Snape's Secret Secret
"I can't believe your actually going through with this," Hermione hissed at Harry, holding open the portrait of the Fat Lady so he could shuffle out into the hall underneath his invisibility cloak. "What if he catches you?"
Harry didn't answer, Hermione wasn't even sure if he was still around. She hated when he did that. It always made her feel like she was slightly mental. Sighing she turned away from the empty hall and climbed into the Gryffindor Common Room, Ron following behind her.
"Leave him alone, Hermione," he said, lightly touching her shoulder. "I think it's a good idea. For once we'll know if he's really on our side."
Hermione turned on Ron, here eyes filled with anger. "He is," she spat. "When will you two get that through your heads? Dumbledore trusts him implicitly, and he keeps telling us that. Why can't you believe him?"
Ron shrugged. "Snape's just so mean that I can't see him doing anything else but being a Death Eater. And I don't care if Dumbledore trusts him. Harry's told us that Dumbledore has admitted to making mistakes. What if trusting Snape is one of those?"
"What if it's not? Snape has saved us on more than one occasion. If it wasn't for him we would've been killed at the Ministry, but we weren't. And if he hadn't used that counter jinx in our first year Harry could've died. Then where would we be?"
Ron scratched the back of his head, looking around the common room at everyone quietly working on their homework. It seemed so peaceful, making it hard to believe that out there somewhere You-Know-Who was gathering an army. That people were disappearing and dying. He looked back at Hermione. "It's better to be totally sure. I don't know who to trust anymore. The Ministry turned out to be crap, my rat helped bring You-Know-Who back to power, Sirius Black is innocent… so much that we know has been turned upside down and backwards in the last six years."
"But it's Dumbledore. If we can't trust him we're lost," Hermione said desperately.
"I'll trust him if Harry doesn't find anything. I need more proof besides an apology."
&
Harry stood in the dungeon hallway staring at an indiscreet black door. Normally he would've just turned the knob and walked in, but this was different. This was Snape's office he was trying to get into and knowing Snape the way he did Harry was quite sure that it probably had numerous spells to prevent people from entering. He'd heard Snape mention it before.
This only succeeded in heightening Harry's suspicion of the professor. What did he keep in there that was so important? What secrets lurked behind this door?
Somewhere above him a clock chimed midnight, its tolling filling the corridors around him with a spine tingling hum.
He had to hurry up, the longer he spent there the more his chances of getting caught intensified. Pulling out the magical knife Sirius had given him, Lupin had gotten the melted blade replaced, Harry ran it around the edges of the door hoping that it would cut apart of few of the charms the guarded the office.
After doing that a few times he pocketed the knife and pulled out his wand, placing the tip against the ebony wood of the door.
"Reveal yourself," he muttered. Strands of light began to appear all over the door, intricately weaving in and out of each to make something that resembled a blanket of light covering the door. Snape must be keeping something really important in there.
Harry moved closer and began to study every inch of the spell to see if there was an opening, or a clue to how he was going to get in. Which he did find. In the exact center was a small keyhole.
Harry pulled out his knife and flicked open the blade. When he tried to insert it into the keyhole it shot out of his hands and landed down the hall with a small clank.
He summoned it back and stuck it into his robes. If that didn't work how was he going to get in. As he stood there thinking about other ways to get in his ears picked up a sound that made Harry's heart stop. Footsteps.
By now the spell guarding the door had darkened again so Harry threw his invisibility cloak over himself and slipped into the darkness, away from the door and the impending footsteps. He felt stupid. It could only be Snape, he'd probably put intruder spells on the door. And Harry and been dumb enough to try and break in.
Sure enough Snape came tearing around the corner, his wand lit up and held in front of him. He looked furious. Even though Harry was invisible he shrunk further back into the shadows.
Snape reached into his pocket a pulled something out. He inserted whatever it was into center of the door where the keyhole had been and the silence was filled with a dull clicking noise as the door swung open.
After Snape was satisfied that nothing had been taken he put the spells back up around the door and pocketed the key.
As he was walking away Harry pointed his wand at Snape. Something small shot from the Professor's robes and raced towards Harry, who caught it out of the air holding it tightly in his clenched fist.
When he could no longer hear Snape's receding footsteps Harry opened his fist and stared down at a tiny key.
&
As usual Snape's office was dark and spooky. Dead things floating in jars of liquid, watching Harry. Like they knew he shouldn't be allowed.
In the back a tall, dark cupboard loomed. A pale silvery light shone through a small crack in the door. Bingo.
Harry walked over to it and threw the doors open. Snape's pensieve sat there in a deep stone basin, runes etched around the edges. Liquid thoughts swirled around in it.
Taking in a deep breath Harry plunged his head into the bowl's contents, but instead of touching the liquid he fell face first into the basin and plummeted into a small, dank kitchen below.
The linoleum was peeling off the floor, as was the wall paper off the walls. Snape stood in front of the stove, stirring something in a large pot. Harry walked up and stared down, his stomach twisting in disgust. The smell was horrible, whatever it was. All Harry saw was a dirty grey water and something lumpy.
He hoped Snape wasn't going to eat it. Maybe it was just a potion. Maybe this was the proof he could use to prove that Snape was evil. Perhaps the potion would serve some evil purpose. Like torture or something.
So Harry sat down to wait until it was ready. Which didn't take that long.
Eventually Snape stuck in a pair of tongs and pulled out something grey and drippy. He tossed it into a pot of water in the sink and went back to the stove to fish out another of whatever he was cooking.
Harry leaned forward to get a better look at what was in the sink. He pulled back in revulsion. Floating in the pot of cold water was a pair of grey underpants.
He looked over at Snape. The Professor was fishing out several more pairs and adding them to the pot in the sink.
When they were all out he pulled out a package of white underpants and dumped them into the grey liquid. He was dying his underpants grey.
Harry screamed, backing away from Snape who had begun to hum quietly. "I WANT BACK!" he screamed, closing his eyes tightly.
When he re-opened them he was back in Snape's office. Slamming the doors of the cupboard shut,. He ran from the room, only stopping to drop the key in front of the door and pull on his invisibility cloak.
The he booked, all the way up to the seventh floor. All the while trying to block out what he had just seen.
"Password?" the Fat Lady asked when Harry threw his cloak off.
"Oh, crap…" Harry muttered, trying to remember the password. The Fat Lady stared at him stiffly, her arms crossed. "Abstinence?"
"Right you are." She swung open and Harry ran in, stuffing his cloak into his robe pocket.
Ron and Hermione were sitting in the comfy chairs of the fire, chatting pleasantly. They looked up in surprise when Harry dashed over to them.
"Well?" Ron asked.
Harry told them everything he'd seen.
"See, Ron," Hermione said. "Nothing evil. Just… odd."
Ron was staring at Harry blankly. "No, this just proves everything we've been saying."
"What?"
"For goodness' sake, Hermione. The man dyes his knickers grey. You can't get more evil than that.