadn’t used Occlumency properly in months”Palmyitor would be able to invade her mind in a matter of seconds. Palmyitor would know”she would know that Lottie had considered the offer”had considered betraying them all”for her own welfare.
Lottie’s stomach flipped unpleasantly. “You look sick again,” Andrea said as they started climbing the stairs.
“I”I’m fine.”
“Lottie, you’re never going to believe that Dewitt just chose you randomly, are you? This isn’t healthy. You didn’t do anything to deserve that”he’s just crazy.” They rounded the corner to the corridor leading to Palmyitor’s office. “Do you hear that?” asked Andrea.
Lottie looked up. All remnants of guilt were immediately forgotten; from Palmyitor’s door came a panicked sort of scuffling sound. Hushed voiced hissed obscenities at each other.
Together, Lottie and Andrea broke into a run. The door was wide open. Hermione, Neville and all three heads of houses crowded around an unrolled parchment, whispering furiously. “We have to go now,” Maelioric said, pointing a thick finger at the parchment. “Enter from the dungeons and corner them in the towers.”
“That will make it easier for them to escape, Fornax,” Clynalmoy said. “We need about a hundred soldiers”we need to storm each entrance equally and block them in.”
“We may be killed if we do that,” said Palmyitor coldly. “We need to get somebody on the side”and somebody in the air reporting.”
“We need to go now,” Hermione exclaimed, desperation rising in her voice. “Naesa”think of all of the students”of Bill and Fleur.”
“Pull yourself together, Marianne,” Palmyitor said. “Panicking will not do anybody any good.”
“Tell me, Naesa, why didn’t you know about this?” Hermione went on. “If you are so deeply entangled in the Death Eaters””
“There are far more people who rank higher than me,” Palmyitor said through gritted teeth. “Not everybody is involved in everything.”
“But if you don’t know everything, what is the point? What is the point of teaching your students to lie and cheat if they cannot even prevent attacks?”
Palmyitor got to her feet and pulled her wand out. Hermione did not back down.
“Naesa, Marianne, this is helping nothing,” Neville said, putting a hand on Hermione’s shoulder. “We have to focus at the issue at hand.”
“Quite right,” said Maelioric.
In the hallway, Lottie turned to Andrea. “Beauxbatons,” Andrea whispered. Lottie nodded. “Should we go in?” Andrea asked. Lottie nodded again.
“Erm”professors?” Andrea asked, timidly poking her face through the door.
There was a miniature pause, followed by Maelioric asking, “Where’s your other half, then?”
Lottie stepped into the doorframe as well, smiling sheepishly. “Not this again,” Palmyitor groaned. “Listen, you two, we don’t have time for this right now. There are more””
“Please”Professor Dewitt is a Death Eater,” Andrea interrupted. “Maybe he’s the one who made the attack on Beauxbatons.”
“How did you hear about that?” Palmyior snapped.
“Not to be rude, Professor,” Andrea said, “but you were speaking pretty loudly.”
The heads of houses looked at each other. “In any case,” Palmyitor said, “we have to go defend the castle now”we don’t have time to worry about a fourteen-year-old’s premonitions. You two are just like Mr. Potter himself”he accused Severus Snape of treachery until the day he died.”
Lottie exchanged a miniature glance with Hermione. “At”at least let us help, then,” Lottie said. “Let us come and fight.”
“Rowe, are you insane?” Palmyitor asked.
“It’s dangerous, you two,” Maelioric interrupted shooting a warning glance at Palmyitor. “We wouldn’t want to risk your lives.”
“Why not?” asked Andrea, crossing her arms. “That’s what we’re here for, isn’t it? If you want us to learn, what better way to do so?”
“Yeah,” Lottie said. “And we could help.”
“It’s not worth it,” Palmyitor said. “Plus, in your uniforms, you will stick out like a sore thumb.”
“That’s okay.” Lottie unzipped her bag and pulled out the purple robes. “I have these. I could use Occlumency”we could pretend to be Death Eaters. Besides”nobody can block Snape anyway; it will be my only practice all year.”
“As a matter of fact,” said Clynalmoy thoughtfully, “they might be useful. Having two soldiers that don’t actually look like they’re fighting… They could be quite versatile.”
“Ryan,” Naesa hissed, spinning around and shooting him a glare.
“I’m sorry, Naesa,” Clynalmoy said, “but I think you may actually want to consider them.”
Maelioric frowned at Palmyitor, whose gape expression matched Hermione’s wide eyes. “Listen, we’ll get somebody to keep an eye on them,” he said to Palmyitor. “They could be more helpful than any of us in this”why don’t we leave them with””
“Draco,” Hermione suggested. “Let’s leave them with Draco”he’s too recognizable to fight. I’m sure he’ll want to do something useful.”
Palmyitor frowned. Surrounded by eager eyes, she gave up with a sigh. “Fine,” she said. “Fine. Marianne, Neville, go get Draco. Fornax and Ryan, you know what to do. I’ll make the Portkey.” The adults nodded and broke ranks. Among the chaos, Lottie exchanged an excited glance with Andrea. “Put those robes on,” Palmyitor demanded, busily searching through the shelves.
Lottie handed Andrea the smaller of the purple robes. They pulled off their uniform ones and slipped the new ones over their heads.
Palmyitor held out a rusty cauldron in her arm. “Portus,” she mumbled. She looked up from the Portkey and stared at them. “Listen, you two,” she said seriously, “no matter what the others say, this is a very foolish mission to send you on. Both of you have more important things in store. Listen to me carefully.” She placed her palms on her desktop and leaned in to emphasize the gravity of the issue. “Under no circumstances are you to sacrifice your personal safety for another. This is just one battle. We have more than half of the war left to fight and we can’t go on with you two getting yourselves killed. Do you understand?”
With a dry throat, Lottie nodded. She saw Andrea doing the same.
“No,” drawled a voice from outside. “I don’t care what you say, Mudblood, I am not sacrificing my own well being for some snot-nosed brats.”
“Looks like Malfoy’s here,” Andrea groaned. Lottie had to conceal her chuckles under coughs as Hermione, Neville and Malfoy burst into the room.
“Oh good, Draco,” Palmyitor said coldly. “You made it.”
“Look, Naesa, I don’t know who signed me up for this, but I will not go.” Malfoy crossed his arms.
“I thought we were under the agreement that you need to return a favor”we are housing you here, after all.” Palmyitor stood in triumph behind her desk. Malfoy gaped at her, rage boiling in his cool, grey eyes. “You promised you would do what you could to be useful to us,” Palmyitor went on. “This is how you can help. Protect these girls”it should not be very challenging. We will only give them tasks in enclosed areas. They will not be out in the open.”
The door burst open. Maelioric and Clynalmoy, followed by Snape, Dyer and Seward filed in. “Couldn’t find Dewitt,” Maelioric said. Lottie widened her eyes at Palmyitor who silenced her with one sharp glare. “Okay, Seward, you will meet up with an air troop there and keep a look out in the skies. Dyer, you and Ryan will dispatch the soldiers at our headquarters. Severus and Naesa”well”you know what to do. I’ll be leading the ground soldiers.” The adults all nodded to each other in silent, solemn recognition.
Lottie frowned. She wondered how often they did this”how often they exchanged orders, never knowing who would survive to see the next day.
“Malfoy, Rowe, Woolbright,” Clynalmoy said gently, “you three come with me until we give you a mission.”
Now Lottie and Andrea nodded, giving their own little acknowledgement of the danger ahead.
“Everybody grab on to the Portkey,” Palmyitor said. “It will leave in ten seconds.”
Shakily, Lottie put a finger on the cauldron. She shut her eyes and took a breath. A silence, a jerk, and the group disappeared.
Halfway to Infinity by Eponine
Chapter Notes: Okay, so I’ve got some sad news, but it’s coupled with a bit of good news as well. Because we realized that we were going way too slow to EVER finish this story in time, TheBird and I decided to part ways with this story. So, farewell, TheBird! You’ve been absolutely amazing with every aspect of this story!
Filling the role of beta will be the phenomenal coolh5000! She’s absolutely awesome, and you can anticipate MUCH shorter waits from now on. We will absolutely move quicker than two chapters a year.
So thank you all for being patient with me, and hopefully this story will begin to move again!
Thanks to coolh5000 for all of your help with this chapter.
This chapter is dedicated to TheBird for all of her amazing help through the years.