Hero and Coward

Yvonne looked at the group photo. It seemed that Dean Bohan did not dislike him as much as Dougett claimed.

Yvonne sat in a chair in the drawing room and waited in silence for Bohan to return, Dobby at her side.

Ivan did not know where Abbot Bohan's house was, so he could only meet him there.

They waited from evening to night.

Nobody entered the Dean's office, and Ivan's patience was wearing thin when he heard the sound of a doorknob being turned…

Click…

The door to the Dean's office opened slowly, and Bohan entered, looking exhausted, holding up several medical reports.

Closing the door, Dean Bohan took a few steps forward and then stopped abruptly.

There was an extra person sitting in the living room, and he remembered that he had not invited anyone else to the room, so he had left the lights on.

Dean Bohan sensed something amiss and reached for his wand.

"I urge you to put down your wand…"

Behind him, a high-pitched, strange voice called out, and Dean Bohan turned to find a house-elf standing in the doorway, its fingers glowing with magic.

Dean Bohan tactfully released his grip on the wand, and Dobby nodded, pointing his right hand at the drawing room in a gesture of invitation.

'Over there, please, Mr Dean!'

Dean Bohan walked calmly towards the drawing room,

Dobby also turned on the lights in the Dean's office.

The dim living room suddenly became bright, and Bohan saw that it was a young wizard he had met once last year.

"It's been a long time, Dean Bohan!" Ivan said, indicating with his eyes that Dobby should relax and not act on his own.

He was here to make inquiries, not to confront them.

Not to mention that Abbot Bohan had helped him during his school years, and Ivan did not want to get on his bad side.

"Hales?" Dean Bohan gave Ivan a long look. "I never thought we'd meet again in such a manner…"

"Why did you come to see me this time?"

Abbot Bohan approached Ivan and offered him a cup of tea as if he were a common guest.

"I wanted to ask you something about Doggett… Do you know where he is?" Ivan was not interested in chatting over tea, so he got straight to the point.

As he spoke, Ivan looked directly at the nearly seventy-year-old man, expecting to see something wrong in his face.

Abbot Bohan frowned at Ivan's mention of Doggart, and he seemed to grow more tired.

"Duggart? Then you're barking up the wrong tree. I expelled him from the Bohan family more than ten years ago. He has nothing to do with me anymore…"

Yvonne did not reply. She took out the photograph and placed it on the table.

"You should know that people tend to reminisce about the past in their old age. If you've had any contact with Doggett, you should know that he and I didn't get along. I couldn't possibly know where he was," said Dean Bohan, his expression unchanging.

Ivan was silent for a moment, and when he saw how calm she was, she gave up on the idea of getting information from Bohan about Dawg's whereabouts.

"What about his Dark Mark? Didn't you know about that, either?"

Yvonne had never been able to understand why Douggart's contrast was so great; one could not pretend for more than a decade.

He could clearly see in his past memories Dougett's love and care for Alicia, which was at odds with Dougett's indifferent behaviour that day.

Dean Bohan looked at Ivan in surprise, then continued after a pause.

"I'm well aware of that, which is why I removed him from the Bohan family!"

"So Dagget really was a Death Eater following Lord Voldemort?" Ivan's face was grim.

"Yes, indeed!" Dean Bohan sighed.

He guessed from Ivan's expression that something had happened. After much hesitation, Dean Bohan began to speak.

"I can tell you about Dougett, if… that will help."

Yvonne nodded hesitantly.

There was a reminiscent look on Dean Bohan's face as he recounted events from over a decade ago, during the height of the Wizarding War.

Almost every day, a large number of Aurors injured in battle, as well as regular wizards and witches persecuted by the Dark Arts, arrive for treatment.

St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries was, of course, a medical facility.

The only ones who were disliked were the Death Eaters, whom Bohan loathed for advocating pure-blood supremacy and recklessness, and thus was unwilling to treat his minions in any way.

Add to that his personal friendship with Dumbledore, and the entire hospital leaned towards the rebel side.

"And Voldemort allowed you to treat those who resisted him?" Ivan asked.

"Of course not! At the height of the Dark Lord's power, the Death Eaters organised several attacks, which were difficult and resulted in heavy casualties, but we managed to hold them off."

Abbot Bohan shook his head and spoke again. "And the Dark Lord himself was too preoccupied with other things to attend to."

"What about Dungert?" Yvonne was impatient. She did not want to know about the Death Eaters' rivalry with St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries.

"He was captured during our seventh battle with the Death Eaters," said Dean Bohan, answering Ivan's query.

"So Doggett surrendered and became a Death Eater?" Yvonne wondered if that was the only possibility.

"That's right. I thought he'd be braver, but he's a coward!" said Dean Bohan, looking uncharacteristically angry.

Bohan was even prepared to collect Dougett's body when he received the news.

Despite being his only son, Bohan had always believed that Doggett would resist the Death Eaters' threats and persecution to the death!

As heroic and unyielding as any other who has died at the hands of Death Eaters!

He was disappointed when, two days later, Doggett reappeared.

Doggett, along with some Death Eaters and a few less-than-masculine medical staff, took over St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries!

"The Dark Lord promised him fame and power, and Doggett replaced me as Head of House, detaining all those who disobeyed him and offering them to the Dark Lord.

"He was going to make this place a place of service to the Death Eaters, and I'm afraid that's what Voldemort expected…" Dean Bohan's tone was sharp, as if he were speaking not of his children, but of some hated enemy.

His son, Doggett, was the first to surrender when everyone else was putting up a fight… a disgrace!

How could he live up to those who stood their ground in the hospital and died so bravely?

"And?" It never occurred to Ivan that Doggett might have become a Death Eater in such a manner, or the most disgraceful of traitors!

"Then, on the same night, his greatest reliance fell!" said Abbot Bohan.