"Dumbledore was murdered by Draco Malfoy!" yelled Potter. "Probably poisoned. And Snape helped him do it or at the very least is covering for him!"
Severus had not expected to have his patience tried by the insolent brat quite so soon. Until a few minutes ago he had actually felt sorry for the grieving boy, and again indignant in his behalf for having been manipulated into caring for Dumbledore while the old man had been planning his sacrifice. In fact he had only provoked him in the hope that anger would help him snap out of his pathetic dejection. He had succeeded in that, but now he had a far bigger problem in his hands.
He was beginning to regret having agreed to bring the brat here, since the last thing he needed was Harry Potter yelling murder at him when the Minister arrived. Although perhaps it was better to have an opportunity to deal with this now, before Potter could spread his suspicions through the castle as he no doubt would have done if he had heard of the Headmaster's death at breakfast with the rest of the students.
It wasn't he who first responded to the brat's dangerous accusations, though.
"Really, Potter," said Minerva with exasperation. "This obsession of yours with Mr. Malfoy has to stop."
"It's not an obsession!" yelled the boy. "I know he-"
"I very much doubt you know for certain anything about this, Potter," cut him off Minerva. "You are just speculating, like you did with the cursed necklace. And you know you were mistaken about that, since Mr. Malfoy was serving detention with me at the time."
Severus frowned. Clearly Minerva had known that Potter was onto Draco. Had she told Dumbledore? It wouldn't really surprize him if the old man had deliberately kept that from him, but Severus should have been informed. The brat could have gotten seriously hurt or even killed if he had confronted a frightened young Death Eater with little to lose.
"He did it anyway, somehow!" yelled the boy stubbornly. "He must have had an accomplice, someone who gave Katie the necklace so she would take it to Dumbled-"
"Enough, Potter," interrupted Minerva losing patience. "I have already lectured you about making such serious accusations without solid evidence. You had no proof whatsoever of Mr. Malfoy's involvement in Miss Bell's incident, and I'm guessing you also have nothing more than theories about his involvement in the Headmaster's death. Am I mistaken?"
Potter pursed his lips angrily.
"No, Professor," he reluctantly admitted, "but I know he's involved somehow! He's-"
"Hold it there, Potter," intervened Severus with a firm, dangerous voice. It sounded like the boy's guesses weren't so far from the truth, and that was a problem. "You and I will go to my office for a little chat, now."
"I'm not going anywhere with you!" snarled the brat. "You're involved too, I know you know about Malfoy and the necklace, and you've-"
"Enough!" snapped Severus.
"NO!" yelled Potter, completely out of control. "Malfoy is a Death Eater, just like you, and he has been trying to kill Dumbledore all year! The poisoned mead was him too, I know it, and Slughorn said he meant to give it to Dumbledore for Christmas! And he has been up to something else lately, disappearing somewhere for hours, no doubt plotting this!" he wildly pointed at the dead Headmaster again, and then rudely at Severus, "You can't deny that you know about all this, I heard you offering Malfoy help with the mission Voldemort gave him, and I know you swore an Unbreakable Vow to-"
"ENOUGH!"
His shout made everyone in the room —except Dumbledore— jump, and mercifully it scared the brat enough to finally shut him up.
Severus rubbed his temples, feeling bulging veins under his fingers and an awful headache breaking his skull. No one made a sound.
Damned brat!
How the hell was he going to make his plan work when this was what he had to work with?
In the last few days he had been so busy plotting betrayal and murder that he had almost forgotten just how infuriating and unmanageable Potter could be. And how nosy. Always playing detective and sticking his nose in other people's businesses. The brat's nasty habit of snooping was probably what Severus most hated about him as his own person. No one could say that he was transferring his hate from father to son when it came to that.
Potter was also perfectly entitled to be detested because of his insolence, and until recently Severus would absolutely have not let him get away with all this rudeness and yelling at a Professor. It was hard to override the impulse to drag the brat to the dungeons, take a thousand points from Gryffindor and give him a month of detention starting tonight. But, to his inexpressible frustration, he couldn't handle the impudent wretch the way he always had. His plan required Potter trusting his advice and following his lead, and to have any hope of achieving that apparently impossible feat Severus would have to try a different approach.
"Leave us," he finally commanded to his colleagues, only a moment later realizing that he had sounded just like the Dark Lord when he dismissed everyone to deal with a particularly disappointing subject. He wasn't in the mood to be polite, however, so he let it stand and just waited to be obeyed.
Pomona and Filius glanced from Potter to Severus with concern and confusion, no doubt wondering whether anything that the brat had said was true and what it meant in regard to Severus. They didn't doubt him, however. Their trust was as unconditional as Dumbledore's had been, and they had probably already figured out that this was some Order-related business that they shouldn't get involved in. Dumbledore had always wanted at least two Heads of House to remain officially neutral so Hogwarts would still have some decent management if everything went to hell, and now that the old wizard was gone no doubt Filius and Pomona realized that hell was in the horizon and therefore it was more crucial than ever to preserve their apparent neutrality.
So they didn't argue with his dismissal, simply nodding and rushing out of the room to never speak of this again without Severus' prompting.
"You too, Minerva," said Severus when he saw her intention of staying. "The Minister will arrive at any moment, and I dare say you would rather be properly dressed for that meeting. Please do not bring Scrimgeour up here until I say so."
Minerva held his eyes for a long moment, worry and anxiety in hers, until she finally nodded. Before departing, however, she pinned the boy with a severe look.
"Professor Snape is a member of the Order and a respected teacher at this school, Potter," she said sternly. "The Headmaster trusted him implicitly, and so do all of us. I think it is time you learn to trust him too."
Minerva's stamp of trust made Potter look temporarily uncertain and even perhaps ashamed, but a glance at Dumbledore's body brought anger right back.
"I'm not sure how much he really trusted him, Professor," he said with a mistrustful glare at Severus. "I know they argued recently, and Dumbledore wasn't pleased with him."
"Nonsense," said Minerva shaking her head. "Everyone argues with Professor Snape all the time, Potter, that doesn't mean anything. The Headmaster was very pleased with him, he told me so just a few days ago."
Minerva was looking at Severus with as much trust and pride in her bright eyes as there had been in Dumbledore's while he drank his poisoned tea. He was hit by another wave of guilt, shame and pain, only made worst when his colleague put a hand on his arm and gave a comforting squeeze.
She of course was undone by the combination of her own grief and her condolences for Severus, and left the room drying a new batch of tears with her handkerchief.
/
After locking the room and casting a few privacy wards, Severus leaned against the door and contemplated the challenge before him.
He had not expected to have to begin working on his Potter project this very night, but the boy clearly had to be brought under control, fast. Severus might be confident that the forensics would not find any evidence of foul play, but he knew that the Ministry would not require evidence if the suspicion was strong enough and endorsed by Harry bloody Potter. The boy's finger might be mainly pointed in Draco's direction, but he was convinced of Severus' involvement too and hated both of them with a passion so no doubt he would try to make them both fall. And now there was no Dumbledore either to restrain Potter or to vouch for a former Death Eater who happened to be a specialist on poisons and had access to the Headmaster's private chambers. Severus wasn't afraid of prison —he knew the Dark Lord would break him out in a blink—, but the whole purpose of this had been to retain his position at Hogwarts, close to the boy, so he had no intention of allowing the brat to mess it up now.
Severus would have preferred not to have to do this precisely now and here, though, in a room saturated with Albus Dumbledore's powerful presence and while his mentor's body was still figuratively warm lying right there. It felt disrespectful and shameless. Although at the same time the setting seemed morbidly appropriate, considering that Dumbledore's death symbolized the moment when the brat had become Severus' charge.
A charge that Severus currently wished to strangle.
Even knowing that he had ceased being worthy of Dumbledore's trust, it still annoyed him to be doubted and accused of disloyalty by the insufferable boy. Especially now that he had killed his old mentor and secured his place in hell to protect said boy.
He wondered for a moment what the brat had meant about the Headmaster arguing with Severus and being displeased with him. He very much doubted Dumbledore had said anything about him to the boy during their private meetings, and he knew that the old fool had died feeling truly proud of him. Perhaps Potter was just making things up, as usual. Although... Severus had argued with Dumbledore recently, earlier in the day of the monstrous revelation that had changed everything, and such argument had taken place while strolling through the Forbidden Forest so it wasn't impossible someone could have overheard them.
If Potter had eavesdropped on them on that occasion, however, he would know that Dumbledore had asked Severus to kill him and he would have yelled very different things tonight.
He definitely had listened in on Severus and Draco's conversation the night of Slughorn's Christmas party, though. Damned Potter and his disgusting snooping habits!
Clearly the brat had spent the entire year obsessed with Draco, investigating the latest mystery in his detective career. Eavesdropping on him, following him around, perhaps stalking him with that cursed map of his.
Potter was out of control, just like he had been every single year so far. Always breaking rules and trespassing others' privacy, recklessly following hunches and coming up with half-accurate theories that like as not ended up with himself and his little friends in mortal peril. Never wanting to involve adults so they wouldn't get in the way of his fun. Always believing himself fully justified when indulging his impulses and his damned curiosity, entitled to do whatever he wanted and shrug away any consequences because he had an ugly scar on his forehead.
Severus hated the very sight of Potter, so like his father, but he didn't need to compare their personalities to find plenty of things to hate on the brat that were entirely his own.
He put two fingers on the bridge of his nose and took a deep breath to calm himself.
This was never going to work if Severus didn't make an effort to see Potter in a different way. From a useful perspective. His entire Self resisted to the readjustment, but it had to be done, else executing his plan would be an excruciating ordeal at each step of the way.
Dealing with the boy's many annoying flaws and nasty habits would be a lot more bearable if Severus saw it all as the consequences of Dumbledore's intentional neglect and subtle manipulations. The brat no doubt had his own intrinsic traits, but he had been moulded into what he was by a combination of circumstance, fate and old-meddling.
That was the perspective he needed.
Basically Potter had been left to be his worst without check for six years. His detective habits had been reinforced by Dumbledore's rewards or praise, while his reckless behaviour and disregard for safety rules had rarely been punished (and punished almost exclusively by Severus, which had been an indirect way of reinforcing the bad behaviours).
It might be a bit too late, but now that Dumbledore was out of the picture the boy could be remoulded, or at least tamed and guided in a different direction.
Severus would not have the slightest chance at that if Potter was completely impervious to him, however. He would need influence over Potter if he was to guide him, and influence required trust and respect, two things that had never existed between them.
He gritted his teeth at the realization of what he had to do.
Since this was his decision, Severus had to be the one to give the first step in a new direction, leading the way forward and hoping the brat would follow.
He had to show trust and respect to Potter if he intended to ever win Potter's respect and trust.
That meant stop treating the boy like a moronic child who couldn't understand nor be trusted with important information.
"Sit, Potter," he finally said. "It is time for a serious talk."