Knowledge is Power

Chapter 78

Severus didn't at all like leaving Hogwarts two nights in a row, but unfortunately it was necessary. Once again, Filius asked Minerva to keep an eye out and they left around eleven at night when most of the students were sleeping. When they arrived at Adler Manor, Regulus, Kreacher and Gellert were already in the library with Wolfgang.

"I brought the book," Mag said, presenting it to Wolfgang who murmured his thanks as he took it.
"We'll need a few days to study that," Gellert said and Wolfgang nodded in agreement.
"We can keep our prisoner relaxed and subdued during that time, though, no worries," the half giant assured. "Thanks to Regulus's most excellent vampiric mind control, he's as pliable as...well someone under extremely good vampiric mind control," he concluded with a chuckle.

"How does that work," Mag asked Regulus curiously.
"She's into Muggle psychology," Severus found himself saying a bit proudly.
"Ah," Regulus nodded.
"I recall you mentioning that. It's very interesting...What vampires do is a form of hypnosis, I suppose, impressing onto the mind that which we want them to think. It is a mind to mind connection," he explained and Mag nodded slowly.
"I think I understand."

"In this case, for now I have simply told the new guest to relax and be at ease and Kreacher put him to sleep with a sleep spell. He is quite good at those."

"Thank you," Severus told Regulus and Kreacher, who both nodded.
"What, exactly, is it that I am here to help with," Filius asked, blinking and tilting his head curiously.

"Sorry, I should've said earlier," Severus said, giving an apologetic chuckle. "What with so many points to consider, and so many things to get exactly right, my mind got away from me on the matter. As for what I was hoping you could do... you've placed so many excellent defenses on Hogwarts. I was thinking once everything was completed that you could place defenses on this man's mind, so that no one would notice that it was tampered with."

Filius nodded thoughtfully. "That's a bit different than anything I've ever done before, but I'll give it a try. It's a good thing every thing else will take a bit of work, because I'll need to ponder this one."

Severus felt a mild flutter of concern in the pit of his stomach, but he reminded himself that the plan should be solid even if Filius couldn't add any defenses. It was just to be extra icing on the mental cake as it were just in case.
"I called Bramble in to freeze the dark mark last night as soon as Wolfgang, Regulus and Kreacher returned with our prisoner," Gellert spoke up.
"Thank you, and please thank Bramble for me as well, when you next see him," Severus said.
Idly he wondered why Wolfgang hadn't asked Gellert to come along on the capture, but supposed a vampire and an elf were probably even better back up than a Grindelwald in an unknown situation where one wished to use stealth.

"Albus is coming tomorrow during the evening hours to transfigure him into you," Wolfgang said.
"We realize that you can't risk leaving Hogwarts too often, so he has left a Pensieve here for you to deposit some memories in and we can get started layering them into our Death Eater's mind as soon as he's been transfigured. Gellert knows a memory duplicating spell that he will work on your memories once you've deposited them into the Pensieve so you can retrieve them again tonight before you leave."

Severus nodded. That was good because it would be just his luck to get summoned to appear before the Dark Lord and need whatever memories he happened not to have otherwise. He'd be giving their Death Eater all those that Voldemort would find important, after all. Severus noticed that no one was using the man's name, himself included. It made it less personal, he supposed.

The man was going to die, after all, so the less they connected to him the better. Of course he deserved to die more than did Severus, and if they connected with him, it wasn't as if anyone would like him, but still...getting to know someone, even if you disliked them, knowing you were going to have them die in someone else's stead, was just probably unnecessary.

"The Pensieve is on the desk," Wolfgang told Severus, gesturing to the corner of the room.
Severus glanced over to see a Pensieve sitting beside a small stack of books on a heavy oak desk. Which memories to start with first, he wondered. Walking over, he sat down at the desk and drew out the memories of his earliest interactions with the Dark Lord. He added all the important memories pertaining to Harry Potter, and then extracted those of Lily Evans that Albus had planted to fool Potter into thinking Severus had even better reasons to want to help him defeat Voldemort than the simple need to...defeat Voldemort. Because it was apparently necessary. Because Severus couldn't see the memories he had to use an identification charm to locate then remove them so that took a bit longer.

When he was finished he stood.
"There you are," he told Gellert. The blonde wizard nodded and took his place at the desk.
"If Albus wants more memories, have him leave a note specifying precisely which ones," Severus told Wolfgang. "I tried to think of everything Potter or Voldemort may find important but due to my own stress these days I very well may have overlooked something," he admitted.

Wolfgang nodded and Severus turned to watch Grindelwald at the Pensieve. The memory duplication looked quite a lot like the book duplicating charm that Kereston Boxwood had discovered over the summer. That one had come in handy more than once. Grindelwald worked fast and soon the Pensieve was nearly full.

"I will need to return some of these to you before I finish," he said, and Severus nodded, approaching so that he could do so. This happened two more times, the Pensieve growing full, and Grindelwald restoring more of Severus's memories to him until it was all done.

"I think that's all we can get done tonight, but we're making great progress," Grindelwald said, rising from the desk once he'd restored Severus's final memory.
Wolfgang, having duplicated the book on magical empathy that Mag had brought while Grindelwald did the same with Severus's memories, handed it back to her.
"We'll be in touch as soon as their is anything new to report," Wolfgang told Severus.
Severus nodded.
"Thank you again."
Wolfgang smiled. "We all help one another...You're welcome."

Severus knew he was right. The whole point of their little group, aside from weakening Voldemort as much as possible, was helping one another to remain safe and strong. Still, asking for help and taking help when he'd learned to be so independent and self sufficient made him extremely uncomfortable at times nonetheless. Nightshade had brought him a long way from his habits of solitude, but still, the wholehearted group support, though appreciated, was something to get used to at times like this.

Something of this must have shown on his face, because Filius gave him a reassuring smile. This will all be behind you before you know it, hard as that is to imagine," he said, patting Severus's arm.
"And we're all survivors," Grindelwald said, flashing a smile. "We're all too good to be otherwise, and they can't take us down so easily."
Severus nodded. The blonde wizard was living proof of that, and like Severus, Grindelwald had also had the support of their group behind him.