Severus chastised himself for having procrastinated on his decluttering project for the last three years as it took him an almost herculean feat to locate his street map of London. Glancing at the clock on the mantle, he saw that it was only half past noon. He still had time today to go to the address listed on the bill of sale he found at the defunct shop if he didn't tarry. As he spread the map out on his kitchen table, his stomach growled and complained at its emptiness. He hadn't eaten much in the last two days and he was beginning to feel it but he didn't have time to prepare a meal. He grabbed an apple and ate it as he studied the map. Snape pinpointed the address to a building close to the intersection of Tabernacle and Clere Street. Now, how to get there? He resigned himself that at some point he'd have to take the Tube, but first he needed to decide the method he'll use to get to Muggle London.

He could Floo to the Ministry of Magic and then use the telephone booth to exit into London, but he didn't want to risk someone spotting him and asking if he'd seen Lucius. Neither he nor Narcissa had reported Lucius as missing yet but his absence would be noticed eventually, especially considering that Lucius held various positions at the Ministry. These positions were purely political appointments and mostly involved Lucius lending his clout as part of one of the oldest and wealthiest wizarding families in Britain. In short, his job was to peacock about the Ministry but soon someone will notice that he wasn't doing it.

He decided to use the Leaky Cauldron's courtyard by way of Knockturn Alley. He didn't want to Floo directly to Diagon Alley for the same reason he didn't want to Floo to the Ministry – he didn't want to be spotted by one of his fellow faculty members who might feel compelled to corner him and chew his ear. If he Flooed back to The White Wyvern, he could slip into the Leaky Cauldron's courtyard and then into Muggle London, hopefully without being noticed.

Snape climbed the stairs to his bedroom and opened his wardrobe. He kept some clothing appropriate for venturing into the Muggle world and from these he selected a white button down shirt, a grey sports coat, black trousers, and black leather loafers. Also in his wardrobe on the top shelf was a cigar box containing United Kingdom Muggle currency in a men's wallet. Opening it, he saw that he had some five, ten, and twenty pound notes. He slipped the wallet into an inner pocket of the sports coat and shoved a few pound coins into his trouser pocket. As an afterthought, he slipped the two galleons he had remaining from his earlier trip to Knockturn into his other pocket. Gold was gold and it carried the same value in the Muggle world as it did in the wizarding one.

Returning back downstairs, he slipped the bill of sale and the sketch of the puzzle box in an outside pocket of the sports coat and his wand into the special pocket he had sewn into the lining of the sports coat. Just as Snape was preparing to Floo to The White Wyvern, Narcissa fire-called. He knelt down in front of the flames to speak with her.

"Severus, any word?" Even through the flames, Narcissa's face looked solemn.

"I believe I am making progress." Snape paused as he considered how much he should disclose through the Floo Network. He didn't think anyone was listening, but he didn't want to take the chance.

"I need to ask you, did Lucius tell you anything about the day he purchased…the object? Anything at all?"

"No, nothing. Why?"

"No reason. How have you been, Narcissa," Snape asked, changing the subject.

"Not good. I'm very grateful to you, Severus, but I'm simply beside myself with worry. I've told Draco where I am but naturally he wants to know why his father isn't with me, or where his father is for that matter. So far my excuses are working, but he's bound to get suspicious sooner or later. He's due to return from Switzerland in a week and I have no idea what to tell him. Please, Severus, I need to know that he'll be safe."

"I understand. I will have an answer for you before he returns."

Narcissa's face disappeared from the flames. Snape remained kneeling on the floor for several moments afterward with the weight of his task pressing in on him. In all likelihood, both Narcissa and Draco were safe; neither one had touched the box, but he had promised Narcissa that he would investigate what happened to her husband. He owed her that much. He also had no illusions about what most of the wizarding population would have to say about Lucius' fate. Outside of haughty pure blood society, the Malfoys weren't warmly regarded. They were stained with the suspicion of having aligned themselves with Voldemort and it was generally accepted that they were eugenicists who would gladly eliminate all who were not pure blooded. Were the suspicions true? Fractionally perhaps. Snape knew that Lucius' morality was as grey as his eyes but so was the nuance when it came to the Malfoys. In his years acting as a spy, he learned that nothing was as black and white, cut and dry as most people assumed. It was his opinion that there was indeed some good to be found in Lucius although he was in the minority in this belief.

Snape rose from the floor to gather up a pinch of Floo Powder.

"Knockturn Alley," he said and stepped once again through his fireplace and into The White Wyvern.

The proprietor upon seeing Snape a second time that day, and now in Muggle clothing, made a noticeable double take. Severus made eye contact and held it as if to suggest that the proprietor would do well to mind his own business. The proprietor quickly returned his attention to wiping pint glasses.

Snape made his way to Knockturn Alley's egress into the courtyard behind The Leaky Cauldron. He peered around the corner to see if the courtyard was clear. He pulled his head back when he saw a young couple at the wall tapping the brick that would open the wall to Diagon Alley. He waited until he heard the wall close then hurried into The Leaky Cauldron. Moving quickly and keeping his head down, he made his way to the front door of the pub which exits onto Charing Cross Road.

The transition from the wizarding world into the Muggle one was sharp and pronounced. Most witches and wizards found the change rather jarring, particularly if they did not often venture out into the Muggle world, however Snape was more accustomed to it by virtue of having a Muggle father.

Snape made his way to the Leicester Square Tube Station. He stopped at a wall map of London's Underground and confirmed that he needed to take the Northern Line. It would take him to King's Cross/St. Pancras Station and then on to the Old Street Station, his destination. After waiting in a short queue, he purchased a day pass and made his way to the platform.

Riding the Tube was always an exercise in ill comfort for Snape. He disliked the way people rushed in and jostled about, bumping into each other and standing uncomfortably close. He weaved his way to a pole and hooked an arm around it and braced himself for the lurch when the carriage took off.

Snape lost himself in his thoughts as he rode the Tube. He thought about his strategy for questioning the owners or operators of the house clearing company that apparently sold the box to whoever sold it to Lucius. He needed to be cautious. For all he knew, these people simply merchants, moving the inventory they had acquired and had no idea of the malevolent nature of the box. The last thing he needed was to appear mad by asking imprudent questions.

"Would you be so kind as to tell me why you saw fit to sell a cursed puzzle box that dragged my friend to hell and tore him to pieces?"

He became aware that someone was staring at him and turned his head. He expected to see a runny-nosed, sticky-fingered moppet peering at him but there was not a child to be seen. Instead, at the other end of the carriage, stood a disheveled, sooty-faced man in threadbare and filthy clothes with a dirty bird's nest of a beard and shoulder length ratted hair. The man's eyes held Severus' with an unblinking, penetrating gaze. Initially Severus thought the man may be a Squib or one of those rare Muggles who could perceive witches and wizards, but the man's burning gaze held a different sort of recognition. He stared at Snape like he knew who he was and was scrutinizing his every move and thought. Snape found himself unable to look away. A dawning realization came to him that the man was not actually human and was somehow connected to the box. Although his eyes were locked with the man's, he noticed that none of the Muggles in the carriage took any notice of him. Snape wasn't sure they could even see him and that the visage of the man was only apparent to him.

The carriage began to slow as it approached the King's Cross/St. Pancras Station and gradually came to a stop when it reached the platform. Snape's line of vision was temporarily blocked as some of his fellow passengers rushed out of the carriage and a new group rushed in when the doors opened. When the jostling settled once again, Snape saw that the man had vanished. He quickly craned his neck to look out of the windows as the carriage began to roll past the platform but he did not see the man amongst the disembarked passengers. It was only once the carriage was well away from the platform did Snape realize he had been holding his breath the entire time. That had been no coincidence and it certainly wasn't his imagination; he was being watched.

The final leg of the Tube journey occurred without further incident and Snape exited the carriage at the Old Street Station and made his way up the stairs and out to the street. He remembered from studying his street map of London that he needed to make his way south to Leonard Street, then left to Tabernacle Street where it would intersect with Clere Street. As he arrived at the intersection, he spied the building that housed the house clearing company and walked to the entrance. A handmade sign was taped inside the glass window of the door, indicating that visitors should enter by the adjacent door to the right. When Snape moved to that door, he saw that it was the entrance to another business called Barre's Antiques and Auctions. Figuring that this business was an extension of the other one, he entered. As filthy and abandoned as the Knockturn Alley shop where Lucius bought the puzzle box, this shop was the opposite. It was full of neatly arranged, attractive, and upscale antiques and higher quality, previously owned items. Snape began making his way further into the interior of the shop, looking about for whoever was tending the business.

"Afternoon. May I help you?"

A late middle-aged Muggle man with a magnifying visor perched on his forehead and a pair of reading glasses dangling on a cord around his neck appeared from around an impressively preserved Victorian era armoire and approached Snape with an easy smile.

"Yes. Is this also the location of the house clearing company next door?"

"It is. My boys are out on a contract so I'm afraid it's just me today. What can I do for you?"

Snape reached into his pocket and extracted the bill of sale and sketch he found in the Knockturn Alley shop and unfolded it.

"I would like to inquire about a previous sale your business made. What can you tell me about this," Snape asked as he handed the Muggle the two pieces of paper.

The man took the papers and put on his reading glasses to examine them. He read the bill of sale, flipped to the page with the sketch of the puzzle box, then flipped back to the first page again. He frowned.

"Yes, we made this sale. It was part of an auction. What do you want to know?"

"Where did you obtain this item for one, and who did you sell it to for another."

The man looked over his reading glasses at Snape and regarded him for a few moments, still frowning.

"Any particular reason why," the man asked.

"Merely curious," Snape responded.

"I see," the Muggle said and slowly removed his reading glasses. "I think you should tell me why you're really here."

Snape was taken aback at the man's forthrightness but his years of working as a spy gave him the skill of concealing his facial expressions.

"Pardon?"

"Are you a family member of one of Channard's patients? Or are you just another curiosity seeker or reporter? If it's the former, I'll tell you the same as I've told the others – I'm sorry but I can't help you so you need to follow up with the police. They'll help you sort it out. If you're the latter, you can just turn around and go back the way you came."

The man held the papers out to Snape and straightened up to his full height to suggest he would brook no argument.

"I'm neither," Snape said as he took the pages.

"Is that so? So what are you doing with those," the man asked, pointing at the pages in Snape's hands.

Snape reappraised his circumstances. Sometimes, honesty was the best course of action.

"A friend of mine recently purchased the object on the second page. He's since disappeared and I am trying to find out what happened to him. I assure you, I'm not making accusations but acquiring this object was one of the last things he did before going missing. If there's anything you can…"

"I see," the man said. "Seems there's been a lot of that going on. Like I said, the best thing is to go to the police. They can help you better than I can."

"I'm afraid that's not possible," Snape answered. "I can assure you, the police cannot help in this circumstance."

The Muggle looked at Snape for several more moments, as if he were deciding whether to indulge him or not. The man sighed and looked around his shop to see if he had any other customers milling about before he turned and walked towards the back, motioning for Snape to follow.

"This way."

Snape followed the man to a back office. The Muggle gestured to an empty seat and then sat himself in his own chair behind the desk.

"So, what do you know," the man asked Snape.

"Nothing. Only what I mentioned previously; a friend acquired that object from an unknown party and less than a week later, he vanished under highly disturbing circumstances. What did you mean when you said, 'there's been a lot of that going on?'"

"I take it you don't read the papers," the man said. "You haven't heard about what happened at the Channard Institute?" Snape shook his head.

"You're better off for it. The Channard Institute was a psychiatric facility just outside of London to the South. After the murders, the authorities discovered that it was no respectable psychiatric facility as it was presented to the public. It was a bloody lunatic asylum like in years past. Patients were kept chained up in the sub-basement, locked in tiny rooms for years at a time, and it looked like some were subjected to unethical experimentation."

"Murders?" Snape went on alert.

"More like a wholesale slaughter. A little less than month ago, a young woman summoned the police to the Institute after she and another young woman escaped. When the police entered, they found dozens of patients murdered. And not just murdered. Many of them had been ripped to pieces. Eviscerated even. Of course after that, the truth about Dr. Channard came out. That he had used his patients as his own personal laboratory rats. He operated on them without their consent, turned merely troubled people into catatonics. The things that went on in that place..." The Muggle stared down at his desk and shook his head. After a pause, he continued.

"Naturally the police immediately began looking for Channard. His private residence was on the grounds of the Institute and what the police found there rivaled what they found inside the Institute. The attic was full of bodies. More of his patients, you see. They all had their wrists bound and were hung from hooks in the ceiling and, if you can believe the reports, they looked like they had been sucked dry of every drop of blood and fluid in their bodies. All that was left were husks. Channard had disappeared. The police suspect he met a bad end and so help me, I hope he did."

"And it was your business that was hired to clear out the Institute," Snape asked.

"Actually, no. We got the contract after a crew member of the first clearers died mysteriously at the site. He was found, oh how should I say this, pulled through a blood covered mattress and halfway into the floor. When they tried to extract his body, only his lower half came out. His upper half was never found. Of course, we weren't told this at the time, otherwise we never would have taken the contract. After the bodies had been removed and the police collected their evidence, we came in to clear out Channard's house. Since Channard had no living relatives or anyone else willing to claim to be his next of kin, we were given the option to buy the contents of the house for auction. I wish I never had agreed to it. I don't know what weirdness Channard was in to, but everything of his we collected felt…wrong. I don't know how else to explain it. Your friend's puzzle box was among those items."

Snape wanted to ask the man why, if Channard's possessions felt so wrong, did he turn around and sell them but he refrained because he didn't think he could ask the question without sounding accusatory. The man seemed truly disturbed and remorseful over the events and there was no sense in further upsetting the man. Besides, most modern day Muggles simply didn't believe in curses. To Muggles, cursed objects just felt "wrong," like the Muggle man had described. Snape suppressed a grimace at the thought of dozens if not hundreds of cursed objects now floating about in the Muggle world.

"Whom did you sell the puzzle box to?"

"I didn't. Sell it, I mean. One of my assistants did. According to her, the individual paid cash and didn't leave a name. Everything else was snapped up by the type of people who collect items attached to horrible crimes. Point is, it's all gone, good riddance, I've washed my hands, and that's all there is."

It seemed this was all he was going to get from the man. He stood to take his leave but before he could thank the man and depart, the man held up a finger.

"Wait," he said and began digging in a drawer of his desk. "Here. Take it. I have no more use for it."

The man handed Snape a folded newspaper. Snape unfolded it and looked. It was a front page story on the events at the Channard Institute. One of the pictures towards the bottom of the page was of a young girl, staring at the camera with haunted eyes. It appeared to have been taken while she was still on the grounds of the Institute. There was a caption underneath.

Kirsty Cotton of Cricklewood, London, summoned the police after escaping from the Institute.

Snape's eyes were drawn to the young woman's hands. They held what appeared to be a cube. He quickly folded the paper and concentrated on concealing his emotions. The cube the young woman was holding was most certainly Lucius' puzzle box. He thanked the man for his help and made his way outside. Once there, he walked until he found a bench and sat to read the newspaper article.

The British press had obviously omitted the more lurid and grisly details of the story, but it was all there - bodies torn to pieces, mysterious deaths and disappearances, and at the center of it, the puzzle box. How many hands had now touched that wretched thing? The Muggle's assistant for one and the young woman in the photo for another. He looked at her picture again. The young woman's eyes stared back at him through the newsprint grain. Snape remembered an expression used to describe the dissociative state of soldiers who had seen too much war - the thousand-yard stare. That's what was in this young woman's eyes. In the photo, she was gripping the box with two clawed hands. At some point after this photo was taken, she was separated from the box where it was then gathered up by the Muggle's work crew. But how and why did she have it to begin with? He wondered if she was still alive given the box's habit of destroying everyone who comes into contact with it.

Snape's thoughts began to wander again. It couldn't be mere coincidence that she was photographed holding the box after her escape from the Channard Institute. From what he learned about the events at the Institute, it was clear that someone inside had opened the box, but who? Perhaps the young woman herself? If so, had she cognizant of its nature? What secrets was this young woman keeping? Looking up from the newspaper, Snape saw that the sun was beginning its slow descent into dusk. A thought struck him and he began walking until he reached a convenience shop. Once there, he asked if they had a telephone directory that he could borrow.

The young woman's name was Kirsty Cotton and the photograph's caption identified her as living in Cricklewood London. He thumbed through the pages until he found the alphabetical area where Cotton would be listed. His hopes of finding a listing weren't great so he was quite relieved when he saw a listing for L. Cotton at 55 Ludovico Place, Cricklewood, London. It was the only listing for the surname of Cotton and with a Cricklewood address. He didn't know who L. Cotton was, but surely it was a relative of Ms. Cotton's. Perhaps a father or mother or even a grandparent.

The sun continued its descent to the horizon and Snape began to make his way back to the Old Street Station for his journey home. Along the way, the scent of hot food assailed his senses and caused his knees to weaken with hunger. He had eaten very little over the last few days and his self-neglect was catching up with him. He entered the Chinese takeaway where the odor emanated from and ordered a chicken stir fry to take with him.

Snape's return journey went without incident and he arrived back at Knockturn Alley and The White Wyvern just as the sun was setting. There were now more people around but no one took notice of him as he once again stepped through the Floo and back into his own living room. Perhaps it was only his imagination or his fatigue, but he was certain he could feel that damned box radiating its ill presence through the warding he'd placed on it, now more than ever. He tossed the newspaper on top of the London street map still spread out on his kitchen table and pushed both to the side to clear a space to eat. He was too tired to bother with a plate so he simply grabbed a fork and ate out of the takeaway containers.

The food tasted like ash in his mouth even though his body gratefully responded to the nourishment. He wanted to discard the rest but he forced himself to finish it. Normally he quite enjoyed Asian cuisine but it seemed his proximity to that cursed object affected him more than he'd like to admit. As he stood to dump the containers into the bin, his fatigue now arose to demand satisfaction. He needed sleep but first he had to locate the Cricklewood neighborhood on the map so he could plan his trip. Centering the map on the table, he found Cricklewood to the Northwest of London proper. He sighed when he realized that he would have to take a half hour train trip as the Underground didn't travel to that destination. Perhaps he would hire a taxi. He would decide all that tomorrow morning. Right now though, he needed sleep.

Snape wearily climbed the stairs to his washroom, stripped off his clothes, and showered. He pulled on his pajamas, scrubbed his teeth, and fell into bed. Just before he allowed himself to succumb to sleep, he reached into the nightstand next to his bed and took a Dreamless Draught. He didn't want to risk another nightmare or vision. He was unconscious before he could even adjust his pillows.

Snape didn't know how long he was asleep before his consciousness returned. He opened his eyes and reached for his wand, not finding it on the nightstand. He had left it in the pocket of his sports coat.

"Accio wand," he whispered into the dark.

The sports coat flew to his bedroom and into his hands. He fished it out of the sewn in sleeve inside the jacket and aimed it into the darkness. He dreaded what was bound to come next.

"Lumos."

What Snape saw caused him to leap from his bed. On the opposite side of his bedroom, Lucius was pinned to the wall like an insect in some entomologist's specimen case. A gore dripping pole had impaled Lucius through his solar plexis and held him flush against the wall several feet off the ground. He was hanging there limp, naked, and seemingly unconscious. Snape did not know if he was dreaming or if this was truly a physical manifestation. He slowly approached the visage of Lucius, his wand still at the ready.

"Lucius?" There was no response. Snape got close enough so that he could look up into Lucius' face.

"Lucius?"

Lucius' eyes flew open and his head snapped up.

"Severus! Help me! Please help me!" Lucius' hands desperately grabbed at Snape. The movement started a stream of blood flowing from where the pole had pierced Lucius' torso. Alarmed, Snape stepped back and tried to grip the pole to pull it out of Lucius. This action caused a pained groaning from Lucius who began to flail weakly. Snape couldn't physically dislodge the pole and was just about to employ magic when a hissing noise, like steam escaping from a pipe, sounded from behind him. Lucius looked over Snape towards the sound's direction.

"No. No please."

Snape stopped and froze. He felt it behind him. The creature. The demon.

"Terrible, isn't it? The suffering of a friend." The creature's deep unworldly voice held a mocking tone.

Snape whipped around to face it. It was standing at the foot of his bed, watching with its inhuman black eyes. Tapping into his training and his own survival instinct, he began throwing hexes, curses, and banishing spells at the creature with his wand. The light from the magic shooting from his wand was simply absorbed into the creature with no effect. Snape attempted another volley with the same result. The creature looked down at its body, amused. It raised its head and began to slowly walk towards Snape.

"Did you really think your pitiful magic would be any match against me? Against hell?"

The creature stopped a few paces away and Severus once again smelled the sweet foetid stench of decay. His mind raced as he considered what to do next. If magic didn't work, he knew that physical combat would likely be as ineffective.

"Now, to business. Open the box, Severus. We have such sights to show you."

Snape steeled himself for what he was about to do.

"Avada Kedavra!"

The blinding green light of the killing curse hit the creature and disappeared into its body. The creature tilted its head back and laughed. Snape startled awake with its laughter ringing in his ears.