MUDSNAKE

by Flye Autumne

A/N: Quick note before we start - I can't believe the outpouring of comments demanding I continue this fic! Thanks so much to everyone who commented!

Also, I'd like to welcome aboard Scintilla of Myself and Delos-Solon, who've volunteered to beta this fic for me. *cues round of applause*. Earlier chapters are now in the process of being fine-tuned. :)

CHAPTER FOURTEEN: ENEMY OF MY ENEMY

The sour smell of rank unwashed bodies and cheap whiskey assaulted Severus' nostrils - not that he cared. Spiritus Bibet was cramped, filthy, and in an unsavory corner of Knockturn Alley, which was perfect for Severus as he planned on spending as few Galleons as possible to get as drunk as possible. And, he hoped as he pushed through the crowd to the bar, he didn't want to be disturbed. The patrons - if you could call them that - of Spiritus Bibet tended to keep to themselves.

Several shots later, Severus was ensconced the corner of the bar in a considerably better mood...which, he noted sourly, was not fated to last.

"Snape."

Severus was immediately on guard. The amount that I don't want to deal with this right now… "Moody."

"What are you doing here, Snape? Meeting up with your old Death Eater friends?"

Severus suddenly felt very tired.

He was done.

Done with the needless allegations.

Done with the constant questions of where he was and with whom.

"Does it even matter?"

A maniacal gleam made its way into Moody's eye, "I knew you were hiding something, Snape, the moment I saw you sneak your way into this establishment. There ain't no way someone like you'd be here just because they wanted to be. You can't avoid the question, Snape, I can - "

"Haul me in for investigation, I know. I am more than aware of your tactics." I've heard this all before.

"Quit your stalling, Snape," Moody growled, "Just because Albus cleared your name doesn't mean you're cleared in my book. Probably just wanted you for those infernal plans of his," he added in an undertone.

You are not wrong, Severus thought bitterly. "You have no idea, Moody."

"Enlighten me, then," the older man practically snarled, "Enlighten me about all your nasty little - "

"Muffilato."

Moody had his wand pointed at Severus in less than a second, "What the bloody hell was that, Snape? Trying to curse me?"

Severus swallowed, attempting to ignore the adrenaline that was now pulsing through him. "It's a silencing charm," he sneered, "Wouldn't want anyone overhearing our conversation now, would we?"

"You don't want your dirty Death Eater laundry aired in public now, eh?"

"No, I - get your wand out of my face - look, if, hypothetically speaking of course, there was something - " Severus searched for a Moody-appropriate word, " - unsavory going on at Hogwarts, what would you do?"

The old Auror frowned. "Hogwarts isn't really in my domain. It's under Albus' jurisdiction."

"So the Aurors and the DMLE have nothing to do with it."

"What the bloody hell are you trying to get at, Snape," Moody muttered, "Not exactly. If there is a situation at Hogwarts that merits legal investigation, then the Aurors will get involved."

A sinking feeling of suspicion settled in Severus' stomach. "And what constitutes a 'situation that merits legal investigation'?"

Moody narrowed his eyes. "Why do you want to know? Planning illicit activities?"

Severus resisted the urge to smash his head into the table and quaff a tankard of firewhiskey. "Just humor me for a moment."

Moody shrugged, "The Aurors haven't been involved in Hogwarts in recent history, but any situation that involved the reckless endangerment of students, or any situation in which a student's life was at risk would call for an Auror investigation."

"But you did not investigate the troll."

Moody looked at Severus suspiciously, "What troll?"

"The troll at Halloween - surely Albus told you about that?"

Moody's eye bulged, and he started muttering furiously to himself.

"I will take that as a 'no', then."

"It bloody well was a 'no'!" Moody was clearly furious, "How the bloody hell did a class XXX dark creature make its way into Hogwarts!?"

"I do not know."

"I wasn't bloody asking you, Snape!" Moody seemed fit to rip his (remaining) hair out, "Why wasn't I informed? That was a security breach!" The man was positively fuming. "Constant vigilance, I say. I'm gonna find Albus bloody Dumbledore and rip him a new one! Merlin knows what else he's gotten up to."

"You would be surprised," Severus muttered darkly.

"Alright, I'll bite. What'd he do?" Moody's tone was patronizing.

"Failure to report 'incidents', as he calls them."

Moody's eyes darted around, "What incidents?"

Severus shrugged, playing for time. The angrier the Auror became, the easier it would be for Severus to convince him, "The troll, among many other things."

"Get on with it, Snape."

"One of my students was violently attacked by a group of Gryffindors. She was stunned, beaten up, then sealed in a broom cupboard with a silencing charm on it. She had to stay overnight in the Hospital Wing due to her physical injuries, but she clearly is still hurting emotionally. The Gryffindor students, on the other hand, received detention."

"DETENTION?" Moody was livid, "What the bloody hell was Albus thinking?"

"That is not all."

"What do you mean, that's not all?"

"It gets worse."

"Why do I feel like I need a firewhiskey to hear this?" Moody muttered, "Go on."

"The girl - the same one who was attacked - " Severus could feel himself inexplicably choking up, "I do not think everything is alright at her home. I asked the Headmaster to report it to Wizarding Children's Services, but he blatantly refused and even went so far as to question my sanity."

Moody was gaping, "Snape, I never liked you, but - I mean, if it was a pureblood issue, I can understand Albus being leery about getting involved -"

Severus cut him off sharply. "The student involved is muggleborn."

The older wizard was speechless, "A muggleborn in Slytherin…"

"Yes, and you can understand why she would want to keep that particular piece of information quiet. Life as a Slytherin student is difficult enough without blood status coming into play."

Moody could understand that well enough, but there was one thing that was bothering him. "Why didn't you report it yourself?"

"I - I don't know. I just - I don't know. I think, I was still in shock over what he said - " Severus clutched his empty firewhiskey glass as if it were an anchor, "I don't know."

"Look, I'm not gonna pretend to like you. Hell, if I didn't know you better, I'd dismiss everything out of hand. But this - this I can't ignore." Moody drummed his fingers on the table. "If you're really serious about this, we can go over to WCS tomorrow morning to file the appropriate paperwork. Then we can head over to the DMLE - I have a mentee who could use some experience around muggles."

Severus clamped down on the emotions that were rapidly spiraling out of his control, "That would be perfect," he managed.

"I'll meet you at nine am sharp outside the visitors' entrance."

With that, Moody left, leaving Severus and his firewhiskey in a contemplative mood. Perhaps everything would work out.

Nymphadora Tonks always had impeccably good or impeccably terrible timing, Alastor reflected as the trainee Auror tripped over her feet for the seventh time that day.

"Wotcher, Auror Moody!"

"Good morning, Trainee Tonks."

The pink haired witch was practically bouncing with energy, "I got your owl last night - you said you had a special mission for me?"

Moody sighed, almost regretting giving Tonks the assignment as it was sure to spoil the witch's chipper mood. "Come to my office - I will give you your briefing there."

Tonks followed Moody as he clunked towards his office, shut the door, and sealed it shut. A slight feeling of apprehension filled the metamorphmagus. Moody always briefed her in his office, but he never warded the door shut - at least not to that extent.

"Here's the deal," Moody growled as he laid a slim folder on the desk, "There's a student of Snape's he believes is being mistreated. Now, I don't trust the bugger as far as I can throw him, but I don't think he'd make something like this up. Apparently Dumbledore - " Moody spat the name " - doesn't believe old Snivellus either. Thinks he's completely off his rocker. What I want you to do is investigate and try to figure out what's really going on. Snape has already stopped by to fill out an incident report form, and if your reconnaissance corresponds with what he says, we'll submit it to the DMLE for official investigation and also file charges against Dumbledore. If Snape lied to us, then we'll drop the charges and instead investigate him."

Tonks narrowed her eyes, all signs of her earlier happy mood gone. "So let me get this straight. Snape says his student is being mistreated at home. Dumbledore denies Snape and claims he's crazy. Snape goes to you - how in the name of Merlin did that happen?"

"Don't worry about it."

"Okay. Er, so, then you get all this information from Snape, he fills out forms this morning, and now you want me to figure out who's right?"

"Yes."

"Okay. Er, I'll read the dossier?"

"That would be procedure, would it not?"

"Erm, yes. Uh, I'll get on that."

Tonks opened the folder, and as she read, her hair grew darker in anger.

"A muggleborn in Slytherin!?" Tonks seethed, "No wonder Dumbledore doesn't want to help!" Tonks' now black eyes flashed, "I swear, if he's wrong about this situation, I'll -"

"Constant Vigilance!" Moody shouted, interrupting Tonks mid-rant.

"What?"

"You heard me."

"But -"

"You need to make sure you go into this investigation with a clear and open mind. If you discover something unsavory, and we need to go to trial, you don't want to have your recollection tainted with unnecessary emotion.

"So calm yourself down, make a plan and investigate. Remember, even though both the girl's parents know about magic, the neighbors do not."

"So I can use magic then."

"Yes, but only where you cannot be seen by anyone outside the family."

"Alrighty. Er, any tips?"

Moody scratched his chin thoughtfully, "You don't have an animagus form, right?"

Tonks shook her head ruefully, "Nope. You'd think I'd be decent at human Transfiguration because I'm a metamorphmagus, but turning into an animal unfortunately is out of my abilities."

Moody thought for a moment, and looked critically at Tonks' 160 centimeter form. "How small can you make yourself?"

Tonks concentrated for a moment before shrinking down about five centimeters.

"That'll do. Now, can you make yourself look like this?" Moody pulled out a picture from the folder of a girl with short black hair and a pug-like nose. A minute later an accurate copy of Pansy Parkinson stood in front of him in too big Auror robes. "There's your disguise. Parkinson is decent friends with the Granger girl, so it won't be overly strange for her to show up. You should be able to get some information in that form, and you can always change back into yourself."

Tonks reverted back into her natural form and nodded, "Of course. I'll find some appropriate clothes for 'Pansy,' then I'll be off. I'll report back to you here?"

Moody nodded.

"Alright."

"Stay safe. Constant Vigilance!"

Her mentor's catchphrase brought a weak smile to Tonks' face, "Of course."

She exited the office, leaving Moody fiddling with his Sneakoscope. He had expected the thing to go off the moment Snape had entered the office, but it had remained silent. Moody sighed and replaced the Sneakoscope on its stand. He had a feeling - and he was never wrong - that there was something fishy going on, and it wasn't Snape that was at the center of it.

A/N 2: So clearly I ended up continuing this! As usual, I'd love to see any predictions you guys have and hear what you thought about the chapter. My betas and I have a couple of ideas as to where this might be going, but I'd love to hear your input as well! [insert clever plug for reviews here] :)