29

Man in Black

Cantankerus Nott walked back into the large room where Amanda Lester was being held, still bound and in magic suppressing cuffs. "Are you comfortable in that chair?" asked Nott.

Amanda masked her true feelings as she simply replied, "I've had better, and I've had worse."

Nott laughed at her. "Still with the sense of humour. Be that as it may, I would guess that it shouldn't be too much longer before we hear from your young man."

Amanda raised an eyebrow. "You managed to send a message to Westley then? How did you manage that?"

Nott smirked. "Simple, I just left an envelope with his name on it in the middle of the road where you were abducted from."

Amanda shook her head thinking that was the stupidest thing she had heard all day. "And how exactly is he supposed to find that?"

Nott ignored her smirk. "Someone will find it. And then they will send it to him."

Amanda closed her eyes momentarily and then spoke again. "Who will find it and how will they send it to him?" She understood that the Black Estate had wards that were known to be quite difficult to get through, even sending simple messages could be difficult at best.

"There are plenty of people who make the trip to and from Hogsmeade and Hogwarts. It will be found," stated Nott.

Amanda shook her head. "That is the dumbest thing I have ever heard of, just leaving it lying on the ground. A gust of wind could blow it away."

Nott scoffed. "Not likely to happen. I have made arrangements, it will be found and it will not just blow away in the breeze."

A moment later he reached into his pocket, pulled out a small parchment, unrolled it, smiled and then put the piece of parchment away.

"Ah hah, the note has been found," he said with a smirk as he looked back at Amanda.

"By who?" asked Amanda.

"Hagrid," stated Nott.

Amanda laughed, thinking that was the least helpful person who could have found the note based on everything Westley had previously told her about Hogwarts. "You mean the half giant gamekeeper?"

Nott seemed affronted by her question. "Yes, that Hagrid. Is there another?"

Amanda shook her head and laughed. "I am truly beginning to worry about you."

A couple of hours later Nott had returned to the dungeon room. Compared to any dungeon she had ever seen before, Amanda did think it was the brightest and cleanest that she could have ever imagined.

"And you're back, but Westley hasn't joined you yet?" commented Amanda.

Nott did not speak. He quietly pulled out his wand and waved it silently and her hands were released but her legs were still bound with magic suppressing cuffs. He then called his elf, who appeared with a tray of food which was placed on a table which Nott had conjured in front of her. Without another word Nott left her alone in the brightly lit dungeon.

"I take it that you haven't had a response from Westley," she said to no one as she was alone in the room.

She looked around the room and recalled that Westley had once mentioned that house elves could often bypass wards of other wizards. She quietly called the name of one of the elves she had seen at the Black Estate. "Dobby? Can you hear me?"

MiB

Westley was a little disturbed that his patronus had returned and even more so that it was unable to deliver a simple message. Clearly something was wrong.

"Sirius, you need to take Harry home to the Black Estate, right now," said Westley keeping his voice low.

Harry looked up over his ice cream. Westley turned to Harry, "Don't worry, Sirius will have the elves get you a new sundae, but right now you both need to get home."

Sirius looked at Westley, "Sure, man, sure. But once I drop off Harry, should I come and find you?"

"I will let you know if I need your help," said Westley as he disapparated away from Diagon Alley.

Westley arrived at the gates to Hogwarts and immediately banged on the gates, summoning a staff member to come and meet with him.

A minute later Minerva McGonagall arrived. "What is the meaning of this, Mister Black?"

"I am here to speak with Amanda Lester," said Westley with an obvious urgency in his voice. "I know she came here today to get settled into her office. I had an important message for her that I sent via a patronus."

Minerva raised an eyebrow at hearing the young man had sent a patronus message but then chided herself that she really should not have been surprised based on so many other things he had already accomplished.

Westley ignored her look and he continued with his concerns, "But then my patronus returned to me and it indicated that it had not been able to deliver the message."

Minerva's eyes widened. "I never heard of such a thing happening."

"Neither have I," said Westley, "which is why I am here and I am more than a little concerned."

Westley was about to ask Minerva if she could check the wards to see if Amanda was on the castle grounds when Hagrid arrived.

"Oh, Mister Black," came the booming voice of the half giant. "I found a note for you earlier today."

Minerva turned to face the large game keeper. "What on earth do you mean you found a note for Mister Black?"

Westley nodded in agreement, wondering what Hagrid was talking about.

"Well, professor," began Hagrid in his usual drawl, "I was walking back to the castle from the Hogshead Inn after I had just had a little something to wet my whistle, if you know what I mean. And on my way back here I noticed a note or envelope just lying in the middle of the road. I thought that was a might bit odd, and I picked up the note."

"Where is this note?" asked McGonagall.

"Oh, well, you see," replied Hagrid, "I went by her office, but she wasn't there, no she wasn't."

There was an awkward pause as Hagrid just stood there. Westley then spoke up, "So you just checked to see if Amanda was in her office? Then what did you do?"

"Well, I knew that Miss Lester and Mister Black were what you might call good friends, so I left the note for him in her office, on her desk," said Hagrid with a big grin.

McGonagall turned to Westley and gave him a silent look of an apology.

Westley tried to not show too much emotion as he spoke to the transfiguration professor, "Could we go an find that note then?"

Minerva nodded, "That would be fine. If you would just follow me." She then turned to Hagrid, "Thank you for letting us know that you found that note and where you put it."

A few minutes later the two had arrived at the office for the DADA professor, and there was the envelope with Westley's name clearly written on it.

"Here is the envelope," commented Minerva as she picked it up and handed it to Westley.

Westley hesitated when he took a hold of it and felt he could sense some dark magic in the parchment. However, he went ahead and opened the envelope and there was a sudden flash.

As Minerva watched Westley disappear in front of her she heard him scream out in pain.

A minute later Albus Dumbledore and Filius Flitwick arrived at the office for Amanda Lester.

"What is going on here, Minerva?" asked the headmaster. "The wards for the castle have been indicating that they were just breached."

Filius was slightly out of breath as he joined them. "I thought I heard screaming from somewhere in the castle."

Minerva looked pale. "Mister Black, Westley Black, he came to Hogwarts looking for Miss Lester. She was here earlier today, working on settling into her office. He sent her a patronus message at one point, but he said the patronus returned to him as it could not find Miss Lester."

"Now that sounds quite odd," commented the headmaster.

"I thought so too," agreed McGonagall. She continued with reviewing what had happened. "Mister Black arrived at the gates for Hogwarts and was banging on them. I went to see what all the ruckus was about and he explained what had happened. Then Hagrid arrived and he mentioned he had found an envelope with Mister Black's name on it. He picked up the envelope and brought it here to Miss Lester's office as he knew they were friends. I brought Mister Black up her for him to retrieve the envelope and as he touched it there was a flash, and he screamed out in pain as he disappeared."

Albus frowned and Filius cast some quick charms. Albus followed suit and the two looked at each other with worried expressions.

"What did you find?" asked Minerva.

"It appears that the envelope was a specialised port key," stated Filius.

"But a port key shouldn't be able to work through the school's wards like that," stated Minerva.

"But apparently it did," said Albus. "And to force Mister Black through the wards, well that was most likely a very painful experience for young Regulus."

Minerva and Filius stared at the headmaster.

"It was Westley Black, not his cousin Regulus," stated Minerva as she stared at the headmaster starting to question if he was losing his memory.

Albus laughed, "Oh, yes, I know. It is just that I am quite convinced that Westley is actually Sirius' brother who was long thought dead."

"That is not what the Black Family states," said Filius. "And I am sure they cannot be the same person. I have seen how Regulus practiced magic when he was here, and there is no way he could have developed the kind of dueling skills and magical power that Westley has. They are not the same person."

MiB

Westley crashed into the floor of a large room that was dimly lit. He was more than a little disoriented as he rolled off of his bruised or possibly broken shoulder. He felt that every muscle in his body must be aching, and all of his nerves seemed to be on fire. As he tried to stand up and reach for his wand a red spell struck him.

The wizard who was pointing the wand at Westley laughed. "I'm sure that hurt on top of all of those magical wards you were forcibly dragged through. Now to get you set up on Nott's machine."

Westley became aware that he was being held onto some sort of table by magical bonds. Two men came walking up to him. One was Cantankerus Nott, the other was not someone he immediately recognised.

"Ah, Tyrone, I see my little prize as decided to rejoin the ranks of the living, or at least those who are awake," sneered Nott.

Tyrone laughed at the captive wizard in front of them. "And it will be interesting just to see how well this device works."

Westley tried not to react to the two men who were clearly trying to taunt him and scare him.

"Now, Westley, let us not continue to try and fool each other," said Nott. "You claim to be a Black, you even managed to convince that fool Arcturus of your lineage, but we both know that is a lie. You are not a Black. You look more like a Potter, but you are clearly not a Potter. So, that tells me that you're probably a Peverell."

Westley remained silent, for it was clear that Nott was along the lines of the typical movie villain who would monologue about his nefarious plans to the one person they should not reveal anything to about said plans.

"I see you're not a man of many words right now," said Nott with a laugh. "I tend to think that those extra wards which you were dragged through only increased the lingering pain you are still experiencing. But have no fear, Tyrone will be working on making sure that all of those symptoms simply get worse."

Nott's eyes drifted around the unusual contraption attached to the uncomfortable wooden bed or structure that Westley found himself.

"I can see that you are wondering what this little toy of mine is that you find yourself tied to, so I will let Tyrone explain everything," stated Nott.

Tyrone had a very disconcerting gleam in his eyes as he spoke to Westley. "You are about to be one of the first to experience this enchanted magical device. And I can see that you are wondering what we are talking about. This is a device that will cause pain. For some reason, unknown to us, the Ministry of Magic has seen fit to ban the use of the Cruciatus Curse. Well, most simply put, this device will inflict a level of pain consistent with pain levels that the Cruciatus can cause. And since neither Lord Nott nor myself are actually casting a spell such as the Cruciatus curse, then the ministry will not detect what we are doing and we are not violating any ministry laws or statutes."

"Other than kidnapping and holding someone against their will," sneered Westley.

Nott stepped forward, "Now, all of this can be simply avoided if you just provide for me the information and items I require."

Westley frowned in response, but as he was bound to the machine there was not much else which he could do.

"This machine can and will cause pain. But it is not designed to cause death." stated Nott. "And death itself is such a fascinating topic. The Dark Lord claimed to have defeated death, despite his temporary set back somehow at the hands of that Potter brat and his parents. No, Death has not defeated the Dark Lord, and he will return. I have been working on replicating some of his measures to ensure that I too can defeat Death. However, time can be very important, and the traversing of time can become an advantage, and none have studied this as much as myself, with the assistance of certain friends of whom we will not speak. But there are certain hallowed items which I am trying to obtain. Items which I believe that you, Westley Black, or Potter, or Peverell, whoever you are; items that you can either obtain for me or help me to obtain."

Westley tired not to allow any reaction or response on his face as he listened to the wizard who spoke to him.

Nott frowned at the lack of response from the young man. "Very well then, why don't we try a little sample of what this machine can do."

Tyrone grinned a very malicious grin. "Now, this machine is new, so I am researching how it works and how it affects individuals. So after we try the first application, I would like for you to tell my just how you feel. And remember, your responses will be recorded for posterity's sake."

With that he raised the arm attached to a numbered dial to the level of one.

Pain, lots of pain, was the thought that ran through Westley's mind at that moment.

Nott noted the slight tear that formed in the corner of Westley's eye. "I'm quite sure that you do not want to experience anything like that again. So, I strongly recommend that you become much more cooperative. And why don't you tell me what you know about the Hallows?"

"I am not much of a fan of children's stories," stated Westley.

MiB

Amanda was still restrained in the chair where she had been fed a slight meal. She was trying to stay strong, but she was not sure what was happening with Westley or what was going to be done to her. "If only a house elf, like Dobby, could sneak through the wards of someone else's manor."

A moment later there was a slight pop, and Dobby appeared. "Westley's Miss Amanda! What are you doing here?"

Amanda's eyes went wide. "Oh, Dobby, I can't believe you heard me and you were able to come here."

Dobby had a worried expression, "Did bad wizard take Master Westley's Miss Amanda? Where is Master Westley?"

"I don't know where Westley is, but the bad wizard brought me here to try and capture Westley for some reason," said Amanda.

"Dobby can free Master Westley's Miss Amanda and bring her back to the Black Estate," said Dobby.

Amanda bit her lip. "Okay, but I don't know if the bad wizard also has Westley yet," she said.

"Let's save Miss Amanda first," said Dobby. Then the bindings on Amanda fell off her legs, Dobby grabbed her wrist and the two disappeared from the Nott Castle dungeon.

AN: another chapter quicker than I thought I would have completed

(some minor editing done September 2024 for this chapter).